Winterstock 2014

On the Family Day weekend, Toronto Lindy Hop organized its second Winterstock event at the Wolf's Den hostel up by the west gate of Algonquin Park. Having been an offshoot of Lindystock in the summer, this event includes whichever winter activities during the day and dancing at night.

There was a very large Waterloo crew attending this year, so we were trying to figure out if we needed just Angie's van (which magically got a broken back seat while trying to get Martin's bike in the back the night before...thanks Martin). Good thing Matt had his car fixed up in time so that he and Sarah took off while the rest of us gathered the winter gear and musical instrument-heavy vehicle. Despite going back to Angie's to grab her banjo, the Waterloo cars arrived within 10 minutes of one another and over 4 hours before the next car from Toronto. This just meant more of Brooke's awesome home-made chicken pot pies and salad for us! After having driven for a few hours (not rubbing it in that the Waterloo drivers had to commute farther :P), people were pretty tired and more in the mood for catching up rather than dancing. Somehow I ended up DJ-ing until 4 am with minimal dancing actually involved, but it was still excellent times.

Clearly since I was up until the wee hours of Saturday morning, I was on breakfast shift with Stefan the next morning making eggs and bacon. Being in charge of keeping a constant supply of bacon and coffee to the trickling stream of groggy campers, I was the hero of the morning. Later that morning, I grabbed my running clothes and my GPS watch and went for a run along highway 60 towards Algonquin. I found it very peaceful and meditative since I had a lot on my mind with regards to life and work. It was very quiet other than the occasional car, my breathing, and a snap of a branch from an unseen critter.

Finishing up a nice, hilly 10 km (and almost making it to the entrance of Algonquin), lunch was conveniently ready upon my arrival. In the afternoon I was looking for some more solitude so I wandered over to the Ragged Falls park, not even 1 km from the hostel. This year, the falls was a lot more snowed over than last year (I distinctly remember last year the narrowed waterway being terribly loud and vicious looking). This year, the snow covered all but a little of the rushing water...still very pretty though.

J.J. Abrams would be proud of this lens flare

Saturday night was the whiskey tasting event that became popular since last year's event. This year's was opened from single malt scotch, to any variety of whiskey