Alright, I appolozise if anyone is actually following this blog at all, but I've totally lost interest in posting here anymore. If you want to email me to keep in touch, you can email jmartin2142@yahoo.com or devonjanes@yahoo.ca.

Hi Everyone!

At this very moment, if I look out my window, I am in Narnia. We got covered in snow last night, and it's beautiful....

So, the adventuring continues here. I checked out the natural hot springs in BC's Whiteswan Provincial Park a couple days ago - wow!

We drove 2 1/2 hours through some totally amazing mountains. We saw mountain goats, deer, big horned sheep and moose on the way there. Then we turned onto this dirt road and spent 1/2 hour on that. To our left, we were at the bottom of a cliff. To our right, we were at the top of a ravine. It was spectacular. We got to a parking lot, unloaded our backpacks and started down this little path that took us to the bottom of the ravine. At the bottom, there are 3 levels of natural hot tubs, made entirely of rock. The water flows from the top one, where it's really hot, through the rocks all the way to the river.

We spent about 3 hours in the water there, chilling out with candles lit all around the outside of the pool.

Man, that was cool.

I thought I had published a post in here a couple days ago, but I guess that got messed up. Anyway, things are good here. Not on the computer as much since I stopped working front desk. I tried getting some pics up but the computers we have to use in East Wing don't have working cdrom drives. So, unfortunatly that's got to wait.

The snow is melting like mad here. It's been above 0 for a good week or so, which is so nice. I can't wait to get out and do more hiking!!! I've been out a few times, went to Johnston Canyon twice and Lake Agnes once. I'm thinking of buying a bike for the summer so that I can get around to some hikes in the area.

The snowboarding is wrapping up. I've been out a few times in the last week or so (we've gotten snow twice this week!), but the snow is getting pretty sticky. I can't believe people are still paying $70 or so a day to ride and ski there.

Well, I guess that's all that's really going on right now, I'll post again later...

When I work the AM shift at front desk I start at 6:45. In January it was still dark when I walked to work. Today it was light. And it was even brighter when I went for breakfast. Isn't it nice when the days start getting longer?

On a different note, I had my first shift in the dining room last night. I didn't do any tables on my own, but I helped with everyone else's stuff. It was so fantastic to be busy! At front desk I mostly waste time until I'm done my shift, so it was awsome to actually be doing something. I'm really looking forward to learning more and taking my own tables.

When you've worked for one of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Resort properties for 6 months you get your 6-month voucher which entitles you to one night's stay at any property and 50% off your food. I got mine a little while ago, and Samuel and I used it at Emerald Lake Lodge on Sunday night. Beautiful place. Outdoor hot tub, fireplace in the room.

We had really good food and wine at the dining room which cost, even with 50% off food, around $150.

On the way back we stopped to explore Field, BC. It's this little place on the highway that's not much bigger than Lake Louise, but it's much more residential. Saw the school and some adorable little houses, found a nice little pottery shop.

So, it wasn't overly eventful, but it was really relaxing.

I have a very wise friend who told me once "you're allowed to change your mind!" And isn't that a wonderful thing?

I saw the residences for Laggan's, and they were pretty nice, so I gave my two weeks notice here at Deer Lodge. Well, it turns out that they like having me around, so they offered me a job serving even though I have no (and I mean zero) experience serving. To be honest, I'm pretty flattered!

I thought about it and I had a chat with my friend Troy (one of my favorite people here) who told me very simply, in a way that only Troy would, "Well just do it then!" So I had a chat with Sue, our Food & Beverage (F&B) manager, and I start training on Tuesday. I'm pretty excited actually. Silly as it may sound, I've always wanted to try serving, and apparently you make some pretty good money serving here.

Well, I've been laying pretty low since my last spill. I'm going to go to Kicking Horse again in a week though, and I'm sure I'll be out before that here at Louise - I have 3 days off starting tomorrow.

Today I'm going to go check out Saddleback - one of the main staff residences in the village of Lake Louise. I might be changing jobs. I've done a trial shift at Laggan's Bakery and I liked it a lot. So, I'll make my official decicion today after I see the residences. Wish me luck!

