Greetings from North Bend on a grey, rainy day in a beautiful and very pleasant part of northwest Washington state.We are about 2h south of Vancouver and 30 minutes east of Seattle on highway 90.Yesterday already seems a long time ago but the first day of any trip is always full of excitement, unexpected surprises, and the hope that, firstly the boats arrived and secondly, intact. Michael and I arrived at the airport to successfully find Dita and shortly thereafter welcome Glen, Thea, and Alison to Vancouver. Thomas arrived safely from Quebec City. Arriving at the same time were Stig Larsson and Tyler Lawlor from Level Six. After a brief chat we went our separate ways and began the logistics of picking up the second rental van from our friends at Discount and boats from Air Canada Cargo. All was done in a most light but steady drizzle which was badly needed in Vancouver as it had not rained for 20+ days.
Given the weather conditions and the two hour drive ahead of us the executive team decided that the North Bend Motel was the destination of choice for our first night on the road. It proved to be smart move as everyone slept well.
For those that remember the show, North Bend is “Twin Peaks” territory with parts of the series filmed at the restaurant where we had breakfast Thursday morning. In fact the whole areas is kind of a “Twin Peaks- X-files” place with dense forest and small rolling mountains.
The kids had their first session on the water this morning on the Snoqualmie River. The course is like a rockier version of the Chilliwack River with no major features but still a nice stretch of whitewater with enough boulders to make it interesting. Sharing the water are teams from Alberta, B.C., Colorado, North Carolina, and a group from China. Mario Davidson the race organizer expects about 100 competitors for Saturday’s race. We know a number of the kids from last year’s tour as well as some of the parents.
Dita had the kids doing halves this afternoon with video analysis taking place on the DVD player in the Montana van. They will be back on the water tomorrow morning.
The race site and camping area are all on private property that belongs to a local resident who is a land developer. There’s quite enough space for tents, tarps, and vehicles. Glen “The Tarp Man” Gifford has easily the finest looking tarp of all the residents and single-handedly put it up as the kids (and me) were all down at the river. Claire and Jacques from Valleyfield also arrived safely with JP and Francois after driving from across the continent.
It rains a lot here. In fact North Bend gets more rain than Seattle I am told.
We did our grocery shopping today and are just in the early stages of a wonderful pasta dinner with the likelihood of going into town (about 10 minutes away) for either hot chocolate or ice cream.
It appears dinner is ready.
Signing off from North Bend.
Today was a full day of training. We began at 8am with a joint workout with the team from Colorado. The one hour session included step-ups, push-ups, stair climbing, and sit-ups done in a continuous loop with about 20 paddlers. The workout was followed by a whitewater session which was also intense. The afternoon was spent relaxing and recuperating from the morning. On Tuesday the kids went with Dita 
