News

Hi. How are you? Life is really good with me. Like, really good. I'm just really, extraordinarily happy right now. Not because of anything in particular, but rather because of a combination of smaller things that have happened or are happening in the future.

Things that have happened since I last blogged:

The Wizard of Oz. I auditioned for a large community theatre production of The Wizard of Oz. The audition went really well, I thought, and weeks later, I found out that I had a callback. Went to the callbacks, and then the waiting began. The day that my dad and I (and two good friends of ours) left on a backpacking trip, I got a text from my mom saying "call me!". I called home, and found out that the director had called, and I was cast as the Tin Man! You guys, you have NO idea how excited I am! It's 16 shows in December in the largest theatre I've ever performed in (it's got a balcony!). I guess this show is kind of this years "huge annual Christmas family show" so it's usually sold out and really popular and stuff. It'll be great. Tragically, the man who was supposed to direct it suddenly passed away, but the assistant director has stepped in to direct and the show is going ahead. This may sound silly, but I'm also pretty excited to do WoO because when I was younger, The Wizard of Oz was actually a really big part of my life. I was kind of obsessed with it for a number of years, and when I was probably about 9, I had this big elaborate plan to mount my own production of The Wizard of Oz. I had the script ready, I'd contacted many of my friends to be in the production, and had double-cast myself as both the Wicked Witch of the West and the Tin Man. To this day, I still don't know how I thought I could manage that. :D But it's kind of cool, years later, to be indeed be playing the Tin Man in a much bigger productions (we're going to have flying monkeys that fly, people!).

Backpacking. As I mentioned, I went backpacking with a friend of mine from Scouts, his dad, and my dad. Great trip. We didn't have the best weather for the hike we wanted to do, and consequently had to change our plans a bit, but it was still a great trip. Backpacking is amazing and I look forward to many more trips.

The Fringe. I had the pleasure of being part of the Fringe festival this year in a show that I wrote the music in. (I think I've mentioned it before. One of my friends "concieved it" and wrote the book, then another friend of ours wrote the lyrics and I wrote the music). We got good reviews (my first ever reviews!!) and our last shows were sold out. We even made some money! Hurray!

I got my learner's license. Finally.

I also have applied for 5 jobs and haven't heard back from any of them. That's an achievement, right?

My most recent big news is that I'm going to school this year. Which is a big change for me, since I've been homeschooled my entire life. The school I'm going to allows lots of flexibility, and is self-directed. I can work at my own pace, and I don't have to "sit in a classroom", but I likely will have to be there (I haven't got my time-table yet) for regular school hours. It's crazy, but strangely, I'm really, really excited. It'll be a change, which will be nice. Not that I was unhappy homeschooling by ANY stretch, quite the contrary, but I was just looking for a change of pace, change of scene and a good way to get these courses done. And I'm taking French, and possibly Italian and Spanish, so I'm very excited about that! It just feels really right for me at this point in my life.

Lots more has happened, but this is long enough for today. :)

This summer has been fabulous, but I'm looking forward to jumping into new adventures. And I'm looking forward to blogging again!

I don't know if anybody reads this blog anymore, but if you do-thanks! If you read that entire post, survived, and are still planning on reading my blog, you rock and I love you.

Take care,
Dan

Jasper part 4/4- Geradine Lakes

This is the final post in a four part series about my hiking/camping trip to Jasper. You can read part one here, part two here, and part three here.

So, on our last day of hiking, we went up on the Geraldine Lakes trail. I've done a little bit of hiking on it before, and it's just gorgeous.

A view of the first lake.

 

 And a view from higher up.
 

We stopped for lunch by the base of a beautiful waterfall.

 

My feet were starting to get sore (thank you plantars fasciitis), so I stuck my feet in the ice cold mountain creek. 

 

I loved watching all the fish in the lakes. Just ask anybody who was there or anyone who has travelled with me. I'm pretty obsessed with fish-watching. 

Look below: It's a fish!

Another shot of the waterfall from further away.

 

 Kind of a wacky shot of a the lake, from a different angle. I happened to catch a dragonfly in the photo, which adds a certain element of quirky character to the photo.

So that's it! The end of this "series" of posts. I hope you enjoyed reading about my trip. It was a really great trip. I hiked over 30 kilometers and gained over 1600 meters of elevation. And best of all, I had time to think, reflect and appreciate our world. 

Thanks for reading.

Jasper part 3/4- Mt. Edith Cavell

So, that night, the Venturers arrived (all except one, who came the next day). The next morning, we set off to Mt. Edith Cavell, a merry group of seven.

Our plan was to hike up the main trail, up to the top of the "Cavell Meadows" which offer great views of Mt. Edith Cavell (we weren't actually climbing the mountain). Here's a look at the Angel Glacier, which is the "icon" for Mt. Edith Cavell.

 

A couple of the boys.

The view from the first viewpoint.

 

My dad has this little plush penguin that he takes hiking and uses for scale photos. Here's a loverly photo. of Monsignor Penguin (not real name)

 

And after a steep climb, we're at the top of the meadows!
 

