Surgery is done...

Surgery went well. It took a couple of hours, no issues there. However, Trey feels pretty sick and is in pain. But I'm sure in a few days he will be feeling much better.

We are in the Holiday Inn in North Vancouver for the next couple of days.

Trey's surgery is underway. The surgeon came out to greet us and let Trey know that after review of the CT, the break was worse than originally thought. He said that he planned to use a type of cement along with the plate and screws. Trey has been confident that he would be weight barring in a few days but the surgeon told us no weigh for 6-8 weeks!! Trey wants to do follow-up with the surgeon in two weeks. So, the plan is to stay here until then. After that I have no idea what the plan will be…

Anyways, the surgery is scheduled to take an hour and a half. We rented a hotel for the next couple of nights so Trey can sleep off anesthetic and so he can rest easy knowing that I’m not going to wreck the camper. J

Thanks everyone for your kind thoughts and offers. Don’t be surprised when we show up on your door step to take you up on them. I’ll write something up tonight after surgery and let you all know how things went.

Joey is very worried and keeps sniffing Trey’s knee. I told Joey we had to go to the Vet because Trey has worms. That got a chuckle out of Trey.

Sorry for choppy writing, didn’t get much sleep last night.

Trey and I hooked up yesterday at the RiversEdge in Whistler. I thought it might be a good idea because they have cable and Internet. I don't want Trey to get cabin fever just yet.
 Jamie, Derick, and Michelle are suppose to be here at some point today so Trey will get to see new faces other than mine. Last night we got to skype with Ben and Fawn and also Mattheiu. It lifts Trey's spirit to be able to talk with friends so if you have skype hop on and give us a call. If you don't have skype, get it, its free and you don't have to use video...we can't use ours here anyhow because the connection is not strong enough. Our skype name is "Claytreehouse"
He is hanging in there. The nights have been the worst as the pain really gets to him.

Talk to ya'll soon. Nat

Kill the Birdie

Friendly new neighbor. Oh, and just wondering does anyone have a slingshot? Or a smoke bomb?

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt...Trey

Well, I guess it was inevitable. One or two of us would be getting hurt here in Whistler. However, it is Trey’s turn. Trey, was riding Canadian Open on Friday when after a hip gap he lost traction and put his foot down to save himself from the fall and fractured his Tibia. He is going in for Surgery on Thursday. We will be available on Skype Tuesday for sure. (Skype name “Claytreehouse”) We have a very limited text plan. If you text we may not text back. Email will be the best bet…

okay, so this  is the drop area...but me going off the first drop...I hope to get photos of the second drop at some point.

CrankitupNatty 002

Making friends

Trey and I have been having a great time in Whistler. We have been staying mostly in Function Junction, about 6 miles south of Whistler. People use to be able to stay in parking lot four and five until this year where they now have a rule of no overnight camping in your vehicle. Sleeping in our camper in the Whistler parking lot was our plan. We talk to some folks who told us about an overflow parking lot from the Olympics in Function Junction. So, every morning we pack things up and head to Whistler. It hasn’t been too big a deal but Function Junction has nothing, really, except newly built homes. The other night we were driving back to the parking lot and I said “man, we need to meet some locals and make some friends.” Sure enough we pulled into the lot and in the far back corner was a bon fire and a group of people. Before we had even parked our camper we were greeted by Dylan, who invited us to hang out by the fire and celebrate the summer solstice. Throughout the night more and more people from the neighborhood showed up. Just about everyone there at some point during conversation would tell us about the hockey rink they all took part in building that winter in the parking lot with the help of the local fire department coming in and hosing 800 gallons of water! Everyone also told us that parking in “their” lot was a very smart idea since now Whistler is charging and not letting people sleep in their cars. Very friendly and fun bunch of people. The next morning we woke to Dylan, yelling out Trey’s name to go for a bike ride. So, they went I hung out and kept my legs fresh for the woman’s mountain bike clinic held that evening.

