Year Two Day Eighty - The Ridge Runner

Dear all, 

Another speedy entry - this time literally... a mountain coaster, here in Collingwood, HURRAY!

Darren, Annalise and I sampled the fabulous, Ridge Runner which is new this year at The Blue Mountain Ski Village. http://www.bluemountain.ca/ridge_runner.htm

 At $15 a ticket... we hoped it would match the Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland in terms of 'thrill factor' and as we were waiting in line, we were intrigued as to what adrenalin-seeking treat awaited us. The fact that we could 'control the speed' of the Luge was of great excitement to us all and and we debated how we could manipulate the accelerate button to our greatest speed-inducing advantage. 

We all had individual carts - i was in front and managed to grab a couple of pictures as we were waiting.... Darren is there (hiding behind Annalise)

 After a [very] brief introduction from a [very bored] looking chap at the gate, we were off... up and up and up the mountain, being pulled on a track and creeping higher and higher in altitude with the air becoming fresher and clearer the higher we climbed. 

After about 10 minutes ( I think... but couldn't be sure), The cart reached the summat, turned a corner and I was told by a nice man in a hut to 'push the accelarator' lever - I slammed it down and was off - down a VERTICAL SLOPE. It was AWESOME! I would have loved to have taken a photos but I would have probably lost an arm. This ride is wonderful and totally worth it - it is a long descent with drops, turns and keeps the adrenalin pumping right up until the end ( where Annalise tail-gated me by accident.. fortunately we didn't told off). I would highly recommend the Ridge Runner and will certainly hit that Luge again soon. We loved it!

And in other news:

1. We also stumbled across this on our travels around Blue Mountain... Collingwood's answer to the Tour De France" Tour de Blue (AKA Centurion) http://centurioncycling.com/canada/