HeadspaceJ

Happy Birthday Tannis

My sweetheart turned 30 on the weekend, so we had a great party here in Summerland. She has been thinking about the absurdity of the fact that most of our food travels an average of 2400 kilometers before we eat it, so we aimed to create a wonderful meal with as many local flavours as possible. The menu:

Appetizers

Tortillas and Salsa from Fresh is Best Salsa in Kelowna (thanks, Marni)
Gewurztraminer Cheese from Village Cheese in Armstrong
Red Hot Pepper Cheddar from Village Cheese in Armstrong
Double Cream Camembert from Poplar Grove Winery in Penticton
Naramata Bench Blue Cheese from Poplar Grove Winery in Penticton

Main Dishes

Pork Tenderloin from Summerland (organic) roasted with local apples (recipe)
Stuffed Baked Potatoes using BC red potatoes
Local Organic Carrots baked with cheese

Beverages

Organic Apple Juice from Viaolo Orchard in Cawston
Semi-Dry Gewürztraminer from Scherzinger Vineyards in Summerland
Amy’s Riesling from Scherzinger Vineyard in Summerland
2002 Merlot from Sumac Ridge in Summerland
Naramata Nut Brown Ale from the Cannery Brewing in Penticton
Killer Bee Dark Honey Ale from Tin Whistle Brewing in Penticton
Laughing Coyote organic coffee from Backyard Beans in Summerland

We also had some great homemade goodies like quesadillas from Alison (who was born on the same day as Tannis, so they celebrated their 30th together) and birthday cake from my mom. My folks also helped with the kids and did most of the clean-up afterwards, which was a wonderful gift.

Hockey Missed

Call me a hoser, but I'm missing the NHL this week. Check out his photo of Mark Messier celebrating an Oilers' cup win 20 years ago. Granted, as an 11-year-old in Manitoba, we hated the Oilers for sweeping our Jets out of the playoffs in the second round (or any round they met the Jets in those years), after Hawerchuck's 50-goal season and Paul Maclean going over 100 points. Those guys were legitimate heroes, but Edmonton's heroes were always a step ahead. I like Chris's take on the grand narrative:

"I just love the emerging story of a season of hockey...all these guys trying to figure out how to get the Cup. It's like a hero's journey that starts every October."

Myron and I almost got into a game in Summerland last night, but the team ended up having too many players, so we went and shot pool at the legion instead. We've been laughing at ourselves, trying to imagine what our reactions would have been if someone had told us in Grade 10 that we'd be living in the same small mountain town a thousand miles away from the small prairie town we grew up in. And then projecting out into the future and wondering if we'll two old codgers shooting pool and drinking Molson Canadian at the legion a few decades from now.

Rare Photo

Like many people who like taking photographs, I have very few good pictures of myself. When you're the one who tends to pick up the camera, you're not often in front of the lens. Anyway, our dear friend Marj (who happens to be a wonderful photographer) sent this photo of me and Ella from when we were at the Hildebrand Hoot in Manitoba earlier in fall. Ella was kind enough to cover her face with mud, so as to not steal the photo with her cuteness -- I shudder to think of how much sand she consumed this summer. She did ramp up the cuteness for this one, though.

Catch-Up

No time for proper updates these days, it seems. We've been on a bit of rollercoaster with the weather lately -- we get a dump of snow overnight, and I assume that my riding season is over. Then by three in the afternoon the snow is gone everywhere except the tops of the mountains, so I go out and ride and feel like I'm stealing one from mother nature. I spent most of yesterday working on my final paper for the course I'm in, but did sneak out for an hour and did this route on Rattlesnake Mountain. There was some snow around the back side, but it was perfect riding, followed by a nice Old English Porter. A few photos from the last while:

Ella is cute as a button these days, running around and causing havoc.
Is this the march of progress? We watched that machine take down a hundred-year-old house across from our place to make room for a "retirement village". I thought the photo captured the sign and destruction well.
I had promised a photo of Ivy's halloween costume...
I forgot to take a camera, but the Summerland Festival of Lights on Friday was unbelievable. This little town continues to amaze me with these things -- there must have been a couple of thousand people jammed into the two main streets, which were closed off to traffic. We celebrated at Cozy Bay and then enjoyed the Christmas lights on our walk back home. They even blasted some fireworks later to cap things off.

