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wwjd - what would julie do? read my stream of consciousness to find out....

Monday, June 19, 2006

adrenaline rushes

So I'm pretty sure the theme for last week was adventure. A little wakeboarding, a little off-road hummer driving and a bit of trespassing on a suspension bridge rounded out my week.
Wednesday I got up bright and early but it was well worth it as a few rogers folk and I headed up to muskoka for a wakeboarding lesson to be aired on our respective shows. Having never done this before, I was a little nervous and my fear of water was definitely looming, however I got over that pretty quick. We got to ride on glass - lake rosseau (sound familiar? Goldie Hawn and Eric Lindros have a cottage there...to name drop a few) - under the hot hot sun sans wetsuits. Yeah, it was a touch take-your-breath-away-cold upon entry, but once we were behind the boat and working to get up on that board, the blood was flowing and my adrenaline was sky high. What a thrill. I got up second try to my complete shock (apparently in the footage I've got a total look of disbelief on my face!) but fell quite soon after. No worries because I was able to get up every time after that and managed to hold on for a while during one run. It was completely invigorating and I'm so addicted. Luckily - or unluckily, depending on how you look at it - I got to ride on completely new equipment and behind a sweet boat that the pros use. Yeah, I later realized that my instructor and his posse were all wakeboard champs - those kind of observers combined with my "performance" being taped.....no pressure! I say unluckily because all that gear and the boat with a tower could only have made it easier for me to adjust to this new sport and I can't be spoiled like that all the time when I go out wakeboarding - especially since I don't have a boat!!! Definitely a fun day and something I can't wait to try again.
Thursday, my body was beyond aching - wow, what a workout from the day before! However, it was another early start and up to blue for my offroad hummer training. I know, just picture it - me behind the wheel of a hummer. Kind of a joke, I know, but it's something I might be doing this summer - shuttleing people to the top of the mountain for off-road hummer training. The other two guys doing it both have hummer driving experience - one from being in the military and the other from another hummer driving company so I was definitley the rookie of the bunch. It wasn't long before I was behind the wheel and touring us to the top, driving like a grandma no less. I think this thing is about double the width of my echo. I soon learned that was nothing compared to the rock and log piles I would be driving over in the off road course, not to mention the steep angles - both horizontally and vertically - I would be putting this monstrous machine on. Now, normally this kind of thing doesn't jive well with my environmentally friendly attitude and practises, but the owner of hte company, Andrew is in fact an environmentalist himself with a lot of the same beliefs and mis-conceptions as I have/had. Turns out, he's part of an organization for off roaders called "tread lightly" which practises environmentally sound off road trips. And while the exhaust is still not the greatest, he's working on getting bio-diesel which has less harmful emissions. As for erosion and that sort of thing, it's no worse than the impact people have from hiking/biking on well travelled trails and if you're smart about it, you can do it in such a way that's less harmful to the earth. So I like that and I feel a lot better about it. Still a bit nervous about taking tourists up there, but i'm sure i'll be fine and they'll have a blast.
The afternoon of thursday was spent doing a soar event - super chill, on the patio of indian, basking in the sun. I think I've reached my sun quota for the season already....yikes, better lather on the sunscreen.
Friday morning was - yet again - friggin' early. This is a trend that certainly will not be continuing! However, it wasn't so bad as we got to go for breakfast at Oliver and Bonacini - super swanky! I definitely felt out of place in my board shorts, messy hair and general beach bum look. Whatever, it was delicious. Then it was up to scenic caves where ty and I had to set a course for soar - this time instead of being amazing race themed, it was more of a survivor theme. Scenic caves is nothing but steep slopes and rocky hills surrounded by lush forest and..poison ivy. Now, I know you think you know where this story is going, but thankfully I was able to avoid the itchy stuff...that would've been disatrous. Mildly disastrous could have explained the situation we found ourselves in though while setting up. We got to one side of the suspension bridge and had planned to cross it so we could set up our next station on the other side. However, since it was still pretty early, I guess they hadn't opened the gate on the bridge yet. Hmm...no sweat, there was a decent sized gap between the bottom of the gate and the bridge itself so without hesitation, we snuck under and begun to cross. I always kind of thought the bridge was hokey and something better suited to a costa rican rainforest than the side of the escarpment, but once we were on, I was actually scared - wtf!?!? Top that with the fact htat we weren't suppose to be on the bridge and I was friggin' scared! Not sure what would've happened if we got busted - I guess we'll never know. We got to the other side and slid under no problem and by the end of the day we had crossed that damn thing 3 times. And why is it when you tell someone you're scared, they emphasize it by making you more scared?!? Like, tyler just couldn't resist jumping up and down while we crossed and while I cursed loudly. Jackass....
It was quite the week and to finish it off, I was in the bay twice on saturday and yesterday we went mountain biking at the top of georgian peaks in loree forest. i even jumped some logs that i normally would've walked my bike over! I should probably slow 'er down before I do something stupid and hurt myself but i'm just not ready yet.