Pro I got to have a sleep-in, because I was doing the Yamnuska Leading on Ice course today.
Con Our Jeep still isn’t working, so I had to leave the house early to cycle to the Yamnuska Office.
Pro Riding around town is always fun, and it was fairly warm this morning.
Con I arrived at the offices at 8am (as it instructed on the email I got) and everyone else had apparently been there since 7.30, and they’d been having a pre-course briefing.
Pro I got to carpool with a nice Japanese girl.
Con The other car which held the other three people doing the course, and the guide, quickly disappeared. So much for a convey – oh well, at least he told us where we were going, and we can hopefully remember how to get there.
Con We realised after we pass Dead Man’s Flats that the car would not have enough fuel to get to King Creek and back.
Con Exshaw petrol station doesn’t open til 10am on Sunday.
Con When I phone the guide to let him know we’ll be late, it goes straight to voicemail. Damn.
Con We end up driving back to Canmore again just for fuel, as it’s now the closest place that will be open.
Con The car will now not go into gear, and is not going anywhere any time soon.
Pro At least we’re stuck in Canmore, rather than anywhere further afield.
Con Get voicemail again when try phoning guide again. Leave message. Get voicemail at Yamnuska too.
Con Where we want to go is too far for any of the cab companies.
Con The rental car places are closed on Sunday.
Con Cannot find anyone with a car I could borrow.
Pro Having walked back to the Yamnuska offices, they are toasty and warm. I wander round inside and yell to see if anyone is there.
Con There is noone there.
Pro If I was a thief I could steal lots of good things.
Con I am not a thief.
Pro It is snowing pretty fat flakes, and I decide to ride to the Canmore Junkyards – it is Sunday, maybe there will be people I know there.
Pro I look around and take photos at the Junkyards.
Con I do not climb at the Junkyards.
Pro Cycling in the snow is fun!
Con I go back along the powerlines, where there is ice underneath the snow. The ice is less fun, and on a downhill section I lose the back end of my bike and land knee first on the ice.
Con My knee hurts rather a lot.
Con I have trouble walking now, and cannot bend my knee to ride.
Pro Nice men from the power company give me a lift in their truck.
Con My knee has an increasingly large bloody lump on it.
Pro The snow is pretty to watch outside the window, and is handy for putting inside a bag to ice my knee with. And I have brownies.
(Grade subject to revision depending on how this knee injury turns out… and I would love some studded tyres to help with the ice problems, but they weren’t really in the budget… hmm.)