ty's first mtn

on remembrance day a few families got together to climb elk mtn.  the day was clear and the breeze was cool.  which was nice, b/c its a steep hike.  esp with a kid on your shoulders.

ty made it most of the way up the mtn on his own, taking a few breaks near the top.  reaching the snow line invigorated all the kids.

check out the snowball about to reach my face.

the final ascent to the viewpoint got a bit slippery, but ty employed his stomping tractor tread footsteps and got up no problem.  we also encountered spider boy and his mom.

ty and madeline built a snowman.  ty ate a ham sandwich.  no wind.  a great first peak experience.

and a fun run back down the mtn to the truck with the whole crew.  everyone did really well.  kids and adults were all tired at some point, but ended up having energy to spare.  ty's synopsis: "it's fun to climb a mountain, but its rinny rinny hard!"  you did well for a 3 year old ty.

outdoors bonus pt II

we managed to squeez one more alpine ride out of our gorgeous weather.  it was only a few days after our hike up cheam, where i had witnessed bare alpine trails.  we knew it had snowed since then, but hoped not much.

the first half of the climb was buff single track on nice dirt.  then came a skiff of snow.  the trail stayed like this until we got into the subalpine.

when the trees thinned out, we got into anywhere from 20-40cm of snow.  a lot more than i'd hoped.  both beautiful and fun, but tiring.  

there were a few fantastic snowy downhills.  easy scenic trails made more intense by the added snow, while at the same time, consequences for falling were quite low.

i had hoped that at least half the alpine portion of the ride would be on open trail, but it was solid cover the entire way through.  there were three peaks to climb and descend along a ridge line.  to climb them we had to slog through drifts like this carrying our bikes through snow up to our knees.  it was awesome.

here we are resting at our high point.  where we can clearly see that we still have one more peak to climb.

now we have no more peaks to climb.  gorgeous.

downhill all the way.

the snow quickly receded as we lost altitude.  again a few inches of snow added an interesting twist to a fun but easy trail.

i don't have many pictures of myself biking.  this is a nice one.

soon the snow disappeared altogether and we were left with a smoking fast smooth downhill to the lake, then some fun dippy xc along the lakeshore and back to the car.  just under six hours.  every muscle burning.  beautiful blue sky.  amazing.

halloween

 halloween was seriously fun this year.  from early on ty knew he wanted to be a shark, and our friend jody has possibly permanently lent us a little penguin costume, so it all worked out pretty easy.

   ty was very excited to carve pumpkins and designed his own (i cut it).

 i think these were supposed to be scary faces.

speaking of scary faces, check out ty's sweet shark expression.  and zeke appears appropriately hapless.  kylie made ty's costume by gluing white felt to a grey hoody and adding a dorsal fin.  ty's still wearing it.

we walked up and down our own street, which was about right.  ty was pretty tired coming up the hill at the end of the night.  they were super cute ringing doorbells.  zeke kept advancing right on into people's homes.

that evening and the following day featured a lot of candy sorting, and transportation by truck across the carpet.  watching brought back a lot of memories.  a fun halloween.

outdoors bonus pt 1

 the weather this fall has been consistently gorgeous.  this october was the most beautiful one we have witnessed in the valley.  it worked out that i could be home a lot as well and our family took full advantage.

 exploring the backwaters of the fraser river.  in surprisingly waterproof rain suits.

 and kayaks

 and logs

 and bikes

i was able to get out to vedder mountain a fair bit.  taking advantage of late season fitness two friends and i decided to do a lap up and over the mountain.  my typical run is the purple line.  4 hrs of beautiful forest riding and i didn't take a single picture.

 mike and mike and rob and i got up early one morning to hike cheam.  we timed it well as it snowed 15cm up there the next morning and has been snowing a lot more since.

 we were well onto the prominence before the sun topped lady to give us full day light.

 the fog rolling up the valley from the ocean looked like a giant pillow, punctuated by peaks.
our friend RJ took this picture from the peak while camping up there the night before.  we met them coming down just below the summit after they had cooked themselves up a huge bacon and eggs breakfast.  my kind of campers.

 anyways, being at the top was pretty sweet.

 niko loved it too.  he still stresses me out by striding casually along cornices with huge exposure.

 on the way down we took extended breaks on snow fields and on a saddle and in an alpine meadow by a meteor crater.  we didn't want to be done the hike.  mike vk even stripped down and went for a swim.  not as warm as it looks.

 the next day ty and zeke and i ripped it up in the leaves.  glorious fall.

 a few days later we got seriously stuck in the mud by the river.  the treads filled with sand and mud and we just slid further into the muck.

 ty enjoyed helping me dig out the tires while waiting for rescue hero chad and his handy winch.

and we haven't even gotten to halloween (another beautiful night) or my last alpine bike ride or (today) ty's first mountain.  that's enough for now, but there's more to come.  october was amazing!