Exploring Ruts & Ledges

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Coexist – Life near Banff

Thanks to Kyle for directing me to this great time-lapse video taken not far from Banff. It is part of Banff National Park’s remote wildlife camera project – A Wild Year.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Happy Mother’s Day

To a child's ear, "mother" is magic in any language.
- Arlene Benedict

Today, and every day…I am grateful. The constants in life - your love, support, and a place that is ‘home’.

Mother
You've given me two things
One is roots
The other's wings

- Anonymous

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

TdM – at the finish line

Another TdM is in the record books and what a tour it was!!

This is the look of satisfaction. They are making an early-season very long ride look far too easy.

Way to go guys!!

Now…about those tan lines??!!

Saturday, April 30, 2011

TdM – what a day for a ride…

…a very long ride!!! When the day is done, they will have been sitting in the saddle for at least 265km.

Today marked the start of the Third Annual Tour de Muskoka. The ride begins in Oakville and winds it’s way north-east (skirting Lake Simcoe on the east side). The destination…cottage country – a warm shower, a BBQ, and a few beers!

Dave, Scott, and Mark (rumour has it that Paul will be on BBQ duty this evening)…chose an ‘almost’ perfect day…the ‘almost’ comes from the fact they won’t have a tailwind, but wow…awesome weather!

Before they can get out of the city, they have to navigate their way through traffic, including some big-ass trucks!

And after a few kms, they were on their own…

Can’t wait for an update later today!!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Captured Moments

Returning home from a wonderful travel adventure brings with it a bit of sadness…knowing that it’s over. Within a day or two, the routine that had been left behind to go exploring, quickly envelops us and forces the mind, and imagination, onto other more immediate issues.

But there are moments - seeing the wrinkled hand of an old man, making faces with a young child in the grocery check-out, savouring the spicy aroma of an exotic dish, or even wiping the dust off a pant leg – yes, these little things allow us to place ourselves back in time, to a place thousands of miles away.

As long as we have a healthy mind, we’ll always have this treasure - recollection. And, as the edges and details fade over time, we have pictures.

To see some of our moments captured in Nepal & Bhutan, feel free to click on the “What’s New?” link on the site:

www.RutsUp.com

I’ll leave them in that section for awhile and eventually, I’ll move some of them over to a separate site.

Namaste!

Friday, January 28, 2011

Chasing Legends – the documentary

I had posted quite awhile ago that I was looking forward to seeing ‘Chasing Legends’ when it finally made its way to Canada. Well, as is typical for me…I couldn’t wait. So, I ordered the DVD from the USA instead.

It then sat on the shelf while we waited to share the viewing with a bunch of friends. Busy lives meant that we finally saw it last night.

Great documentary. The behind the scenes footage of TdF, especially as it relates to tactics/strategy was intriguing. There were some great interviews with the likes of Phil Liggett & Paul Sherwan – TdF commentators, riders, race directors, and etc.

It was amazing how quickly I was caught up into the whole TdF experience all over again - July cannot get here fast enough!!!

Edited to add: I heard that TSN will be carrying TdF television coverage in Canada this year! YES!!!!

Monday, January 3, 2011

Annapurna Sanctuary Trek

Adventure Treks Nepal (trekking company) had suggested we begin our trek in Phedi instead of Nayapul, the other common start point. So, that is the route we would take - begin in Phedi and end in Nayapul.

Our guide – Gyanendra

Our porter (also a guide) – Ramesh

At times, Ramesh carried more than just gear…

Many trekkers will use 10-11 days for the trek to Annapurna Base Camp (with a side trip to Poon Hill for sunrise). This would give them sufficient time to manage the long climbs and descents along the way. Our plan would be 8-1/2 days and in the end, we ended up doing it in 8 days and that still gave us opportunity for a couple of more leisurely hiking days (i.e. not in speed as much as more time to relax at the planned teahouse destination) along the way.

