It's been an eventful week out here at the Lake. It reminded me of the Chinese curse; "May you live in interesting times..."
Interesting indeed!
Mary-Ann and I went on our grand adventure to Ormand Lake. She was on her skis and I was running. The outing could be summarized by a few talking points:
1. It can't be that far away now...
2. I bet it's just over this hill...
3. It must be just around the corner...
4. Is this the right trail?
5. Where is the damn LAKE??
Suffice to say we weren't that close to lake the first time we were out. On that day we gave up after 3 hours and turned around, but we figured we were close! We now know that we were still roughly 4km away at that point. Much of that 4km was downhill. Which sounds good considering we had been travelling steadily uphill for over 2hrs. However what goes down also goes up and we were realizing that we would have a significant uphill once we reached the elusive **#!! Ormand Lake.
I did start to lose hope we'd ever find the lake, I started to express my doubt when Mary-Ann found her resolve and declared "We are getting to this LAKE!"
Eventually we reached the lake after snaking down the long winding hill to the valley floor. Our happiness at finally arriving was quickly dampened by the frigid temperature and blowing wind. We hurriedly took a photo of the campsite as proof that we actually made it the whole way. The plan was to have our lunch at the lake but we had descended into a freezer! We quickly turned around and headed back up the hill to a sunny spot although it wasn't much warmer just less windy.
The way back was tiring. Mary-Ann and I dubbed the ascent out of the valley from Ormand Lake as 3-Mile-Hill. I think it was more realistically 2.4miles but we didn't care about facts by that time. It felt like 3 miles and was tough for both of us.
One we reached the high point we were poised for the much easier ski and run down. Although Mary-Ann was obviously faster on her skis she also had the problem of getting down the hills in one piece.
At one point we were both assessing one of the hills she was preparing to ski down to figure out if it would be ok, if she could control her speed and not crash. She started down and immediately she picked up speed while I was at the top of the hill looking horrified and repeating the mantra "Please don't fall - Please don't fall - Please don't fall"
She fell.
But the whole situation was so damn funny by this point. I call it being punch-drunk. When you're tired and you still have a long way to go and things start getting silly because its far better to laugh than to cry.
I gotta hand it to Mary-Ann, she has a great attitude. Our 6hr outing was epic for her. I was coaching her on clothing, layering, eating, drinking, resting, staying warm; all the things I've been fortunate enough to learn by my mountain mentors. Incorporating these skills don't happen overnight and it can all seem overwhelming at first. These issues are important in the backcountry during the winter, especially if you are going to be outdoors for longer than a couple hours. If something were to go wrong it could be a miserable night if one is cold, wet, tired and ill prepared. She was far beyond the distance or terrain difficulty that she had skied before and that can have an effect on a person's mental state too. As she got more tired then falling became more likely. She would gamely get up, dust herself off and make light of it. For me the day was a good endurance workout but manageable. I was tired for sure, and my feet were soaked and I was ready to be finished a good hour before we actually were but nothing was life threatening. So right there that creates a different mind-set for me when I feel that I'm reasonably prepared and I'm not out of my comfort zone. But having said all that I did start whining miserably at one point. It was another God-Damn hill, in an open field with a blistering wind during the last hour of our outing. I had a yelling outburst which caused a fit of laughter from Mary-Ann because she was feeling the same way but was worried she was being a baby. That's that punch-drunk thing; cursing out loud becomes really funny. I was laughing too and somehow feeling miserable wasn't so bad. That last hill was a sting in the tail" for sure!
I was proud of our accomplishment that day, we supported each other and maintained a positive attitude.
I thought of my late great friend and climbing partner Colin Wooldridge. He was such a force of nature as a mountain man. I could call him a climber or a mountaineer but that doesn't do justice to the breadth of knowledge and skills he displayed in the mountains. He was also an expert skier, a strong mountain biker, an orienteer... like I said; A force of nature. I feel deeply honoured to have been one of his proteges and partners before he was taken by the very environment he adored so much. He truly was in love with the wild, majestic beauty and unfettered power of the mountains. He lived and died there - in the arms of mother nature.
I'm happy to pay my knowledge forward to Mary-Ann, it makes me feel like I'm saying thank-you to all the kind and generous mountain friends who have made my life richer and deeper by sharing their time, knowledge and experience.
