It's 7 in the morning, on the 6th of February and my cell goes off. Its my mom, "Good luck on your trip. Take care!" "Thanks mom, Call you when we get there!" I get out of one of the rest rooms at Remi's place go on his computer to check the various weather sites for the trip. It doesn't look good. Snowfall warnings for the Pine Pass, the very route we must take to our destination, Powderking. Lance and Remi both agree, we must go, we'll beat out the weather and it'll work out. Marc's parents on the other hand aren't so sure. So our Fantastic 4 has now been cut to The Thunderous 3, we aren't happy losing Marc, but the show must go on. So we're on the road by 10:00 in my mini-van with our boards in the Thule and our gear and booze and other stuff in the back. We get to Dawson Creek around noon. Lance picks up a Warstiener Keg at a Liquor store, and we go for lunch at Rockwell's. What a lunch! Such a nice little restaurant with flat-screens a fireplace and free pool, but the food is really what sets it apart. (Best burger I've ever had!) So we continue on, the weather is still blue skies until we hit the Hausler turn-off which is a half-hour past Chetwyne. Its snowing.. pretty hard. I put in my orange-lensed driving sun-glasses. We make it through the pass no problem, all the way to Mackenzie, where we check in at the Willingston Lake Lodge. I call Marc's parents and my own to tell them we made it ok. So we unload our stuff and play some Guitar Hero than go hit Little Mac (The local in-town hill) So we ride a bit, and get a tip about Wing Night at the Legion, so we go there for supper. than we go back to our room, have a couple of beers and call it a day. In the last 24 hours before we got there it snowed 50 cm! We got another 30 while we were there.)
So we get up at 7:30. We get ready and out the door by 8:30. We stop at 7-11 to pick up some Poweraid and other stuff for the day. The temp is -24 with a windchill that makes it feel like -35 on the mountain. But at least theres lots of powder! Almost to much! Every time you fell, it was a battle to get up, since you couldn't touch bottom! So we ride the morning and meet up with the staff of our local hill. (Little Smoky Ski Hill) We have a sick time slashing pow and I get frostbite on my cheeks and fingers, nothing too serious. So we drive back to Mackenzie, hit the local hill again, meet some locals at the hill. Than its closing time and Remi says to me, "I wanna go down the road." "Ok, I'll give you a start push... with the van!" So he gets infront and I send him down the hill, sparks blazing from the odd gravel he hits with his edges. I follow him down. When I get to him, he says "I want those 2 mins. back." I guess it wasn't that fun. So we get back to the Hotel, when my phone rings. "Where are you?" the voice says, I don't recognize. "MacKenzie..." "I know that! Eric's wondering if your coming over to party or not?!" Its Shantel, now I know! "Soon, alright?" "Alright, bye!" so we head over, with our Keg and when we get there, it seems the party has already started. Clem the Hill manager, has already had a few Bud. So we crack the Keg, and have a few with Clem. Before you know it, we empty the thing. So we party there till we get a noise complaint and we decide to jet. Steph and Jocelyn (Sorry if I spelt it wrong! I suck at French!) come back to our Hotel to keep partying. So we have 8 more beers and play Guitar Hero, than out of nowheres, a HUGE pillow fight erupts!!! Its so epic, that we total the room! Mattresses off the beds, crooked paintings, clothes everywheres!! The only thing still clean is the bathroom! So I take the girls back to there Hotel and in turn go to bed when I get back to mine.
So we get up at 7:30 to the radio. We turn on the boob tube to the weather network, -23 with a windchill for the day! Yay... awww crap, the Keg was upside down all night and it leaked on to the bench leaving a big puddle of beer on it, along with making our coupons for our lifts soggly and smelling like beer. But we use them anyways. So we head out and hit P.K. for another day. Total Fun-fest! We freeze our faces off and choke on 3 feet of powder, Skittlely-doo! A good time all round. Another cold Champagne day in the memories of glory and fortune of shred trips. So we get back to Mackenzie and hit the local hill again. At the closing of the hill that night, two girls that we've seen at the hill every night that we've been there come up to me and Remi, and introduce themselves. So we start talking to them and they ask us where we're from and where we're staying. So we finish up our convo, and say goodbye to the two ladies (Which I thought were quite cute.) and go back to our Hotel. We tell Lance of our encounter, and he informs us that they were hitting on us, and it never occured to either of us. I kicked myself for the rest of the night. Than we have some eats and go to our room and relax till its nod off time again.
We get up the next day. Its our rest day, we get out of bed around 11:00. We get lunch at Subway, go to Video Gallery where we rent Robin Williams on Broadway and I buy Tenaicious D and Transformers and we watch Robin Williams than go to hit the local hill, which we find out is closed for the day, but we go and ride it anyways. Lance and Remi ride off the Little Mac's chalet roof, and we Destroy 12 cans of Lucky in Various ways. (Which I had bought for Marc, but myself could never drink.) We hit there box a couple times than me and Remi ride it down the Hill as a Bobsled before leaving. We put everything back tho, I like that little hill. So for supper we go get Chinese, head back to the room, watch Tenacious D and pack up for the next day.
So we get up on the bright. Pick up all our stuff and pack it into the van. We fuel up on gas and food at the 7-11 before we leave Mackenzie for the last day of our trip. We get to P.K., our last day, the nicest day weatherwise, going from -19 in the morning to -11 when we leave. So on our first run, near the top of the mountain, just above Satisfaction, we crack our last 3 beers and cheers the trip. Damn god beers, and we get donw to business. We take full advantage of the day. We ride steady all day, right to the end. We hit some of the best powder and jumps that day. I don't think I could have frowned even if my dog had died that day. It was just that awesome! So we head through the pass. without incondent. Unlike the 3 Semi's we saw in the ditch. So we get to Dawson Creek for supper. We stop at Rockwell's my new favorite restaurant. We have steak and wings and onion rings, and it rocked! So we get to Remi's by 10:00. Tired, but glad we had gone on the trip. So we had a group hug and said our goodbyes. Another Kick-ass trip in my books. Powderking, is a special place, forever part of my heart and my joy. Thank you for being a place of good memories.
P.S: The next day, a massive avalanche takes out the Pine Pass, which we travelled through the day before. Closing it for 3 days. We lucked out, and it feels good!!! LoL! Peace and Powder my Friends!