Letter to the Editor

Our local paper published my first letter to the editor. I stupidly sent two in the same day, and they didn't publish the one that criticized the paper itself for making no attempt to balance the views of our local politicians, but at least they posted this one:

Dear Editor,

This proposed golf course and residential development might be wonderful for Summerland's economy, tax base and property values. The mayor's initial cheerleading makes it sound like there couldn't possibly be any downsides to the plan. It appears that the decision to proceed has already been made and it's just a matter of selling the idea to a community that already has two golf courses.

The mayor is justifying his "mission" to southern California as necessary research, but a trip paid for by the company being investigated does not constitute due diligence. Instead of accepting freebies from a corporation trying to influence council's future decisions, why not commission unbiased research on this company, the potential environmental impacts of the proposal, and other development possibilities for the supposedly "useless" land?

I'm not opposed to this development and I like the idea of Summerland growing, but I'm not convinced that the most important questions are being asked at this point. I'm concerned about possible hidden costs for the community, both financial and environmental. A few more questions for the mayor's list:

What will the district be offering or giving up to attract this significant investment?
Can the aquifer support the considerable requirements of a golf course and suburban development?
Who stands to profit from the development, and how are they related to the people making decisions about its feasibility?
What about pesticides and herbicides from the course leaching through our sandy soils into both the aquifer and Trout Creek?
How will this type of development help people find affordable housing in our region?

Jeremy Hiebert
Summerland

Cultural Continuity

I almost never link to Chris Corrigan's writing even though I read it daily, but his post this morning sort of rocked my world. In the media, and in casual conversation, you often hear thoughtful people lamenting the condition of Canada's first nations communities. The problems seem insurmountable, particularly in urban areas like Winnipeg, where crime and poverty define both the reality and the perception. The study he references (pdf) correlates measures of cultural continuity and suicide rates in first nations communities. For example, communities that have had some success in establishing forms of self-government (their rights to controlling their economic and political independance) have an 85% reduction in suicide. The five other factors all play a role too, creating a blueprint for hope. It seems likely that personal and community histories could certainly help with several of those factors as well.

New U2

U2 offers a free online preview of their new album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Instead of clicking each song individually, you can also listen to the whole album on the Webjay playlist I set up. Select "Windows Media Player" as your player and click the "play page" button. Or just try clicking this link. Not sure how long it will stick around -- probably a limited-time thing.

After listening to it all morning, I'm feeling like it's significantly better than their last effort, which I never could warm up to. It's no Achtung Baby, either, but a few standout tracks keep me coming back: Miracle Drug, Vertigo, City of Blinding Lights, Original of the Species...perhaps there will be others that will grow on me. Superfan Garth offers his take on the album along with handy links to lyrics, and Esther is busily being inspired.

Update: Fellow Okanaganite Jeffrey Simpson expounds on how to review a U2 album, and does his own track-by-track analysis. Considering that we both acknowledge Achtung Baby as the ultimate measuring stick in these matters, I was surprised that he liked the songs I didn't (and disliked the ones I love)...but he writes so well that I half expect his words to change my mind. I've also realized that I'm not a U2 fan in the same sense that these folks are.

Local Politics

So Summerland is being courted for a half-billion dollar golf resort and residential complex. The mayor is busy cheerleading and of course there is no mention of the potential negative impacts of putting luxury golf greens in an arid region already suffering from water shortages and water quality issues. Meanwhile, our local paper gives the mayor, our MLA and our MP (sadly, Stockwell Day) their own weekly columns, with no editorial content to challenge their claims or policies! Whatever happened to the media balancing the power of the government?

