I couldn’t ride in the bike relay this weekend, but managed to fit in a bike trip up 37 Mile Creek. I was slated to ride the relay, but Asheya asked me to bow out given her prelabour signs, concerned about how far away I’d be, how long I’d be away, and having no prearranged, guaranteed assistance looking after the kids.

Fortunately for me, her sister was able to help for a few hours this weekend, so I at least got in a good ride closer to home. 37 Mile Creek is accessed between the Takhini River Bridge and Kusawa Lake Road (about 30 minutes from Whitehorse). It’s a 35km roundtrip, traverses some very pretty open country…

…and ends at a tranquil lake.

As you head up, the mountains on your left are another hike called Stony Creek. Elias and I hiked up that way last year (quite a feat for a two year old!), yielding very nice views over “the Zucchini River” and valley, as he would say.

The route was buggy in sections, and my dog Luna had a hard time on the downhill return (age plus an inactive winter taking their toll). But we still managed to start at 1:00pm and get back in time for dinner and a show with Asheya.

All in all, it was a very nice pre-Father’s Day day!

Since the end of October (2008), gymnastics has been one of the great passions in my life. There’s an adult/TEEN drop-in at our Whitehorse facility on Wednesday nights, and a family drop-in on Sunday afternoon. So through a combination of watching the other regulars flip, and doing some internet study, I’ve gotten as far as shown in this video (full size video here), which I put together for the fun of my family (Eowyn asks/demands, “Muh?! Muh?!” every time it finishes playing, and I have to restart it for her):

I tried to begin gymnastics twice in high school (the first after being inspired by the Olympics and stretching my inflexible body all summer long), but was never able to pursue it more than a few weeks (for example, broken leg in an unrelated activity). So this year is a great fulfillment.

Last week was supposed to be the last drop-in, but it’s been kindly extended, so long as we continue to get 20+ people. So come on out and join the flipping fun!

PS: Did you spot Elias’ cameo in the video?

1. Elias said, “‘We’ll see’ is like ‘ByTheShoeStore’.”
   (I didn’t catch the last word(s) the first time. Interested to see where he was headed, I waited for him to repeat himself, which he did, and sure enough, it was “ByTheShoeStore”. Then I made the connection: “Oh,” I said, “‘She sells sea shells by the sea shore!’”)
2. When talking about the new baby soon to arrive, I told Elias, “You’ll always be my first born child.” He asked, “But what if I died?” I assured him, “You’ll always be my first born child. And don’t worry, you have a long, long life ahead of you.”

A couple of funny things Elias has said recently:

1. “It’s fun when I drink water, because the water gets to go down a slide into my tummy.” (Or close to that. I asked him who said that, wondering if he overheard it, and he said, “I said it.” Fair enough.)
2. “Elk is like Elk-ohol.” (This was said at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve. He really enjoys finding rhyming connections between words and phrases.)

After waiting all winter, and working with Asheya’s medical issues, I finally got out hiking. From Skagway, Alaska, there’s a hike that leaves right from town, up past Lower Dewey Lake to Upper Dewey Lake and the Devil’s Punchbowl.

I enjoyed the water that was everywhere. It cascaded and gushed, ran and flowed into lakes, streams, rivers, and waterfalls.

Water Everywhere

This hike reminded me a lot of Wedgemount Lake near Whistler. Very vertical, up through the trees directly to a lake nestled in a mountain cirque. The Devil’s Punchbowl is nearby, with another pretty tarn (alpine lake).

The elevation gain to the top of the peak I climbed above the Devil’s Punchbowl (seen in the second photo below) was about 5000 ft–a lot more vertical than most other hikes, so gives a good workout. It’s about a 14km roundtrip, and took me 4 hours up, 2 hours back, including breaks.

View From Upper Dewey Lake

Upper Dewey Lake; I Climbed the Rightmost Peak

View From Peak; You Can See Skagway at Left

An eagle was flying around at the top, and I heard some peeping a few feet from where I was climbing. I made the obvious conclusion and didn’t search out the source of the noise, though seeing eaglets would have been neat.

As for other animals, can you see the animal shape in the photo below?

Can You See The Animal Shape?

Better than that, on the road I did see a total of

• 2 porcupines
• 1 fox
• 5 bears

Dandelion Bear

If you might want to participate on future hikes, send me your e-mail address and I’ll send you notice of some of my hikes in case you’re available and interested.

Bread: not an adventurous topic, but a staple ingredient in many lives. Being part English and all Canadian, I like bread and eat a piece or two most days. As I washed my breadpan this evening, I decided I wanted to share a strategy with you.

A couple of years ago, after enjoying the fresh, home-made bread at Asheya’s parents’ house, we decided to look into breadmakers. We crunched the numbers, and came to this conclusion: by investing a couple of minutes per loaf, we would be eating healthier (no preservatives), better tasting (so much better!) bread, and the monetary investment would pay itself off over about one year. So we’d start saving money over storebought bread for every day the breadmaker survived past one year.

We bought the same breadmaker as her parents had, a West Bend, horizontal, dual kneader (sorry, couldn’t find a specific model number), since from firsthand experience it was guaranteed to produce excellently risen loaves with a perfect taste. (My prior history with fresh bread was almost always yeasty, which is not the case with this breadmaker and accompanying recipes.)

We keep it downstairs so the noise doesn’t bother us. My job is to wash the pan (30 seconds) and put it on the counter. Asheya throws in the ingredients (less than 1 minute). I take it down and press “Start” (30 seconds). I carry it up 3.5 hours (or so) later and shake it onto our cutting board (30 seconds). And the whole family enjoys fresh bread for 1-3 days!

Our favorite creations are whole wheat bread, white bread, oat bread, pizza dough, cinnamon buns, …

So if you’ve never thought of making your own bread, and want to give it a try, Christmas isn’t too far away for an early present…