Howdy world. Well, I suppose I'm breaking some cardinal rule of Las Vegas by writing this post, but lets just say I'll stick to the relatively family friendly aspects of the trip to share with you all. To save you the wondering, yes, I did see 'The Hangover', and yes, things went down a little like that. Not quite to the extreme, but there were some interesting moments for sure. In respect of the code, I'll keep this post short and to the point, and just give you an overview of the whole trip. For a great overview, just click your little fingers over to my flickr site and peruse some pictures and video from the weekend. Then come on back and read the whole sordid tale, including the why, the where and the what.

Wow! I've been so excited and happy with my result in the last Mad Trapper snowshoe race of the season that I couldn't find the time to blog about it! Can you believe that? Well, it's partly true. I thought about writing up the story Saturday afternoon, but that seemed too ambitious. Then, life got in the way for a couple days, but here I am to fill you all in on my winter race-season closing race. As some of you may have already looked at the pictures and/or read Mike's own race report, you've probably heard that I WON first place overall!! No joke! I've looked back on all my race results, and it turns out this is only the 2nd time I win 1st place overall in a race. Last time was in August of 2007! While some of the top guns were not present this time, it was still a hard-fought battle, and I invite you all to read on for the rest of my happy story.

Good evening sports fans! Well, a few days have passed since my last race, so I figured that it was time to fill you all in on my latest athletic endeavour. It was a doozy for me, and something completely new to me. What was this feat you ask? Well, how about the Gatineau Loppet? And what is that you might ask? Well, try on a 53km classic ski race that attracts an International field of competitors for size. Yup, it was certainly a crazy pursuit in my mind, but something I wanted to try my hand at nonetheless. Also, this was a necessary component if I plan to get a Rudy Award this year. Of course, that plan may be dead in the water, but at least I would give most of the races a try. If you'd like to, you can look at a few pictures from the event that I took, although none from the race course itself. After that, come on back for a more detailed account of my day in the snow!

Just a very short blog post to share a bit of exciting news to me. I just bought a new car this week! Yup, it was time for some new wheels to drag my butt around to my different races and to get to the training grounds around here. What did I buy? Well, how about a 2010 Hyundai Elantra Touring (GLS Model)! I'd often been looking at cars like the Toyota Matrix and Subaru Outback, so I was interested in a wagon-esque sled. An opportunity presented itself, and the price was right, so I snatched it up :-) I got them to install a roof rack and bike rack as well, so I'm totally ready to roll. To see more pictures of it, head over to my folder on flickr. Probably the last time it'll be so clean! With this car, it'll be much easier to load / unload a kayak from the roof I also got a stick shift, so the fun of driving is back :-) See, told you the post would be short!

Howdy folks! Hope everyone is going okay during this delightful cold snap that we seem to be suffering through in Ottawa. Must say that I'm not a huge fan of trudging to the bus stop every morning in what seems to be lower than -15deg C weather! But I digress, this isn't the place to discuss weather, is it? You undoubtedly are tuning in to read about my latest racing results, right? Well, at least that's what I'm here to write about. Quite a treat too, as this was my first 'required' event for the Rudy Award that I had planned on nabbing this year. However, that seems more unlikely now, given that I'm probably trading a 'required' event to do a 24 hour adventure race instead. What can I say? I know where my priorities are. Fun first, results second! At any rate, I've already paid entry for a few of the other events, so I'll do them and race hard :-) To see some pictures from before and after the 2010 Winterlude Tri, you can check out my set on flickr. Not too much excitement there, but at least you'll see how the transition area was laid out. Now onto the story!

Wow! I can't believe I'm finally writing up this post. This will be my final post dedicated to talking about the African Adventures that we recently had. There really isn't all that much to share in this post either, as the day was dominated by a really long shuttle ride to the airport and then whoosh, we were off! However, it will give me a chance to perhaps close out with a few of my final thoughts on the overall trip. I'm not sure how that'll turn out yet as it will possibly just make me want to pull out my credit card and charge up my next adventure right away. Isn't credit great? I'll try to resist the urge for a little longer, but rest assured, there will be many more adventures by ActiveSteve in the coming year(s). No map to share either, but I can at least point you to a few photographs that were put up onflickr. Read on if you dare for the rest of my tale.

Welcome to the final chapter in the story about how Mount Kilimanjaro was conquered on New Year's Eve by Team Cantrailia. I won't say it will be the final blog post on Africa, as I will likely write a little post about the final departure as well as some final impressions on the trip, the destinations, and the people I shared the journey with. However, for this post, I owe you all the tale of Day 6 of the Rongai Route. A pretty average day for all intents and purposes, but still one which had quite and effect on my, and stirred up a few emotions here and there. Before I get into all those little details though, I will invite you once again to look at the map of the hike for the day, as well as the set of pictures that are on flickr. I really hope some of you actually look at those damn maps, because I do spend some time on them :-). Anyway, after that, come on back here and read the rest of the post.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog posts from Africa in order to bring you the latest race report from ActiveSteve. It's been a pretty hectic weekend out in the frigid Ottawa region for me. Although the temperatures barely rose above -20degC all weekend, it didn't keep me from skiing, snowshoeing, skating, and just generally making the most of what we get here in the winter. It was also my 2010 race season opener, taking the form of a 10k snowshoe race. This was the 3rd of 4 races put on by Mike Caldwell as the Mad Trapper snowshoe race series. The course for Saturday was the 'combined course', which meant one lap of the infamous 'hilly' route, and a 2nd lap consisting of the 'flatter' route. There were actually a few tweaks to the course, which made it more like 9k, but it was still plenty challenging. I managed to capture some pictures and a couple videos, which I've posted on flickr, but not many. For the full details of how it went down, read on friends.