Grind #1 - Saturday, September 18th, 4pm.
Grind Time: A painful 58:06
Stuck in our head song: Gomez - See the World
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| Taking advantage of the panoramic features of our camera after Saturday`s kick-off Grind |
We awoke up Saturday morning feeling great, we were ready to conquer the grind as the official start to our Tanzania fundraiser. We decided that in order to survive Duncan would have to invest in a consistent method of hydration. The initial plan was for Jill to smuggle an IV out of the hospital and administer a constant fluid drip though she didn't like the idea that she would have to climb ahead and hold the bag. Plan B was to head to MEC* to pick up a platypus hydration pack and replace the one that had recently gone bad (note - rinse anything reusable immediately after filling with beer). Since it was a beautiful day out we decided we would take our backpacks up with a change of clothes so we could tour around the top and see Da Bears. Da Bears are two orphaned Grizzlies (Grinder and Coola) who are held (with lots of roaming room) in a Jurassic Park style pen on Grouse Mountain.
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| Four-legged Fish |
So off we went; battle-ready to kick-start our campaign. The backpack, weighing only about 10lbs, was hardly noticeable at first... then it became barely noticeable, then slightly noticeable, then kinda noticeable, then quite noticeable and by the time we walked across the parking lot to the beginning of the Grind we felt as though the backpacks were, in fact, very noticeable. We rarely take backpacks up and quickly realized the effect that the extra weight had on our climb, especially as we were pushing ourselves to make good time. It seemed as though the backpacks were trying to pull us backwards,
down the mountain, which, as it happens, was exactly the opposite direction that we were trying to go! As we painfully ascended I (Duncan) pictured myself slowly moving left on Darwins "Evolution of Man" until finally as we approached the top I was so far off the charts that I had devolved into some sort of four-legged fish (see photo).
We did get to change into our clothes, which was nice, though by the time we reached the peak Da Bears had exhausted themselves with their unicycling and juggling that all we could see was a couple of furry humps in the woods. We snapped some pictures and made our way down the tram happy at a the beginning of our campaign.
Grind #2 - Monday, September 20th, 6:09pm.
Grind Time: 53:17
Stuck in our head song: Dan Mangan -
Robots
Having poured rain all morning we were a little hesitant about how Grind #2 was going to go but sure enough the sun broke through the clouds and made for a fantastic hike. The sun showed itself for the first time all day at about the half way mark when it shone through the trees and illuminated the forest around us. It's always easy to forget about how amazing the natural surroundings are when you're not staring at path and pushing on your knees to get yourself up the mountain! We've decided that we're going to have a couple types of Grinds, most we will push ourselves to beat the clock and give you that pain we promised, but some we`ll invite others along (feel free to come and join us) and enjoy the hike. This will likely also reduce the risk of slipping, falling, impaling, injuring ourselves or getting attacked by a squirrel (a sensitive subject for Duncan, and a story for another day).
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| On the Tram Ride down looking out along Capilano Lake |
We felt great about our time today - 53:17, and is our new official time to beat and we`ll keep bringing it down as our campaign continues. Thanks to all of you who have donated so far, it`s great to see the response, and to those who are following the blog feel free to comment as you please, we welcome the feedback.
DJ GRIND...OUT
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