At the bottom of the glacier, there's this pond/lake with all these ice chunks that fall off the glacier.
 

And that's all for today! Hope you enjoyed! 

Jasper part 2/4- Athabasca

So, on the second day, my dad and I decided to hike up to a little cliff that he calls "Little Athabasca". He calls it that because it has a great view of the wonderful Mt. Athabasca.

The photo below is a picture of my finger pointing to the cliff that we hiked up. I'm standing beside our car in the Columbia Icefields parking lot, and we hiked the rest of the way.

Here is close up of the cliff.

 

My dad hiking up. What you see in the photo is average terrain, and no, there wasn't really a path.

  

The wonderful Mt. Athabasca

 

There were some climbers coming down from Athabasca. Inspiring! I took some photos of them through my binoculars.

 

This is the stuff we were climbing up for the last part till the very top.

 

And without further ado- the view from the top.

A cool rock I found with a hole in it. No, I didn't take it home (it's a National Park)

Gotta love snow patches in summer.

 

I love the plant life that survives in the mountains way up high. Don't you sometimes feel like you're all alone in the wilderness?

 

  

The pictures just don't do it justice. It was just incredible. I'll probably post more photos from this hike, as it was so good. I think it was the best hike I've ever done.

Jasper part 1/4- Wilcox Pass

Hey everyone,

So, as you probably know, I got back from six days of camping and hiking in the Rocky Mountains (Jasper area). I went for a three day camp with my Venturer company, and my dad and I went three days early to do some extra hiking.

Below are some photos.

The first day, we hiked about 12 kms (with about 400 meters of elevation gain) in Wilcox Pass.

There was a herd of 11 bighorn sheep in the pass

 And down below, we visited Horseshoe Lake which is one of my favourite little lakes in the Rockies. It's very beautiful ( and really deep and full of fish!). Actually it's deep enough that people like to go to a little cliff ledge and jump in, just for kicks. We saw a whole bus load of people in swim suits going to jump into the water. It was pretty funny.

More to come tomorrow.

Gone camping!

Hello my lovely blogging buddies.

I'm going camping and hiking with my Venturer group, and  so I'm leaving today for the mountains! Actually, our camp officially starts on Thursday, but my dad and I are going a few days early to get some extra hiking in beforehand. Once the rest of the Venturers arrive, we're going to be doing some long dayhikes in the mountains, and just getting more experience camping in the mountains. I'll be back on Sunday. Meanwhile, I've got some posts written that are scheduled to be posted while I'm gone. I'll try to have one written for everyday that I'm gone, but we'll see.

Take care everyone!

Camping, mountains…

I just got back from camping in the mountains. It was a really great vacation. It’s been said hundreds of times before, but there really is something about the mountains that is so rejuvenating, awe-inspiring, spiritually-provoking, or something. It gave me a lot of time to think and read, and I’m thankful for that. We did a whole bunch of hiking and saw some incredible views. It was seriously breathtaking. I feel like it was just what I needed. Now my challenge is: How can I better appreciate all the beauty and goodness that is all around me?

Sunday morning walk

Went for a walk this morning in the woods. Perfect weather and not that many mosquitoes out. Took some photos of some wildflowers. There were so many blooming!

Some anemones.


More anemones.
Saskatoon.


Wild rose.And then we heard this chirping. We looked up and established that the chirping was coming from a small hole in the tree. It was woodpecker chicks! We waited around and sure enough, an adult woodpecker came and fed the young. I didn't get a video of the feeding, but I got a video with the chicks making a racket and the adult hopping on the tree and then flying away. Sorry about the poor lighting and quality in the video...



I also saw an Oriole!

And then I found a geocache. It was an easy hide, but still satisfying. I took a travel bug, left a travel bug and continued.

So that was a little report of our little adventure. I hope you enjoyed it!

a Sunday morning walk

We went for a walk today in a favourite recreational area out of town. Its a gorgeous place to walk, and you can often see wildlife. Its also especially great for seeing frogs, which makes it pretty great by me!


Most people don't think a pond like this is nice, but to me it is paradise. I sat there, all alone for about ten minutes. The Boreal Chorus Frogs and the Wood Frogs were calling, but when I got close, they all stopped. I sat down, and soon, hesitantly, they started chirping again.

Check out the colour of green. It looked better in real life, but it was beautiful, so bright and alive. I love ponds.
This is my favourite place to look for frogs. You can hear the Boreal Chorus Frogs chirping away loudly (they sound similar to when you run your fingers along the teeth of a comb.

I saw this cute little caterpiller.


When I poked it by accident, it curled up into a little ball. Adorable.
A Compton's Tortoiseshell butterfly that I saw.

We took a break in the little shelter. Thats my dog, Mozart, who is taking a break. We wore him out. You should have seen him on the drive home! He was pooped.

The leaves are coming out!

Some pretty little wood violets.


Check this out! Its a little pollen fluff suspended across the path by a practically invisible spider web.

My dad, being a bryologist, insisted that I take a picture of a moss. So here it is. And for your info, the species is Orthotrichum Speciosum


So that is my report of our Sunday morning adventure. It was pretty superb.