I just got home from my Tourism class. We talked about our future in the ski industry and it got me thinking.

I have so much potential. I’m a kid, but it’s time to buckle down and become more responsible. Big things can happen in the near future that can affect the rest of my life. One decision that has already done so is committing myself to the ski industry. Now, as most of you know, I am relatively new to the industry, as I’ve only been snowboarding for 4 years. But that doesn’t matter. With my life experiences, I know I can succeed.

This is to my family. This list would be very lengthy, so the people I want to thank the most are my Mom, Warren, Austin, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Grandmaman, and Nanny. You have all helped me so much. I know that no matter what happens, you’ll always be there for me as I am for you.

Kenny, Torrin, Baxter, Bearzy, and Caron…I can’t say enough about you guys. What started out as a group of friends getting together to raise money for a local skatepark, turned into so much more. It helped us become even better friends. I’ll never forget the times we had in Terrace. They were, without a doubt, the best times of my life.

Wayne. I learned so much from you in the little time we had together. You’re an amazing friend. You had to go through and overcome so much in your life. And I am so grateful for knowing you. You are truly an inspiration.

Kristian, I’ve known you for the longest time. We had some great times in the Sault. You brought me to my first punk show, which opened up so much to me. I wish you the best in Halifax and I’ll always be here for you if you ever need a friend.

Scot, Theo, Jay, Lee, and Jer, it’s more than music—you have been real life heroes to me. We’ve had some great times at shows in the Sault, in Sudz at that ridiculous 12-band show, in Terrace Bay, and in Thunder Bay. You are all good-hearted people and I won’t ever forget you. Oh, and by the way, I’ve already made up my mind and FFH will play at my wedding—a one-show reunion. FFH and sTs back again. You can only imagine the good times we’ll have.

To everybody that I met this past year in Thunder Bay, Scott, Storm, Matty K, Gardner, Tutt, Chris, Andy C, Ruberto, Mikey, Taryn, Chels, Mitch, Madi, Julia, Abby, Howie, Griff, D, Roy, Megan, Eric, Angie, and Ryan, we’ve shared some great times. I miss you all already. If any of you come out West, let me know and we’ll ride the mountains together.

I have to get back to music. It’s such a big part of my life and I would really like to thank Anthony, Mr. Gurney, Santos and Pare and Dru from Truth Explosion for all of the knowledge and amazing opportunities you have given me. I’ve learned so much from setting up concerts in Terrace Bay and Sault Ste Marie and from taking photographs for Truth Explosion Magazine. I’ve met some of my favourite bands and some great people doing this.

And to my new friends of the Ski Resort Operations and Management program, I feel like we’ve already grown into a big family these past few weeks. I’m grateful to be able to share this next year and a half with you all. And I can’t wait for the deep powder days.

No matter where we end up in the future, we will always have eachother. I’ll cherish our memories forever. We all have such great potential. Don’t let that go to waste. Stay true to yourself. Keep your family and friends close. Never forget. Keep your mind on track, show enthusiasm and stay positive and you will be rewarded as things start to unfold.

From after an awesome time at Taffy Jack’s with pretty much everybody from my program, I come home to Bailey passed out on the front porch! So I ran inside, grabbed my camera and snapped off these pics of Sleeping Beauty here haha.

So here’s Bailey just peaced right out!

His eyes are open but he’s not awake!

But don’t worry…I got him in safe and sound.

This actually happened one week ago on Sept 3rd. Like I said in my last post, I’ve been keeping busy here and surprisingly don’t want to be in front of a computer all day!

Myself, Mike (owner of house/roomate), Bailey (roomate), Jason (roomate) and a few of Mike’s friends, Justin, Nicola, and Geoff hiked up to get a view of the Kokanee Glacier. We started early in the morning. We drove 30 minutes outside of town then another 30 minutes up a dirt road (uphill the whole time…I’m still getting used to this whole mountain thing and I love it). We got to a parking lot at the end of the road and started our journey. It was definitely a good introduction to the area. The landscape is just amazing. We hiked up to the Slocan Cabin and got a beautiful view of the glacier. The whole hike took six and a half hours. I was so tired near the end of it!

Here are pictures from the hike:

Bailey and Jason looking at some of the mountains in the area.

We started down near that lake.

I love this creek. We refilled our water bottles here.

Here’s the gang hiking down to this rest area. It’s amazing how many alpine lakes there are! Here’s our little ground squirrel buddy. Let’s call him Marty.

I was so stoked to be up there.

Here’s a random picture of Mike.

Here are a couple more alpine lakes.

Apparently a group of hikers saw two grizzley’s on the trail the day before. Then as we ventured up further, there were some hikers on their way back down who said they saw a big grizzley just up the trail. I was excited to see one and had my camera ready, but we didn’t see one.

Here are some pictures of the gang hiking.

Those are some pretty big mountains!

We’re getting closer! (You can see part of the glacier on the top-right)

And there you have it, the KOKANEE GLACIERRRRRRRR!!

I know…It’s been a while since my last post. This should’ve been up the first day I got here. But things have been crazy here with me moving my stuff in, meeting my roomates, getting to know the town, hiking, swimming, starting school and meeting my new friends in the program (which, for those of you who don’t know, is Ski Resort Operations and Management). With all of that happening, who wants to be on the computer??

