Easterns Day 2

Sam Anthony

Well, this should be an interesting blog post, I just spend 2 minutes trying to figure out why the computer kept correcting me when I wrote "Eeasterns". Oh well, here goes.

The day started badly, when my iPod alarm of "Scotland the Brave" didn't go off on time because I had forgotten to change the timezone. Luckily, my late morning caused no problems seeing as our coaches realized from previous trips that we really need two days before a race to practice things like waking up and not getting lost in the parkade. We had an entire day just for pre-skiing, sight-seeing and relaxing. I eventually woke up at 8:20, 10 minutes before breakfast. After finishing our baked oatmeal, packing our skis, finding the vans and blocking the exits from the parkade while Dom ran from van to van using the same ticket to get us out of the gate, we finally got on the road to Nakkertok at about a quarter to 11. We made at least 60% of our exits and eventually got to the racecourse. We drove into the stadium with Cam making loud proclamations on the size of the hill he could see from his window (which we later found out was rather small compared to most of the other hills on the course). Lorne and Joel staked a claim in the wax tent while we put on our boots in the clubhouse (about the size of the one at Windsor, should be fun when all 700 racers registered are there tomorrow). The trails were beautiful; hard-packed, wide, massive hills (up and down), and corners that are fun but not dangerous, at least not today, it might be a different story after 500 skiers have already gone around it.

getting ready to preski

Sam and Levi 

Levi (pictures from dom's gopro)

 After about an hour and a half of skiing we packed away our skis and played with the automatic doors on the van while we waited for the coaches to finish wax-testing and other important race-related things. On the way home we took the scenic route down Sussex drive and Wellington St, we kept our eyes peeled for Stephen Harper, but we only managed to see Sean Carter and his Big Thunder teammates Instagramming in front of the Houses of Parliament. We got back to the hotel, watched "Keeping up with the Kardashians" and "Mantracker" for an hour or so and then a group of about ten of us walked to the Supreme Court and slid down a couple of sketchy snow covered stairs to get to a walking trail along the Outaouais and then to the Ottawa locks and Rideau Canal. We climbed back up to the Houses of Parliament and warmed our hands in front of the Centennial Flame, took some more Instagram pics and walked back for supper.