Matthew's Katimavik Blog
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January 17, 2008
Hey everyone! Sorry again for the late update, last week I was house
manager and so I didn't get a chance to come in and update this.
Anyways, over the past two weeks, St. Peastock has been up to some
really interesting things with one of these things being a weekend trip to
Jasper. We left at 7 AM on Friday, January 11 and after 7 long hours
of driving, finally got to our hostel just outside of Jasper. The rest of
the day we were allowed to explore Jasper, which meant several
awesome picture opportunities with the mountains as our backdrop.
Most of our group had never seen the Rockies before, so this
experience was truly spectacular. On Saturday, we left at 9 AM and
headed off to Medicine Lake. The interesting thing about this lake is
that its fed by melting glacier water in the summer and in the fall and
winter, the water drains out of the bottom of the lake because of
decreased melting glacier, leaving the lake about 20 feet lower. After
that, we headed out to Maligne Canyon, and on the way we got to see
two moose! Once we got to Maligne Canyon, we got onto the trail that
follows right beside the canyon and crosses over it at four different
spots. Along the way, we got to see some amazing frozen waterfalls
and some wildlife, including deer and big horn sheep. The cool thing
about the canyon is that for a lot of it, it isn't more than 10 meters
across, but reaches 50 meters down in some places. When we came to
the end of the trail, we got the opportunity to walk around inside the
canyon, which we obviously took advantage of. We got to see up close
the frozen waterfalls and the rock walls that have been worn smooth by
rushing water. It is an amazing thing to see. This finished off our
morning, and we went back to the hostel to eat lunch. After lunch, we
went and picked up some snowshoes and headed off to the Athabasca
Glacier. When we got there, we all got our snowshoes on and began
the trek to the glacier. What was surprising was that we had stopped 10
minutes before we had got to the glacier and it was really nice, with
almost no wind. When we got out of the van at the glacier, the wind
was so strong it was almost pushing us backwards in some places. A
funny story is that at the foot of the glacier there is a phone booth
where some of us tried calling family. Unfortunately, one of us dialed
the wrong number and ended up calling Switzerland. Anyways, after a
long, hard trek, we all got to the glacier and found it was covered in
snow. We started digging, hoping to be able to touch the glacier, but
unfortunately after we got about 8 feet down into the snow, we decided
it wasn't worth it and headed back. Nonetheless, the experience was an
amazing one and we can all now say we have stood on a glacier. After
the glacier, we all went back to the hostel, cleaned up and went out for
supper. It was an awesome end to a truly amazing day, that I don't
think any of us will ever forget. The next day, we got up and had
breakfast and left the hostel around 10 AM, but not before we were
interviewed by a local newspaper writer and having our pictures taken.
Some other interesting things we have been up to include going
swimming this past Monday with the Falher Katimavik group, doing
aqua aerobics at the swimming pool (very fast-paced, but very fun), and
planning for some more activities. Those activities include helping out
with Project Porchlight in Peace River (for more information,
www.projectporchlight.com), going to the Banff Film Festival, helping
out at the Alberta Pond Hockey Tournament, an excursion to
Edmonton, and volunteering on Family Day. We are still looking for
billeting families for the billeting period of Jan. 25 - Feb. 8, so if you're
interested, please give us a call at (780) 624-0010 or email us at
stpeastock@hotmail.com. We're a busy group, but if you have any
suggestions of activities that we can volunteer at, we'd love to hear from
you, as we're always looking to further help out this magnificent
community. Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to you again soon.
-Matt
Hey everyone! Sorry again for the late update, last week I was house
manager and so I didn't get a chance to come in and update this.
Anyways, over the past two weeks, St. Peastock has been up to some
really interesting things with one of these things being a weekend trip to
Jasper. We left at 7 AM on Friday, January 11 and after 7 long hours
of driving, finally got to our hostel just outside of Jasper. The rest of
the day we were allowed to explore Jasper, which meant several
awesome picture opportunities with the mountains as our backdrop.
Most of our group had never seen the Rockies before, so this
experience was truly spectacular. On Saturday, we left at 9 AM and
headed off to Medicine Lake. The interesting thing about this lake is
that its fed by melting glacier water in the summer and in the fall and
winter, the water drains out of the bottom of the lake because of
decreased melting glacier, leaving the lake about 20 feet lower. After
that, we headed out to Maligne Canyon, and on the way we got to see
two moose! Once we got to Maligne Canyon, we got onto the trail that
follows right beside the canyon and crosses over it at four different
spots. Along the way, we got to see some amazing frozen waterfalls
and some wildlife, including deer and big horn sheep. The cool thing
about the canyon is that for a lot of it, it isn't more than 10 meters
across, but reaches 50 meters down in some places. When we came to
the end of the trail, we got the opportunity to walk around inside the
canyon, which we obviously took advantage of. We got to see up close
the frozen waterfalls and the rock walls that have been worn smooth by
rushing water. It is an amazing thing to see. This finished off our
morning, and we went back to the hostel to eat lunch. After lunch, we
went and picked up some snowshoes and headed off to the Athabasca
Glacier. When we got there, we all got our snowshoes on and began
the trek to the glacier. What was surprising was that we had stopped 10
minutes before we had got to the glacier and it was really nice, with
almost no wind. When we got out of the van at the glacier, the wind
was so strong it was almost pushing us backwards in some places. A
funny story is that at the foot of the glacier there is a phone booth
where some of us tried calling family. Unfortunately, one of us dialed
the wrong number and ended up calling Switzerland. Anyways, after a
long, hard trek, we all got to the glacier and found it was covered in
snow. We started digging, hoping to be able to touch the glacier, but
unfortunately after we got about 8 feet down into the snow, we decided
it wasn't worth it and headed back. Nonetheless, the experience was an
amazing one and we can all now say we have stood on a glacier. After
the glacier, we all went back to the hostel, cleaned up and went out for
supper. It was an awesome end to a truly amazing day, that I don't
think any of us will ever forget. The next day, we got up and had
breakfast and left the hostel around 10 AM, but not before we were
interviewed by a local newspaper writer and having our pictures taken.