Anyway, here’s a picture I took my first morning in town. Elephant mountain is its unofficial name (because people think it looks like an elephant). But I don’t see it. Anyway, it’s 3000 feet to the summit, which is nothing compared to the mountains of the area. But it’s still much bigger than what we had back in Ontario. Just look at its size compared to the houses at the base!

Oh yeah. One more thing. That’s the mall down below. We’re only two streets from the mall and we’re looking down on it. This town is pretty intense with it’s hills and whatnot because it’s built on the side of a mountain. Pretty crazy.

Finally…the last day. This is the day that I was looking forward to the most. This is the day I would drive through the mountains! Like I said in my last post, day 2 ended with me sleeping in the U-Haul in a gas station parking lot in Swift Current.

And this is what I woke up to…

Fortunately, it didn’t rain hard for long. It did rain on and off all the way past Lethrbidge though.

I saw the guys from Push For The Cure skating down the highway just outside of Lethbridge. I was so stoked! So I drove down about 6-7km, parked the U-Haul down a farm road, grabbed my skateboard and skated down the highway towards them. They were pretty stoked to see me pushing towards them. Rob, Carlos, Aaron and Ben are all awesome guys. They gave me an extra longboard to use and we skated the remaining 5km back to my U-Haul. They took a break with me and we just chilled and talked. Ben fed some horses too. I gave them some Small Town Skaters buttons and then I was off.

Be sure to check out they’re website at www.pushforthecure.com . They’re almost done their longboard trek across Canada so show your support before they finish!

So here is my first view of the mountains!! Then I drove to Pincher’s Creek and got a closer shot of them.

Here’s the first set of mountains that I drove through.

When driving through Fernie, I just had to check out the ski resort. So I drove up and hiked part of the mountain. This thing is huge! I can’t wait to take a road trip there this winter. This is the view from the bottom of one of the lifts of the mountains in the Fernie area.

I caught this pretty cool semi-sunset shot after Cranbrook. There aren’t any really cool sunsets here because the sun goes down behind the mountains before the colours come out. That’s how big the mountains are!! I love it!

So I drove the rest of the way mostly in the dark. It’s a pretty crazy highway, lots of sharp corners and whatnot, so I drove at 80km/h most of the way. From Creston to Nelson (a little over an hour drive), I saw four deer, a fox, and what looked like a cougar. So there’s plently of wildlife in the area. I’m just bummed that I didn’t see a big-horned sheep.

I made it to Nelson around 9:15pm. It’s a lot bigger than I was expecting. The roads are messed up too! I couldn’t find High Street (that’s where my house is). Apparently everybody steals the signs because of the name. So I called Mike (owner of the house) and he came and got me. I chilled with him and he’s an awesome guy.

So there you have it. That was my trip out West. Now I’m in Nellyville and I’m having a blast!

I got woken up by Warren early in the morning. I got to see him, Harold, Syl, Lisa, Jade and Makayla. The only person I missed was Nelson (he was at work).

I said my goodbyes and left the city around noon. After driving for about an hour, I realized that it’s true what they say, “If you lost your dog in the prairies, you could see him for three days.” This highway is so flat and straight. Boring to drive. This wind is unbelievable though. It’s pushing the vehicle all over the highway.

It almost looked like there was going to be a tornado just after Brandon. There was a partial funnel cloud. I wanted to take a picture, but I thought it might be a little risky.

You can tell that Saskatchewan is proud of their province; I was driving for over two hours before I say anything that mentioned Saskatchewan. But I’m not very observant, so I probably just didn’t see the sign.

I took some pictures of fields.

I drove through Indian Head, SK.

I took some pictures of CATTLE too!! I even heard a cow fart! It was awesome!!

Then I got to Regina. It’s a nice looking city, a lot bigger than I was expecting. There were a lot of terrible drivers and traffic moved s-l-o-w-l-y. They should make a highway that bypasses the city.

I arrived in Moose Jaw shortly after. I mingled with some locals and had a nap in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I woke up an hour later, bought a couple FULL THROTTIZZI’S and I was back on the road.

I gassed up in Swift Current. Check out all of the shad flies! They’re everywhere!!

I wanted to make it to Medicine Hat tonight, but I’m a wuss. I was leaving Swift Current and saw lightning in the distance. Not just any lightning though. It was some of the biggest and brightest I’ve ever seen. And it was already 11pm, so I decided to sleep in a gas station parking lot. It worked out good too because there were a bunch of empty U-Haul’s there, so I just blended in. I love watching lightning.

So I made it. Things went well. And here are the details about my trip.

After I finally got the U-Haul (a day late…it’s a long story that I don’t want to get into), Kenny and Torrin came over and helped me pack up the U-Haul.

Thought we’d rock out one last time before I left. Me and Kenny are singing hard to Shonka Tonk by Sloppy Meateaters. Such a funny song. Be a rebel. Download it.

It felt so good to break that piece of shit guitar!!

So I ended up driving Kenny to Dryden. Which was awesome! Fun ride for sure. We stopped in Ignace for a bite to eat. There are only two good things about that town, The Burger Scoop, and this old man.

Check out this cool bug splatter from on the way to Dryden.

Kept at ‘er all the way to Winnipeg. Got there at 12:30am. Lisa and Harold came to the Petro-Can and I followed them to Lisa’s. Had a good night’s sleep.