The Colorado Group After all the rain in Minden, we were glad to move on to the Ottawa River where the sun was shining and the water was even warmer. We competed in the Junior Olympics freestyle competition. After waiting 3 hours for a feature to come in, the rodeo got moved from one wave to one just upstream on McCoy’s Rapid. Rodeos happen quite quickly, but we stayed to watch all the events. The...

Podium: 1st- Thea 2nd- Marissa 3rd- Jazmyn Upon arriving in Minden, it promptly became known that we were not to have a sunny week. The Gull River offered us some of the coldest and wettest weather ever. Luckily with all the constant rain, the bugs were too scared to come out, so only in those short pauses between rainstorms were we ravage on by mosquitoes. With the help of a little white gas, we were...

Climbing into the van in Denver, I had no idea that we would be driving for 33 hours straight through. We wanted to do a river run on the way out there, something on the Upper Peninsula near Michigan. So we drove up North, sadly the GPS didn’t know where  the put-in was and we ended up running a short class 3+ with horseflies chasing us the whole way down. Since almost everyone had yet to experience...

The FibArk Festival was great! I was able to catch up with friends from Golden Junior Olympics as well as compete in the slalom race and 26 mile downriver race. Friday night, we joined in on the festivities. Bands played the whole weekend at the outdoor stage riverside. Saturday morning brought the slalom race. I felt pretty good with my first run, but I touched a gate, and so on my second run I set...

Wow, what a summer. After 8 weeks on the road, it feels good to be home. In over three years, I don’t think I’ve ever been home for my birthday- refreshing. So, as promised, the adventures from my summer. With school finally finished, mum and I started on our long journey southwards. Our first stop was in Montana, not that we really waned to stop, but sleep had to happen sometime. The next day...

This summer is going to be very busy summer and I’m looking very forward to it. Driving down to Colorado to meet up with the RMCKC and then driving to Rochester, NY for US Age Group Nationals. From there we drive up to Canada and do the summer race series. Then, back to Alberta for nationals and Pan Ams. As we are camping the whole summer, I doubt I will get a chance to post anything new. Have...

I have really been enjoying art lately. We get to try all different materials and complete a bunch of different projects. As our class is really small (5 people on a busy day) we spend a lot of time chilling out. It’s a nice change of pace during the day. Here are some samples of what I’ve done. Dancer (Henri de Touleuse Lautrec) Pan American Games Poster Self-portrait

I was able to attend a wonderful awards night put on by the Calgary Booster Club, in which I received an endowment fund award which will help pay contribute towards my training and competitive goals this year. Many important sportspeople were in attendance and it was pretty cool to meet all of the people who have made a difference in the Calgary sporting community. Thank you Calgary Booster Club...

I woke up yesterday morning to a very red and very swollen hand. It looked like a clown’s nose was to trying to escape from my hand. I left it to its own devices, but by the afternoon, it was still huge so I showed it to Mike. He promptly gave me a Benadryl and we went paddling. I was doing a ferry across the river when the meds finally got absorbed into my blood stream. It felt like I had just...

To the right: infamous sea urchin rock Another day off, another beach to visit; this beach was quite picturesque, set in a cove with lava rock formations on either sides. Upon arriving, we scoped out the place and promptly decided to climb that massive lava rock. Mike and the boys went first, they told us all about the oh so wonderful sea urchins chillin’ on the rock. Haley and I treaded water...