Conkle Weekend

We made it out on the Trans-Canada Trail a couple of times this weekend. On Saturday we took some homemade cookies and a thermos of chai tea to our favourite picnic spot (older photo) at the gazebo overlooking Prairie Valley. Ivy walked the whole way without complaint about fatigue or distance, even running entire sections for exercise.

Then on Sunday I spent some time exploring Conkle again on a blustery, damp November afternoon. Of course I was in my glory, first climbing for about 45 minutes to the top, checking out one of the edges of Trout Creek canyon, then cruising down through a great web of cow-trail singletrack on the north-facing slope, and finally spilling out onto the Trans-Canada Trail near the gazebo. As I hit the road at the end of the ride it was getting pretty dark and the lights of the town were already twinkling in the twilight.

The town has already approved the area above the TCT as a new park for their centennial project, which means it's a great target for some trail development. With a couple of short trail additions to make the climb more manageable, a 100-metre outlet trail on the main singletrack descent, and some basic cleanup, it could become a ridiculously fun (and popular) ride.

Aerial Map

Our regional district has an unbelievable mapping application on their site that even shows trails overlaid on aerial photos. I spent some time mucking with one that shows the main mountain biking areas around Summerland. The singletrack on Giant's Head and Cartwright are most developed, while the trails on Rattlesnake and Conkle are pretty rudimentary. But so much potential in all four areas! Roads are orange, trails are pink, and I plunked a big green bike sign in each main area.

History of Rossland's Trail Development

This page from The Kootenay Columbia Trails Society outlines how they developed Rossland's incredible trail network over a 10-year span. It's a blueprint for success that includes an account of the failures and obstacles. Some of the key points:

it takes time to develop trail systems
it takes a lot more time and hassle if landowners aren't consulted and respected
the involvement of the city/regional district is essential
insurance and legal access to land are a huge pain, but absolutely necessary
maintaining a high quality trail network requires consistent funding

So these are some of the lessons I'm taking to heart as I think about possibilities for trail development in Summerland. Now if only I had the time to really dig into this stuff...

Campbell Mountain

After all my talk about developing local trails, this afternoon I explored another Penticton riding area called Campbell Mountain (pdf map). It's a mellow climb, with lots of old singletrack, as well as a downhill course and 4-cross course with sweet jumps and berms. It's also an active pasture, which meant running into numerous cows and having to wash the bike when I got home -- the Stinky was truly stinky. Seeing a few deer was kind of nice, and stopping by the Red Rooster Winery capped things off nicely. Just enjoying a Faceplant and getting ready to bring some pizza over to Faulder to celebrate Myron's birthday.

Summerland Trail Mecca

Summerland has the potential to be an unbelievable cycling destination. Nearly every town and city in BC has great trails and logging roads nearby, but not many let you stay in a small town with wineries, Trans-Canada Trail access, a working steam train, coffee shops, beaches and restaurants, while letting you ride to a half-dozen trailheads from your hotel or B&B. It's only a matter of time before visitors start figuring it out, and the idea inspires me to help speed things up. This article caught my attention this morning and helped me envision what it might take to help the process along: positioning your community for mountain bike tourism. It got me thinking that there might be three things to start working on:

Trail Development
There are four distinct riding areas on the edge of town (Conkle, Cartwright, Giant's Head and Rattlesnake mountains), and several others nearby (above Trout Creek, around Faulder and up Garnett Valley Road). Most have a hodgepodge of old logging roads, cow trails, motorcycle trails and horse paths that make for excellent cross-country riding with great views and fun singletrack. Doing any real work on the trails would require a fair bit of help, and I'm not sure whether there are enough riders here to do it. To really shine, each area would need:

Several short sections of connecting singletrack to link up loops and detour around climbs that currently require pushing. Downhill singletrack sections could detour current two-track sections.
Developing at least one technically difficult trail for more aggressive riders, preferably with safe jumps and well-built steeps.
Clear maps showing each area in relation to town, as well as main trails and junctions in each.
Basic, sturdy signage on the main trails.