This brings me to my next topic. This week was the start of the woman’s clinics at Whistler. I went Monday night and Wednesday night. From those two lessons and the one private lesson I took last week, I may soon make the transitions on A-Line, maybe. Trey helped me in the intermediate drop zone and I cleared all three drops. Last night with the woman’s clinic we were in the Joyride jump zone and I cleared the second drop. Something that for years has looks WAY too scary. Luck me Trey just happen to be riding by so I got to tell him about it while still beaming from the rush. I have some goals this summer. I would like to clear the middle GLC and roll the A-line drop, and stop being such a big baby. So far, I’m off to a good start. Just about every instructor has told me the same thing, I “need to be more aggressive” on my bike. I have been working on inner aggressiveness but it really just feels silly. I guess all my tattoos can’t hide my true spirit while riding my bike.

ZipTrek!

I have been making the five hour drive up to Whistler from Olympia for the last eight years and I have only done a hand full of things, mainly mountain biking. Every year I come up here and say the same thing, “we should really try out some of the other things there are to do around here.” But, alas, we arrive at one of the greatest mountain biking Mecca’s known to man and the focus narrows down to three things, mountain biking, eating, and sleep. And if we could figure out how to eat and sleep at the same time in order to mountain bike more, we would.

 Trey and I are here earlier in the season than typical which is cool because we have been able to see the construction of the “Bone Yard,” under the lifts. However, being in the Pacific Northwet there is still a considerable amount of rainy days. One might think that Trey and I would venture out and do some of the other things that there are to do here in Whistler but instead we choose to pout and complain, that is until last weekend when my friend Michelle came for a visit. Michelle came up for a short trip, up on Friday back down on Sunday, leaving Saturday to play all day. Saturday morning we woke to the sounds of rain hammering the camper and all thoughts of mountain biking were off and Michelle and I made plans to do something out side of my box, which by the way is shaped more like a crank set. We went for a little zipline adventure through the mountains here in Whistler. For those of you unfamiliar with ziplining, it involves wearing a harness and being attached to a cable and flinging through the air at high speeds. Now, I have seen these ziplining folks while on my mountain bike and have said in the past, “I should really try that here sometime.” I have zipline once before while on a family vacation with Trey in Costa Rica. It was a blast shooting through the canopy and seeing exotic birds as we all stood waiting our turn to zip.

By the time Michelle and I had signed up for the zip the rain had eased up and all that was left was a slight chill. We took a ten minute van ride up the Blackcomb mountain and hiked a short distance to our first zip. There were five zips total. The fourth zip was the length of two Eiffel Towers. All the zips were long and very high in the air going over a raging river. Michelle and I took photos and video of this fine day. The last clip I managed to video and flip upside down. I even included a little dance to keep interest high. Hope you all enjoy the video and I would say “as much as we enjoyed the zip” but that is not possible.

Ziptrek, Whistler B C

I have used one of my nine lives today.

I went for a trail run today and out of the corner of my eye I saw something charging me. As I turned my head to see what it was a bear had lunged out of a bush and landed about a foot away from my right side. He let out a loud huff and I jumped about 3 feet into the air and let out a high pitched scream, startling the bear back. I took off in a sprint. Super paranoid I continued to let out screams in order to alert any other bears that I might come in contact with. My planned run was an out an back. There was no chance in hell I was going to run back through bear territory. F that! So I ran and ran and ran and ran until things started to look familiar. Running into the bear only took me one mile off track and caused my leisure trail run to be a trail/tempo run. That's some kind of training program

Whistler!

We made it to Whistler B.C. Sunday morning. Rode all day yesterday and part of today. Conditions have been just about perfect.

Yesterday morning Trey and I stood at the bottom of the lift before our first run and had a quick conversation about the fact that I needed new elbow pads. The question was, "should I get them now or do just a warm up run and then buy some." As most of you probably already know the answer to that question. First day, first run, first crash with my forearm being the first thing to hit the ground.

 yep

So, now I have the pleasure of putting on armor over my scabs...feels soooo good!

FYI: We have no phone...Text will be the best way to reach us or email.