
Grand Teton Nat Pk, WY, USA - The 'snapped-off branch in question' aka 'the culprit' deftly decorated with a small wad of my hair from the injury (I sawed the branch off afterwards, sorry US Federal Government)
Courtesy of www.SladeRide.com
(Gallery at bottom of post & 2 videos below)
I value the top of my bonce, my head, my noggin, my tete, my skull, my scalp.
So, why is it that I stabbed a broken, dagger-like tree branch (still attached to pine in question) into the top of it? Yup. And I wasn’t even riding my bike at the time!
Picture the scene: having just ridden some amazing descents through construction areas on dirt roads, cranking the top gear, grinning wildly at the road crews as they waved me past, having seen the Teton mountains (gorgeous) for the first time, having met and chatted to some lovely people along the route and then not failed to notice a truly enormous proper mountain storm developing overhead, I’m part elated part anxious to get to the campsite quickly and pitch my tent before the maelstrom unleashes its wrath and fury from overhead.
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Filed in: Admin, Alaska South, Travel | admin | September 25, 2009 | Comments (2)
Tags: Centennial, crater lake, Derek, Dubois, Great Divide Basin, Helena, injury, Jackalope, jackson, jenny lake, Lander, Laramie, Montana, Muddy Gap, snow, Snowy Mountains, Tetons, Three Forks, trans-am, USA, wind, Yellowstone

Nr Maligne Lake, Jasper Nat Pk, Alberta, Canada - Alvin gives us a turn...
Courtesy of www.SladeRide.com
(Gallery at bottom of post)
“What do you mean you ‘don’t take tents’? You’re advertised as a campsite and the road signs show a picture of A TENT!!!” say I, incredulous in the least.
“I’m sorry but we don’t take tents, we’ve had some trouble with vandalism from ‘tenters’. There’s a site which does take tents 15 km out of town, I can give you directions.”
I: “I’ve ridden 90 miles to get here on a loaded bicycle, I don’t think I can ride another ‘15k’, can’t you make an exception as it’s just me on my own?”
(by ‘loaded bicycle’ did I mean ‘loaded’ like a gun?)
RV site lady: “I’m sorry there’s nothing I can do.”
Me: “I’m not happy, I’m really not happy, this is not on – you should take down the signs 5 MILES OUT OF TOWN WITH A PICTURE OF A TENT ON THEM!!!”
(in hindsight I realise – thanks Nancy – that at this juncture, with a queue of eager but undoubtedly somewhat embarrassed RV-ers building behind me that I was no doubt compounding the view held by ‘RV site lady’ that tenters were aggressive, surly vandals)
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Filed in: Admin, Alaska South, Travel | admin | August 23, 2009 | Comments (2)
Tags: Alberta, Andrew, Athabasca Falls, Avon, Banff National Park, Beauty Creek, British Columbia, Canada, Cate, Columbia Icefield, Continental Divide, Dawson Creek, Death Race, Drive-train, Eureka, Florida 4, Fort Steele, Grand Cache, Grand Prairie, Hail, Helena, Hinton, Icefields Parkway, Jasper, Kootenay National Park, Lake Louise, Martyn, Matthew, Montana, Nancy, Ovando, Radium Hot Springs, Rick, Sabrina, Seeley Lake, Storm, Swan Lake, Tom, Tyre, USA, Whitefish

Kluane Lake, YT, Canada - RV, biker & cyclists heaven
Courtesy of www.SladeRide.com…
(Gallery at bottom of post)
Prologue – Peru, September 2005, Jon Slade ‘blog e-mail’ to home…
Firstly, an overlooked incident from the time of my last missive, whilst on mountaineering “manoeuvres” (no Jon, you are not and never have been in the army, Cub Scouts yes) in the Peruvian Andes. We’d been warned about thefts in our particular valley (Ishinca) and on the basis that we made up the only two tents in the whole area had become particularly vigilent, or so we thought.
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Filed in: Alaska South, Travel | admin | July 12, 2009 | Comments (3)
Tags: Adam, Alaska, Beaver Creek, border, Burwash Landing, Canada, Cottonwood RV, Fairbanks, Heat, Jacky, Kluane, Lion, Moose, North Pole, Rain, Tim, USA, Ward, Whitehorse, Yukon