Land Management
I believe that most of these areas are managed by the regional district, but it would be smart to find out which areas might not be. There's no point in building trails or maps of areas that turn out to be private property. Conkle and Giant's Head are regional parks, and Cartwright probably should be a park, but it isn't yet. The key here would be to engage the right people, ask good questions and work together. The potential economic benefits could help open doors. The local ATV association could potentially be good allies, but they're automatically associated with motorized issues. There's already some official awareness of the mountain bike community through the annual race held here every year, and the community's recreation master plan seems to align well with these goals.

Tourism and Promotion
This focus is on promotion and marketing for tourism, working with the chamber of commerce and local businesses. The goals would be to create package deals, provide maps and increase the profile of the community as a cycling destination. Although this would probably have to come after some trail work, it's a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg conundrum -- more early interest would make sponsorship and trail work easier to start. Rossland certainly provides a model for this approach. There's lots of potential for crossover marketing here too, with excellent touring cycling on the TCT and road-cycling routes...never mind mellow wine-tour pedalling circuits.

I'm thinking that the best approach would be to consider this project a community contribution to begin with and see where it leads. There's certainly the potential to make a sideline business out of it at some point, perhaps operating tours, rental business, small bike shop, or even a biking B&B.

Post-Hiatus

It's been weeks since I updated this page. Now of course all of the missed days blur together, so this will just have to be a hodgepodge of random stuff:

Ivy adored every part of Halloween. I'll add a picture here later of her princess costume and general delight. Mom and Dad came out and took the girls trick-or-treating around or little neighbourhood, then stayed for stir-fry and wine. Pretty festive and cozy, like Christmas with ghouls.
Tannis played her second hockey game. We're still getting geared up, and it looks I'll be starting with my team next week.
Ella turned one as soon as we got back from Manitoba. She's really a going concern these days, toddling around and making ardent demands in long strings of gibberish. And she sleeps through the night since weaning, which makes us her biggest fans.
I was looking at a photo from March 11 this spring, which was probably one of the last early-season rides I did that still included some snow on the trails. This week I rode through the first scraps of late-fall snow at the top of Giant's Head, which I've been riding nearly daily. Oh yeah, and I decided to sell my forks.

Filming Friends

Over a year ago, my friend and co-worker Jim invited us to the premiere of his short film, Tomorrow's Memoir. Now it is online at iFilm, where you can watch the whole thing. It's dark and intense, with excellent cinematography and amazing attention to detail.

Meanwhile, it sounds like Angelo's feature-length adaptation of his award-winning Flickering Blue script is rolling toward development. Go Joe!

Trev

I love the internet. How else would I get to see new photos of Trev and follow along on his trip around the world? This is the Trev I knew in 1996.

Tannis Orr

Tannis is playing hockey this year on a local women's team. She beat me to it! Her friend Ally joined up too, and it sounds like the first practice was great.

Peat Bog

This was from a couple of weeks ago already, but I wanted to keep these links. I did some more trail exploration around Penticton before our trip and had a great ride at the Peat Bog, which is really in the boonies, but a lot of fun. It also connects to Code 4 and appeared to continue right down into town...but I had to ditch out to climb back up to the car. Oh, for a shuttle on perfect days like that. Both trails (and Knuckleduster) were sort of old-school (1999) aggressive riding, with low plank bridges, little kickers and log rides, most of it on sweet singletrack without too many really steep sections. Great for confidence if the new big-hit trails seem impossible.

Winnipeg Trip

It was a bit disturbing when Tannis figured out that Ivy has been to Manitoba six times in her three years of existence. Twice a year? No wonder we never have the time or money to go anywhere else. Anyway, we spent about a week on the prairies and unfortunately (fortunately for loyal readers?) I don't have the energy to recount all of the mundane details. I took no notes and we mostly took terrible photos or none at all of the nicest places and experiences. So it goes...

