It is already mid May, and I am getting ready for yet another
training season. For those who, like me, have visited the CCC website many
times in the last month waiting for the training center and national team
nomination list to come up, you are probably aware of my plan for next year.
For those who are not, the big news is that I will be moving to Thunder Bay to
join the National Development Center! Even though the decision was somewhat
difficult, I am confident that it is the best place for me to be at this stage
in my skiing career. Other good
news is that I have been nominated to the Senior National Development Team!
During the last month and a half I have been keeping myself
busy with things other than skiing. For me, the month of April, which skiers
refer to as “off month” is the time to switch my focus off of competing and
training and have fun doing things I would normally not do. After nationals, I
gave my body a well needed rest and focused on the large pile of school work
that had accumulated over the past month. Although this does not exactly
qualify as “fun”, it felt good to switch my focus onto something else. I also
took advantage of the amazing spring skiing in the Gatineau Park. I even went
skiing with my dad on April 12th and the conditions were great.
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| With my dad on April 12th |
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| A couple of days later, the skiing was not so good |
Other than that, Emilie and I went on weekend hiking trip in
Lake Placid, New York a couple of weeks ago. We had already been hiking in the
Adirondacks region about 16 times and climbed most of the peaks but we had never
been backpacking. So, to change things up, we planned a route where we could
camp overnight in the middle. We were both seeking a true adventure, and we
were not disappointed. As any adventure goes, some things did not work out as
we planned. This partially had to do with our lack of said planning- which was
done at the very last minute.
That being said, we were already a little behind schedule when
we departed on Friday afternoon in our Sienna mini-van. About 100m before we
arrived at the border to the US, we had to turn around due to sign that said:
bridge to the US closed. We had to do a 2 hour detour to get to the next border
crossing and arrived at the campground a little past 10. To make things even
more interesting, the next morning, as we were making breakfast, we realized
that the stove was not working. In my defense, I had tested it out before
leaving and it had worked. After eating
breakfast which consisted of a cliff bar and an apple, we packed up our bags
with all the food that did not need to be cooked and our camping gear and set
out to the trail head. On the first day of hiking, we ran into snow near the
top of the mountain which slowed us down. In some places, we would even sink down
to our hips. To make it a little more challenging, our 40 pound backpacks were
making it quite difficult to balance.
The rest of the weekend went rather smoothly. I enjoyed the
perfect sunny weather, the good company, and the beautiful views. I even
enjoyed my cold dinner of canned tomatoes, coconut milk and chick peas!
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| Walking down steep rock faces with a 40 pound backpack is difficult |
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| Cold curry dinner |
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| A nice day for a dip in a freezing cold waterfall |
As I am writing this, I am on the plane heading to my new
home, Thunder Bay. The last week has been pretty hectic with packing up all my
belongings and writing my 2 last CEGEP exams. Thankfully, two of my new
teammates happened to be in Ottawa and offered to drive some of my gear to
Thunder Bay, thanks Andy and Alannah! That is all for now, I will make sure to
give an update on my upcoming training camps.
Until next time,
Katherine
