What? Yes! I know it’s a bit odd, or perhaps out of character for us, yet this is what we did on Tuesday, September 4. For Bryce’s birthday I put together a little scavenger hunt and the end prize was a day of UTVing in Ghost (a public land use area outside of Calgary).
First – it took me about 6 hours of research to find a place to rent a decent UTV, find an area where we could legally ride, and find a location with all-terrain trails. That’s the reason for this post – to hopefully help out another non-utver or a newbie looking for a place to ride.
Alberta is full of Public Land Use Zones (I had no idea!) and you can ride UTVs, horses, and even camp there for free. Here is the Government site.
The site above has a lot of info and is a little tricky to navigate. If you want the quick map to where we rode – by Ghost River – then download here: GhostPLUZMap-May2018
Where to Rent
I could only find a handful of places that rented UTVs and in the end we selected All Season Rental Adventures out of Calgary. Here are just a few things to be aware of, if you’re renting.
Large damage deposit – our’s was $4500 – on top of the rental
Only third party liability insurance
All Season holds the damage deposit for up to 72 hours
You need to clean the UTV before returning it
Those few things would have been awesome to know before hand. When we rented the person told us the UTV was brand new, the last renters had totalled the pervious one (basically, they bought a wrecked machine). Ya, that sounds like a great investment! Also, Cochrane, which is on your way back to Calgary from Ghost, has 2 places you can bay wash your UTV. Worked out well.
If you check out the Ghost Map, we rode the following trails:
47 – 13, 13 – 7, 7 – 3, 3 – 1, 1 – 4 – then we did it in reverse (total time, about 2 hours)
47 – 45, 45 – 49, 49 – 51, 51 – 53, 53 – 95 – then in reverse (total time, about 2.5 hours)
We played a lot (just racing back and forth) south of 45 and between 53 – 95
Okay – time for the adventure!
This is the brand new Polaris RZR 900. We got it up to about 105 KM/Hour. I say about because we stopped looking at the speedometer past 90 KM/Hour and concentrated on the terrain instead. We for sure broke 100. It feels so fast, like really really fast.
This is Bryce, all smiles, in the staging area. We are ready!
I got to drive, too.
Funny note – there is a handle bar (you can see it above) on the passenger side which reminders me of bar you’d see on a rollercoaster. When we picked up the machine I laughed to myself, thinking – who needs that? Well, let me tell you – you’ll fly out if you don’t hang on (yes, they have seatbelts).
Funny Story
Another funny story? I was nervous about getting mud and debris in my eyes so I brought an old pair of Bryce’s ski googles. After about 8.4 seconds of riding I was screaming “there’s dirt in my eyes – I can’t see!” Bryce, without goggles, was like “no, Ali – there’s no sand or dirt.” He slowed down and I wiped my eyes. Good to go. Peddle to the floor.
“Stop – stop!” “Seriously?” “Yes – I can’t see!” So, we got out of the UTV after having been in it for 1.4 minutes at this point, and I took off my goggles and my helmet. My face looked like it was seasoned with pepper. Clumps and clumps of disintegrated foam from the ski goggles were all over my face and in my eyes! Yuck.
Bryce couldn’t stop laughing on the inside, yet held it together long enough for me to wash my face with one of our water bottles. Needless to say, I was fine without the ski goggles, which, by the way, are in the trash at the Cochrane bay wash.
Here’s a photo of an unimpressed Ali. Bryce wanted to take a photo of the mud on my face – I, having gone through the goggle incident, was now hypersensitive to anything on my face.
Ah – helmet off, now I can wipe my face – much better!
Views
I couldn’t get over the views, so beautiful and we only saw about a handful of people on our adventure. We actually saw more cows than people.
There you have it – one muddy UTV leaving the playground of Ghost.
Overall, we had an awesome experience. We spent 5 hours riding trails and racing across open land. Had lunch, enjoyed the sun, and the company.
If you’re looking for a little adventure, then check it out – it’s fun (just don’t wear old ski goggles).
Gluten free rainbow cookies – and they’re chewy! They are good, like really good. Packed with these little rainbow chocolate candies which makes them pretty and gives them some texture. The best part about this recipe is that the dough freezes well. So you can have fresh baked cookies anytime with just a touch of work. I found the rainbow chocolate candies in the sprinkle aisle at Balk Barn – yet you can use any chocolate candy you wish. Okay, let’s get baking!
Ingredients
2 cups and 2 tablespoons of gluten free flour (with xanthan gum)
First, sift the flour baking soda and the salt into a separate bowl. In your mixer bowl, cream the sugars, cream cheese, and melted butter. Then add in the vanilla and egg yokes. Stir until well combined. Slowly add in the flour mixture about 1/2 a cup at a time. Once the flour is all incorporated, mix in the candies.
When the dough is mixed cover tightly in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for at least 4 hours. I sometimes freeze it, yet if you freeze it you’ll need to let it sit for no more than 25 minutes before you work the cookies.
You can see in the photo below I rolled mine into a log. I thought it would save time rolling the cookies, in that I could just cut them. Nope – don’t do that! You’ll break all the pretty rainbow candies and the cookies won’t look very nice at all.
So, after you dough has been chilled, set the oven to 375 degrees (my oven runs on convection, so I set it to 360). Then roll the dough into small 1 inch round balls.