The weather in Manitoba was fantastic -- sunny, warm and not too windy -- so we spent a surprising amount of time outside enjoying parks like La Barriere and Crescent Park in the city. We got to lounge on the grass at Larry and Pearl's a few times, pretending that it was August instead of October.

Greg and Sophie took me out to Gimli for the day a couple of days after we flew in. Greg and I explored Winnipeg Beach and drank beer and solved the world's problems in the sunshine at Sophie's Mom's cute little cottage nearby. Absolutely idyllic out there -- I had no idea how nice it was. Greg and I hooked up a couple of other times, which was good for my soul.

We also spent a glorious afternoon at Cedarwood for the Hildebrandt Hoot -- somehow managed to go canoeing, play football, and have conversations with a dozen or so wonderful relatives who I don't get to see often. This is the extended family including all of my grandma's siblings and their kids/grandkids/great-grandkids, so there were almost a hundred people there, all with family-tree coded nametags to help us figure out who was who.

Being over the Thanksgiving holiday, the trip was pretty family focused overall. Larry and Pearl were amazing hosts (as usual) and they had all of Tannis's Friesen relatives over for a feast on the weekend. Chad and Crystal and their girls were around a few times, to the great joy of our girls (we were happy too, of course). I took Ivy and Ella out to Niverville for the Hiebert clan's shindig the next day -- it was chaos with little kids everywhere, but it was good to catch up with the gang again. The next morning my Grandma made waffles and borscht for brunch, and my parents and Aunt Carol joined us as well.

My social circle has certainly shrunk in Manitoba -- I suppose time and distance have had their predictable effects on old friendships. Plett and Heather treated us to an excellent supper on Tuesday night, after Plett and I hung out around town for the afternoon. Felt bizarre to be back in Rosenort. I was out in Sanford a couple of times to hang out with Milt and Carla, and even got to ride Milt's CRF450 on his track...unfortunately managed to bang up my foot after getting sideways off a jump, but stomping my boot down was better than crashing. Still limping today.

Aside from all that, I failed miserably in trying to catch up on my homework and didn't manage to fit in any exercising at all. We did manage to fight off colds the whole time, but we all seem to be in recovery mode today, napping away most of the afternoon and staying pretty close to home. It's pretty nice to have a few days to unwind before diving back into work.

Last Weekend in September

We're finally getting our usual warm September weather and everyone seems to be taking advantage of it after weeks of cool and wet. This photo is a semi-cheesy self-timer shot on one of my rides on Rattlesnake Mountain -- I've been mostly riding by myself, so I don't have any other recent photos of me on my bike.

This morning I made pancakes and then later on I hiked out to our favourite spot on the Trans-Canada Trail with Ivy and Ella while Tannis climbed her bike up Conkle Mountain above us. She joined us for a pizza picnic before walking back with us.

This afternoon I explored the Riddle Road trail network near Penticton. It was truly beautiful in there, with views across the lake to Giant's Head, a bubbling creek and lots of big old ponderosa pines. The trails were mostly mellow singletrack with easy climbs and simple, fun descents. As soon as I got back, we all went up to Scherzinger and had some wine, grapes (picked from vines above our heads) and cheese on the patio. Meanwhile, Tannis had lasagna roll-ups baking in the oven -- good livin'.

Yesterday we enjoyed the sparkly autumn water at the beach -- it's getting pretty chilly, but still nice enough to swim a bit...and we felt somewhat guilty for not helping my folks move into their winter rental home. We brought food for everyone later in a lame attempt to make ammends.

We've also been marvelling at the fall crops coming in, especially the pumpkins and apples (apparently a bumper crop this year). And finally, two random shots of Ivy from the last few days: riding her bike in the curling rink with her Puddle Jumpers friends, and trying some field hockey at the toddler park.