Teahouses:

Beginning in Phedi meant that our trek would start with a long steep hike up. One thing to note is that the trails are a mix of dirt, fields, rocks/boulders, tree roots, suspension bridges, log bridges…and steps - lots of steps, seemingly endless steps. Some are high steps (think burning quadricep muscles) and others are lower, but deeper steps. There were times where you looked forward to a plain ol’ dirt path to give the legs a break.

Apparently, there have been some individuals who have counted the number of steps between Ulieri and Tikhedhunga and we’ve heard everything from 3000 to 4600 stone steps, but it really doesn’t matter which one is correct, because that represents only a small portion that the trekker will face over the full route. It is only one very short and very steep section. In any case, there are a LOT of steps!

We travelled through farming areas, villages, jungle, rhododendron and bamboo forests. We crossed streams, walked over icy rocks, frost-tipped grasses, and through snow. We wandered past glaciers, waterfalls, scree slopes above the tree line…and we sat in amazingly warm hot springs to soothe the muscles and the soul.

We shared the paths with local residents, children going to/from school, trekkers, animals (buffalo, donkeys, sheep, goats, dogs, cows, monkeys, and birds), porters for trekkers, and porters for supplies being carried in and out from the various villages and teahouses along the way.

Since there were no roads, all supplies - incl building materials, food, etc – would be carried in. The porters’ faces barely reflected the strain from the heavy loads their bodies undoubtedly were carrying. It was a part of their life. It’s not surprising that we noticed several elderly locals with walking sticks, bent over from what may have been the result of years of carrying such loads.

The views were amazing – sunrise at Tadapani, Annapurna Base Camp, Poon Hill, and Ghorepani will not be quickly forgotten. Sunset in Tolka, Chhomrong, and Birenthati was beautiful. Winter solstice and the full moon made for bright skies in the evenings.

An impromptu volleyball game between the trekking porters in Ghorepani was a highlight – these guys were amazing…and some were playing in open-toed sandals. Ramesh, our porter is the one in the red and black down jacket and jeans.

We had a ton of fun along the way – Mark and Gyanendra had me laughing while they played mock-volleyball at a local school between Chhomrong and Chuli – with their packs on!

It is understandable why this is called the Annapurna Sanctuary trek – the mountains seem to envelop us as we reach base camp and everything is so peaceful.

We met other trekkers from around the world (photo below of a great group from Australia that were with us at base camp and then we were reunited with them again in Pokhara), others from Thailand, UK, Netherlands, USA, Canada, Nepal, China, Cambodia and many more.

Leaving footsteps and taking home a TON of memories – what a trip!

Trekking in Nepal – why Annapurna Region

Do we trek in the Everest region – possibly to Everest Base Camp, or in the Annapurna region – the circuit or Annapurna Base Camp? Those were the questions that we needed to answer before arranging our travel plans to Nepal.

The decision would end up coming down to the amount of time we had available and our desire for a ‘less busy’ alternative to Everest Base Camp. It seems that most people that travel to Nepal, recognize ‘Everest’ and as such, it’s a natural destination choice. With that in mind, the number of trekkers and apparently, the amount of garbage left behind, meant that we wanted the ‘less travelled’ option.

The other benefit of Annapurna Base Camp route is it would allow us to have more time traveling through villages and meeting locals before reaching the higher altitudes, whereas with Everest Base Camp, the route is less populated by locals.

We should also mention that many people fly to Lukla from Kathmandu to begin their trek to Everest Base Camp. The downside is the Lukla flight is often delayed or cancelled due to weather (fog, cloud coverage, etc). Our travel plans didn’t have a lot of extra play for unexpected delays, especially if it meant several days of delays (which actually happened to some trekkers while we were in Nepal).

So, Annapurna region won – more remote, less busy, and better control over travel to/from the start point. In our case, that would be Phedi, about 18km outside Pokhara.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Adventure Treks Nepal – we were wow’d!

We were thrilled with the service we received from this company and felt compelled to offer a testimonial to TripAdvisor.com, to the company itself, and of course, I wanted to post it here as well.