I cooked a batch without flattening them – they weren’t as pretty and didn’t cook as evenly. So, I suggest flattening out the balls. Just press them with the palm of your hand and and you’ll be all set.
Bake for 10-13 minutes until the edges are a touch brown.
Remove and let them cool for at least 20 minutes so they set. They keep nicely in the fridge, yet I enjoy them at room temperature.
Don’t they just look so fun?!
This batch makes about 24 cookies – I often double it and freeze it in 3 batches.
Well, there you are – happy baking and thanks for visiting!
2 cups and 2 tablespoons of gluten free flour (with xanthan gum)
1 teaspoon of salt and baking soda
½ a cup of cream cheese, soft
¾ a cup of salted butter, melted
1 cup of brown sugar, packed
½ of white sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla
2 large egg yokes
1½ - 2 cups of rainbow chocolate candies (bulk barn)
Instructions
First, sift the flour baking soda and the salt into a separate bowl.
In your mixer bowl cream the sugars, cream cheese, and melted butter.
Then add in the vanilla and egg yokes. Stir until well combined.
Slowly add in the flour mixture about ½ a cup at a time.
Once the flour is all incorporated, mix in the candies.
When the dough is mixed cover tightly in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for at least 4 hours. I sometimes freeze it, yet if you freeze it you'll need to let it sit for no more than 25 minutes before you work the cookies.
So, after you dough has been chilled, set the oven to 375 degrees (my oven runs on convection, so I set it to 360). Then roll the dough into small 1 inch round balls.
I cooked a batch without flattening them - they weren't as pretty and didn't cook as evenly. So, I suggest flattening out the balls. Just press them with the palm of your hand and and you'll be all set.
Bake for 10-13 minutes until the edges are a touch brown.
Remove and let them cool for at least 20 minutes so they set. They keep nicely in the fridge, yet I enjoy them just a room temperature.
What? I know – it’s a odd topic found here on 3ten.ca, but it has a purpose.
Most of you know Bryce and I fix up old Boler trailers and send them off into the world with happy new owners. Thus far we’ve done 4 and we’ve kept Tipsy, which makes 5. On Instagram we’ve been asked more than a handful of times about fiberglass. So, this post is for those who are looking for a bit of direction.
Know that we’re total DIYers – our own brand of expert. We are knowledgeable and you can see some of our results below.
How to Fiberglass a Boler
I’ll share some tips and then also one of the most helpful videos ever for learning how to fiberglass.
Prep Tips
You’ll want to sand down all the fiberglass, yet on the area you’re going to repair, you’ll need to do a bit more sanding – ensure you sand down the gel coat fully around a large hole if you’re going to completely fill it in. Also, make sure you wear a mask – the fiberglass and resin can be quite harmful if inhaled.
Large Void Tips
Okay, the video I’ll share below goes over quite a bit of detail, yet it’s mainly for fiberglassing over something specific – not covering negative space. So, I want to talk a bit about that.
We covered about 9 fully void holes on Tipsy.
First, we lined a piece of wood with parchment paper. Then, from the back side of the void we screwed it in place. Fiberglass won’t stick to the parchment paper and you need something strong, like wood (not cardboard) which will give you resistance when applying your first coat.
Then, once you have 2 or 3 layers (however many you think you need) – we did 3 and sanded down quite a bit – you’ll remove the wood, screws, and parchment paper.
Yes – you will have small screw holes – you can follow the tips below for those.
Small Imperfection Tips
On small holes, cracks, or large chips (too big for Bondo) we use fiberglass to do the repair. One big tip is to do all of your fiberglass work at one time, since it can be messy. So, identify all of your imperfections and spots that you want to repair. Then, cut out all the different shapes you’ll need. I prep them and Bryce does the application.
Work quickly since it will harden fast, depending on your resin to hardener ratio (another reason to do all the work at the same time – do the math only once!).
For these small imperfections you’ll most likely only need one layer of fiberglass and then you can sand down to make it smooth. The more accurate you are with cutting your shapes, the less sanding you’ll have to do (and the less fiberglass you’ll waste).
Finishing Tips
Since we were covering up a massive hole we had some small imperfections in the larger sections. As such, we used this fiberglass filler.
You’ll sand the finished fiberglass work, then fill, sand, then fill a bit more, and sand again.
One trick we learned – don’t eyeball it. Close your eyes and feel with your hand. You can feel the imperfections much easier than you can see them. Also, don’t underestimate those tiny issues – they will magnify when you paint.
Here the large back window is completed – fiberglassed, sanded, filled, and feels smooth.
Below you can see the finished product painted – looks so good!
Guess how many holes are actually on this side of the trailer? There are 3 – yes, we covered 3 completely void holes on this side alone. Cool, eh?
Tackling the fiberglass work yourself can seem like a daunting task – take it from us, you can do it! Get the right tools, the right products, and the right direction and you’ll be all set.
Thanks so much for visiting and reading. I hope this helps give even just one person the confidence to tackle fiberglassing themselves. Happy repairing!
I'm Ali and I sew, cook and create; simply put, I have a heck of a lot of fun!
A little note about 3ten - it's a lifestyle blog about sewing, fooding and traveling. I share my ideas and make a joke or two along the way (not very good ones, though).
Enjoy what you find here and sew or bake up. Thanks for visiting!
