It has been another great week in the mountains. As predicted, it snowed on and off all weekend, but luckily it didn't stick for long. On Monday, the cold rain led me to curse the mountains as I looked at the weather forecast across the continent. People from San Francisco to Ottawa (and of course Minnesota) enjoying the summer sun in their shorts and t-shirts. Yellowknife has even been balmy compared to us. Bahh! Then Tuesday and Wednesday, which happened to be my days off, the clouds lifted and the thermometers rose making me a very happy girl. Tuesday we went for a hike and Wednesday I went for a long run in the morning and a long bike ride in the evening. The perfect days off!
As the temperatures rise, the animals start to emerge. We've had a small herd of white-tailed deer sleeping in our yard. A mother moose and her two young-of-year calves have been frolicking across our street a few times this week. The babies are so small and clumsy! A grizzly bear and her cub have settled into the valley and yesterday, Gareth and I saw a slithery pine marten hiding in a wood pile. Who knew a big weasel could be so adorable?
Did I mention last week that I love my job? It was slow on Sunday and Monday, so I cleaned and repaired my road bike. I scrubbed it down, changed the gear cables, adjusted the gears and limits, centered and reset my breaks, adjusted my headset, and tightened and greased everything real good. Two weeks ago, I wouldn't have known how to do most of those things. The shop is sort of the local information center too, so I get to talk to people about trails, bear safety, the mountains, the weather conditions, etc. I've met some great people!
This week we've had a lovely elderly skiing/hiking group staying with us at the hostel. As they have been coming here for 26 years, they are quite particular and notice everything from the lack of reading lamps in the common room to the squeaky doors in the dorms. They've kept Gareth busy all week with extra cleaning and maintenance requests, which Gareth has in turn really enjoyed. Tonight they invited us to eat with them and gave us all of the left-overs including ½ a pie and a plate of brownies...mmm. At dinner, one of the ladies announced that she would like to check Gareth for ticks which made me laugh pretty hard. Currently, despite the two thick fire doors between us and them, I can hear them laughing as they play a rowdy game of Uno. I hope I'm that hilarious and having that much fun when when I'm old.
And now the photos: (1)The depressing image of snow on my bikes last Saturday morning. (2) Me standing on our roof watching the mother moose and her calves. Later we went for a walk and got picked up by a policeman who was worried about our safety getting back to the hostel because the moose was so close to it. (3) Mount Kidd as seen from the meadow down the road. All the light green leaves are the beautiful trembling aspen that grow like crazy around here.
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