It's always dark when we get there. Traffic is usually tough because we leave during rush hour. But it's always fun, and sometimes even warm. Our contingent was comprised of 2 youth and 2 leaders (The Bishop and I). The sky was cloudy and bright from the reflection of Calgary's lights, and there was snow on the ground already. We found a spot to pitch our tarp in the trees where the snow hadn't reached. We thought we were pretty careful about blocking the wind, but it still managed to get in. It didn't matter much though. Our sleeping bags were warm.

Man on the Mountain is an annual event hosted by the Calgary East Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This year's event was held at the River Cove group camp just West of McLean Creek in the Kananaskis Provincial Park. It's on highway 66, just Southwest of Bragg Creek, Alberta.

We've had the event in past years in March. The theory is that March is close to spring and therefore should be warmer. The reality is that almost every time, we have to deal with -30 degrees Celsius nights. So it was moved to November. This year it's November 2nd and 3rd. There's usually a conflict with something. Some years, it's been with Christmas parties. This year, it conflicts with the hunting season. That's why the Young Men's president didn't join us.

Dinner for me was chicken stir-fry. I sliced up a chicken breast at home and put it in a bag with soy sauce and curry powder. I had another bag with rice and another with vegetables (ginger, garlic, red pepper, cabbage). I cooked it up in a small fry pan on a propane stove: chicken first - until browned, then the vegetables, then the rice. It was perfect. The others brought tin-foil dinners that they put on the coals of the fire. The challenge is to get there, get the fire started for coals, set up a shelter, and cook and eat dinner before the 9:00 fireside. That's usually tough.

Stake President Dudley spoke to us at the fireside about Joseph Smith's first vision. Afterward, we had skits and songs. I did the song, "Hello, my name is Joe." There's a version of it on youtube. Bishop Leavitt organized a skit called "Too Tired to Move." I've listed it at the bottom of the posting.

Our Area Commissioner, Wayne Gosche, asked if I would take pictures of the event and organize a slide show to present to other Group Commissioners. So most of my focus during the event was on that. But first, I had to cook breakfast.

We had about 60 people for breakfast. I did up a few batches of pancakes. I included some frozen berries in some batches and we also had sausages and juice. Everyone was full. Almost too full for lunch.

The morning was spent on training. The boys were organized into 5 groups. Each group went through a station to learn some aspect of orienteering. One station taught the points of the compass, others focused on maps, and the last ones on taking and following bearings. My brother, Brad, and I diverted our attention to finding some deer that he sighted. I got a fuzzy picture of one of their backsides as they bounded away. They were well hidden and I could barely discover them with my 300mm zoom lens.

After the training, they divided the youth again into groups of 4. They were assigned staggered start times for the main event. Then we had lunch. That's when we also took some time to break camp. The boys amused themselves with a snowball fight and a tug-o-war.

For the main event, they needed to follow a series of trails given to them as only compass bearings. Things were a bit crazy at first because the initial bearings were distorted by about 32 degrees. Once they found the mistake, they were able to account for it, but it still made for a long event. The team that won was comprised of just scouts.

When it was time to leave, we decided to go further West to Elbow Falls. We hiked the trails and played by the river for a couple of hours before going home. Overall, it was an enjoyable camp.

TOO TIRED TO MOVE

Cast: a family of hillbillies: Ma, Pa, Jethro and Jim Bob
The family of Hillbillies are lazing around and speaking wearily. A Mournful coyote howl is heard throughout the conversation.
Pa: Hey, Ma, what's that awful sound?
Ma: Don't Know.
Pa: Go see what it is, I'm too tired to move.
Ma: Hey Jethro, what's that awful sound I hear?
jethro: Don't rightly know Ma.
Ma: Will you go see what it is? I'm jes' too tired to move.
Jethro: hey Jim-Bob, what's that awful sound we're hearin'?
Jim-Bob: Ah don' know either.
Jethro: Go check it out will ya?
Jim Bob slowly gets up, looks out, ambles back: "It's nothin' but a coyote sittin on a cactus. I guess he's jes' too tired to move!"

I've thought a lot about the backpacking trip, and how much easier it could have been. I got the opportunity recently to join a running group at work. We're starting from scratch to learn to run. Frank Vandongen is leading the group. We started with 1 and 1's (run 1 minute, walk 1 minute) and we'll be building up to 10 and 1's. As of this writing, we're at 6.

So far, I feel really good. Victoria has joined me in running too. During the weekdays, I run at work and she runs in the afternoon or evening. On the Saturdays, we run together.

My immediate goal is to run the Santa Shuffle on the 1st of December, and the Resolution Run on the 31st. After that, I'll see what other runs interest me. Mostly, I want to be able to backpack with strength and endurance.

The adventure started Friday night, August 31st, when we put into the Bow River at 17th Ave SE, just downstream of the Calgary Weir. We had loaded up some borrowed canoes from a neighboring scout group, as well as one that I had just purchased second-hand. In all, there were 10 of us. We had planned for 12, but two of the group dropped out. So with 5 canoes and fading light, we set off toward our evening destination: a set of islands just south of the 22X highway.

From August 2nd to the 4th, the East Stake Venturers backpacked the Ribbon Creek trail and Galatea Creek trail. The leaders were Jim Judd, Don McAllister, John Greep, Frieso Pouwer, and Brian Judd. The youth that came were Mike, Cam, Alan, Cody, Jimmy, Matt, and Nick

Day 1 (Thursday)