By the time we got home I wasn't feeling so chipper but I chalked it up to the big effort of the day. The next day I had to drive into Burns Lake to take my cat Bomber to the veterinarian. He was due for his shots and needed a check-up. Mary-Ann came along as company. Our rough plan had been to go ski at the ski club before we took Bomber to the vet however both of us were tired and happy with a rest day. Instead we decided to drive up to the ski area to check it out for future reference.
I was feeling progressively lousier at the day wore on. By 4pm I was resigned to the fact that I probably had a mild flu and wanted nothing but to head back home and go to bed. Which is exactly what I did. But not before I tripped over mom's footstool and nearly broke my ankle. I knew for sure I was sick as my spatial awareness was off and I was clumsy. Mom fussed over me and insisted that I had pushed myself too hard the day before and that's why I was sick now. She rubbed some sore muscle cream on my foot and I was happy to let her doctor me. She gave me tylenol, a heating blanket and sent me off to bed. I realized I didn't have my cel phone and assumed that I had left it charging in the car. Ah well, it would have to wait till morning.
When I woke up the next morning I wasn't feeling much better. Achy, coughy and probably smelly too! I wanted to get my phone though so I got bundled up and went out to my car. No phone. Damn. Must be in my purse.
I started walking down the 3 short steps that go down into the basement, preoccupied about my phone when suddenly my feet were out from under me and I landed and fell down the stairs! Oh MAN DID THAT HURT. I hit my lower back, a spot on my spine and my shoulder.
I was shocked at the speed of the whole blunder and wasn't even sure how much I was hurt. I made it upstairs to let mom and Ray know what had happened. I was still slightly winded and a bit shocked. Neither of them were wearing their respective hearing aids yet so explaining the whole situation was difficult. That last thing I wanted to do while being sick and having just fell down a flight of stairs was have to explain to my wonderful but hard-of-hearing parents what had happened:
Lise: "God I just fell down the stairs!"
Mom: "What? Why are you scared?"
Lise: "STAIRS mom. STAIRS! I fell down the STAIRS"
Mom: "Which stairs? Ray! Lise fell down the stairs!"
Lise: "The outside stairs mom, the basement stairs"
Mom: "Why were you outside?"
Ray: "What?"
Mom: "Lise fell down the STAIRS!"
Ray: Which stairs?"
Mom: "I don't know WHICH stairs Ray. WHICH stairs Lise??"
Lise: "OUTSIDE stairs mom, the OUTSIDE BASEMENT stairs"
Ray: "Oh Geez Honey, are you OK?? Which stairs did you fall down?"
To be honest, at that moment I couldn't understand the relevance of which stairs I fell down. All I knew was that I needed to gather my wits about me and see if I was really hurt or just banged up. I hit hard though. I had a splitting headache but didn't know if that was from the flu or the fall and I had three very tender places along my back which were starting to swell. I was mad at myself for falling, I should have been more careful, I knew the flu was making me clumsy. I was preoccupied about where my phone was and I wasn't really paying attention. Ray felt horrible that he hadn't added extra salt to the stairs. Him and Phil had been chipping away at the ice on the stairs the day before because it was slowly getting worse. Normally he has a bunch of non-stick floor stuff sprinkled over it but unfortunately not that morning.
And my phone was nowhere to be found.
My phone is still missing. I called all the places where I had been in Burns Lake. I was seriously bummed out as I had just upgraded to a spanky iphone4s. Luckily I still have my older iPhone and I was able to get it activated. I needed a wireless connection to finish the activation process so I drove back to Burns Lake and checked out all the places I had been in the hopes that it would be in a lost and found perhaps. Nope, nada, negative. No such luck.
Today I went out for an easy ski to see how the body felt. My marathon training is on a tight schedule right now so having a bruised and sore body is not great. Skiing seemed like a good choice as its easier on the body than running. I wanted to keep the body moving so it doesn't tighten up too much. I don't think I cracked anything because I'm starting to feel better - sort of. Rye and Pepsi has helped and so has the wonderful Truamele cream. I recommend it for the accident prone.
I will ski again tomorrow and then get out for a longer run on Sunday and hopefully that will give my muscles time to get better.
Never a dull moment out here!
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