British Columbia - Day 4
A day to remember; the day I nearly got myself killed.

We got up nice and early in an attempt to play catch-up for lost time from yesterday. The day started with a canoe trip between two lakes. The river was narrow and windy, and initially not terribly interesting. Then, a several glacial runs merged in. The water from them was extremely frigid and had a distinctive milky appearance. Of course, the water also sped up. When we got to the destination lake (Green Lake), the view was remarkable; a huge lake surrounded by mountains. This was the good part of the day.

Late afternoon was spent downhill mountain biking. We rented really expensive mountain bikes that put the Ottawa definition to complete shame. They had a full suspension, heavy frame, and best of all, disc brakes. My test was to take it over a curb. I felt nothing... totally smooth.

We bought lift passes and took the bikes up. This is where the day started getting crappy. A quarter of the way down my first run, the front tire blew. I had to walk this heavy bike all the way down, losing precious time. I got another bike, and went up. The ride down was awesome, like skiing but more fun, with mud and all.

For the last run, I thought I could go beyond the green and blue, and try a black diamond (A-line). At the start of the run they had a test jump to show what could be expected. I had absolutely no problem with the test. So, I started going down. On the first real jump, however, things went very badly. I flipped 180 degrees and landed flat on my back on sharp rocks. I was rather afraid, seeing as I couldn't move for a few seconds. This was right under the lift, and as I lay there, some guy going up asked if he should get help. My response was: "I really don't know yet!" With extreme pain, I got up and took the rest of the run really slowly. I was extremely lucky; that was a narrow-miss spinal. My helmet gained a couple of deep scars. My back is one gigantic scratch. I can hardly walk. But the damage is all muscular, no bones.

We went to a nice restaurant afterwards, right next to the mountain, called the GLC. There was a live band. Some of the best nachos I've ever had.