I am greatful for:
- helmets
- the tuck and roll instinct
- powder

Today while snowboarding I took a wipe out that I would have loved to have on tape. My friend had the luck of coming to a stop beside me just in time to watch me sail through the air "superman style" (according to him) and see the whole thing.

I was going along at a pretty decent pace along a relatively flat spot when I hit a surprise mogle and started rolling.... I hit the ground with my nose or something, bounced into the air, landed on the side of my neck, bounced again, hit the ground again, got my tip stuck in the snow and rolled sideways a few more times before coming to a stop in a somewhat mangled way.

So I laid there and iced my body in the snow for a few minutes and got on my way. Now I'm starting to find out which parts of me took the impact. Surprisingly enough I don't feel too sore just yet, but I might end up laying on the floor groaning later tonight.

I think I'm starting to feel the wind blow - and it's making me think of the movie Chocolat. We'll see what this wind is doing soon enough I guess.

On a somewhat related note, I've found out that I'm not going to be doing the road trip I anticipated the way I anticipated it. I'm trying to look at this as a chance to practice being here now and going with the flow. It's disappointing, but you never know what might pop up next.

What a great weekend!

Jimmy and Eduarda arrived on Saturday night - we crazy carpeted down to the village for some dinner and rented some skates. Back up to the lake for some skating and then we just chilled out for a while.

On Sunday we went up the Icefields Parkway and checked out the Columbia Icefield - wow! To quote columbiaicefield.com the icefield is "One of the largest accumulations of ice and snow south of the Arctic Circle, it covers an area of nearly 325 square kilometres. The continuous accumulation of snow feeds eight major glaciers including the Athabasca, Dome, and Stutfield Glaciers, all visible from the Icefields Parkway. The Columbia Icefield is a true 'hydrological apex,' for its meltwater feeds streams and rivers that pour into the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans. " I read somewhere else that the ice is something like 1000 feet thick. It was pretty awsome. I'll post some pics when I get them from Jimmy.

Monday morning my friends left and Samuel (my guy) and I went out to Kicking Horse in Golden, BC to spend the day riding and skiiing. It was cool to be somewhere new to ride and the mountains there are just awsome. Driving there you go through valleys with such steep mountains - it's really cool. On the way we passed a group of about 7 mountain goats just wandering along the road and on the way back we saw a group of about 40 of them - some of the crossing the road, the rest running up the steep mountain side. Really cool.

And today it's back to work. But that's ok, after a weekend like that and a morning in bed I'm feeling pretty refreshed!

Tried this whole crazy carpeting to the village thing the other day - what a blast! We walked across the road from Deer Lodge and started down on the cross country trail. We had to walk a little while, but soon enough we got going.

Going head first down a mountain on a crazy carpet through the woods is something everyone should try at least once.

And on that note, my friend Jimmy James from Guelph and his girl are passing through here today so I'm thinking I'll try to get them out and initiate them to mountain crazy carpeting.


P.S. This is the view from one of the runs where I board. I live just off the right side of the picture.

Well, nothing terribly new and exciting is happening here.... Computers were down for a couple days and we had one crazy shift catching up after that.

Been riding a lot since I got back. We haven't had a good dump of snow in a few weeks (you can actually see grass and dirt on some parts of the mountains), but it's supposed to snow on Wednesday - keep your fingers crossed for us!

Since I've been out here I've only boarded at the Lake Louise Ski Resort. But here at Deer Lodge we get free passes to Kicking Horse, so I'm going to give that a try on Monday with my guy. Should be good. Hopefully they've got some snow!

I'm back at Deer Lodge after a week long visit to Ontario for my favorite little girl's 8th birthday. Had a nice time there seeing her and a couple friends. I decided to keep it pretty relaxed this time, so I didn't try to cram a million things into it all at once.

I got my cast off last Tuesday too, that felt really good.

Not too much else exciting going on - everything is as I left it except for a few newcomers and a few people leaving.

So, I decided to switch things up a little bit and get a blog account. Selling point: easier to handle pictures. That's about it. We'll see if I feel inspired to do anything else with my domain name.

If you want to see my previous posts they are at my domain