Some other interesting things we have been up to include going
swimming this past Monday with the Falher Katimavik group, doing
aqua aerobics at the swimming pool (very fast-paced, but very fun), and
planning for some more activities. Those activities include helping out
with Project Porchlight in Peace River (for more information,
www.projectporchlight.com), going to the Banff Film Festival, helping
out at the Alberta Pond Hockey Tournament, an excursion to
Edmonton, and volunteering on Family Day. We are still looking for
billeting families for the billeting period of Jan. 25 - Feb. 8, so if you're
interested, please give us a call at (780) 624-0010 or email us at
stpeastock@hotmail.com. We're a busy group, but if you have any
suggestions of activities that we can volunteer at, we'd love to hear from
you, as we're always looking to further help out this magnificent
community. Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to you again soon.
-Matt
For more entries, click here.
January 25, 2008
Hey, it’s me again! St. Peastock says hi to all the readers out
there. So the past week, we’ve been pretty busy. This past
weekend we had our 48 hours off, with some of the group leaving
for Edmonton or home to see their families, while everyone else
stayed in Peace River. By the sounds of it, everyone had a really
good 48, except it went too fast. Personally, I was really happy
to see my family, because four and a half months is a long time, so
it was really nice. Then on Monday, we got the opportunity to go
to the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour in Grande
Prairie. Special thanks go to Jeff Milligan for the money that
allowed us to purchase the tickets. Thanks Jeff! The festival was
truly spectacular, with 7 films being shown. These films varied
from ice climbing, to trail riding, to annoyed badgers. All of St.
Peastock had an awesome time, and we really enjoyed ourselves.
On Tuesday, we had our Mid-Trimester Reflection, which is a
meeting with our Project Coordinator that allows us to reflect on
the first half of our trimester here in Peace River, and to look
forward to the second half. This reflection went very well, and I
can tell you that all of St. Peastock is looking forward to another
month and a half here in Peace River. Tonight, everyone is
getting ready to leave for billeting, which starts tomorrow.
Thanks to all the billet families that have opened up their homes
to us. We really appreciate it, and we are all very excited for
billeting. That’s about all we’ve been up to this past week, but
we still do have a lot of other things planned for our time left here
in Peace River. These things include volunteering at the Alberta
Pond Hockey Tournament, with one of our group members, Alex,
playing on the Town of Peace River’s team. We are also all
volunteering at Peace Parent Link on Family Day, volunteering
with Project Porchlight (www.projectporchlight.com)
distributing energy efficient light bulbs, planning a 5-day cleanse
for when we get back from billeting, and planning to go on an
excursion to Edmonton near the end of February. If anyone can
think of somewhere a group of 12 can volunteer, we’d love to
hear from you. You can call us at (780)624-0010 or e-mail us at
stpeastock@hotmail.com. Thanks for reading!
-Matt
Hey, it’s me again! St. Peastock says hi to all the readers out
there. So the past week, we’ve been pretty busy. This past
weekend we had our 48 hours off, with some of the group leaving
for Edmonton or home to see their families, while everyone else
stayed in Peace River. By the sounds of it, everyone had a really
good 48, except it went too fast. Personally, I was really happy
to see my family, because four and a half months is a long time, so
it was really nice. Then on Monday, we got the opportunity to go
to the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour in Grande
Prairie. Special thanks go to Jeff Milligan for the money that
allowed us to purchase the tickets. Thanks Jeff! The festival was
truly spectacular, with 7 films being shown. These films varied
from ice climbing, to trail riding, to annoyed badgers. All of St.
Peastock had an awesome time, and we really enjoyed ourselves.
On Tuesday, we had our Mid-Trimester Reflection, which is a
meeting with our Project Coordinator that allows us to reflect on
the first half of our trimester here in Peace River, and to look
forward to the second half. This reflection went very well, and I
can tell you that all of St. Peastock is looking forward to another
month and a half here in Peace River. Tonight, everyone is
getting ready to leave for billeting, which starts tomorrow.
Thanks to all the billet families that have opened up their homes
to us. We really appreciate it, and we are all very excited for
billeting. That’s about all we’ve been up to this past week, but
we still do have a lot of other things planned for our time left here
in Peace River. These things include volunteering at the Alberta
Pond Hockey Tournament, with one of our group members, Alex,
playing on the Town of Peace River’s team. We are also all
volunteering at Peace Parent Link on Family Day, volunteering
with Project Porchlight (www.projectporchlight.com)
distributing energy efficient light bulbs, planning a 5-day cleanse
for when we get back from billeting, and planning to go on an
excursion to Edmonton near the end of February. If anyone can
think of somewhere a group of 12 can volunteer, we’d love to
hear from you. You can call us at (780)624-0010 or e-mail us at
stpeastock@hotmail.com. Thanks for reading!
-Matt