On Saturday, November 10th we are hosting our annual winter gear swap. This swap is for winter gear including nordic (cross country) skiis, snowboards, snowshoes and winter clothing. Sorry - we can't take any downhill skis.

If you have items you would like to sell, bring them in before Friday November 9th to register them. We can help you set a price if you wish. If it sells you can get 100% store credit or 80% cash back.

Get your credit or cash by the Monday and please pick up any of the unsold items before November 19th or they will be donated to a place of our choice.

If you are in the market for used winter gear drop by Saturday for the great deals.

Hello Wild Rockers! Fall has arrived, and winter is getting closer at hand with every leaf that falls, and blustery day that blows through. Fear not, brave adventurers, this only means that a great season of events draws nearer! We have many exciting events planned for you this fall/winter!

Basic Maintenance Course Tuesday, November 13 at 6pm Cost is $10, and includes a set of tire levers. Cover the basics, change a tube, basic chain maintenance.

We will also be running an Intermediate clinic, the nights of Wednesdays November 7, 14 and 21 at 6pm. Cost is $75, due in full upon registration.

An Advanced clinic will be running Wednesdays January 16, 23 and 30 in the New Year. Cost is $75, due in full upon registration.

Mount St. Louis - Moonstone On the eastern end of Georgian Bay, Mt. St. Louis gets some of the earliest snow of the season. Come out with us, Sunday December 9, 2007 to scratch your riding itch. Book your spot on our bus now. $ 75 ($65 for youth aged 6-12) includes travel to and from the hill, as well as your lift pass. The bus leaves Peterborough Armories (George and McDonnell) 7am, and returns at 6:30pm. Please show up 30 minutes early to ensure prompt departure, and pack food and meals for the day. There is also a full cafeteria at the hill. Equipment bags are strongly recommended. Rentals are available at Mt St Louis - Moonstone. An information letter and release waiver are available at the Wild Rock front cash.

Map and Compass Wild Rock will be hosting a Map and Compass clinic, Wednesday, November 14 at 6pm. Cost is $12 and will cover reading a topographical map, setting your compass' declination and general navigational tips and tricks.

Skijøring This year, we have again partnered with All Creatures, Great and Small for Skijøring clinics. A Learn to Pull Session will be running Sunday November 25 at Nichol's Oval. To register, contact All Creatures, Great and Small at 755- 0416.

Pool Sessions This year, Kawartha White Water Paddlers, in partnership with Wild Rock, will be organising winter pool sessions. For more information, or to sign up for the club or the pool sessions, contact Cale and Stephanie at (705) 639-2303 or email them at kawartha_whitewater_paddlers@hotmail.c om. Club membership forms are also available at Wild Rock. Specific details on pool dates, times and costs will be available in the near future.

Wild Rock has a cycling gym for winter training. If you are interested, contact scott@wildrock.net for more info.

Canoe Museum Events: Farley Mowat comes to the Museum! Find out details at www.canoemuseum.net.

Wild Rock is running several cycling trips this coming year. If you have been following the newsletter for a while, you will remember the descriptions of the trip to Mallorca, Spain. This trip is back by popular demand and runs from March 7th to the 16th. Last year, Scott added a trip to Italy, taking in the delights of Tuscany. This trip was a huge hit and will be going again on May 23rd to June 1st. A new trip has been added, going to the Provence region of France. This runs from June 4th to the 11th. *NEW* For all you mountain bikers, there is a trip to Texas that you should check out.

Wild Rock is acutely aware of the ethical questions air travel poses. In order to help mitigate the harm done by the 2.2 tons of carbon it takes to fly one person across the Atlantic Wild Rock is purchasing enough carbon credit from http://planetair.ca/ to offset the air travel portion of all the trips we offer.

This is not a perfect solution but begins to address the issues. I have registered us with this company. This is one of the few Canadian companies in this industry. It is recommended by David Suzuki.

Terlingua Texas Mountainbike Trip Enjoy solitary singletrack and jeep roads surrounded by breathtaking mountain scenery. The area has almost 1000 miles of dirt and Jeep roads to explore and excellent single-track, especially in Lajitas and on the east side of Big Bend Ranch State Park. These two areas are close together and riding in them both can be combined for truly epic single-track days. Daily distances will be between 25 and 30 miles of off road riding through challenging terrain. The group will be limited to 9 riders. Some of the days will be long and strenuous but you will be greatly rewarded with some beautiful scenery and fantastic single-track riding. The Big Bend area of Texas is one of the greatest kept secrets in mountain biking.

Tuscany This is the quintessential Italian experience. From Tuscany, The Renaissance swept across Europe, changing the continent's architecture, its perspective on painting and indeed life itself. Ancient homeland of the Etruscans, Tuscany is the land of Dante, da Vinci, Michelangelo and Botticelli. In addition to the culture and architecture Tuscany boasts some incredible roads that lend themselves well to cycling. The roads twist, turn, climb and descend as they join one small medieval village to another. Read the article Scott wrote after returning from last year's trip.

Provence Why do people love Provence? Provence has at its southern edge the famed Cote d'Azur with its wonderful coastline along the Mediterranean Sea. Amazing wine, food, cycling and scenery. What more could you ask for?

Mallorca Mallorca is an island off the coast of Spain and is perfect for a cycling trip. There is a mountain range along one coast that provides a great challenge for beginners to experts. The island has been a training destination for cycling teams for decades. There is also a lot of room for rolling hill or flatter, scenic riding for those looking for more of a cafe ride.

We are proud to have been selected by Patagonia as one of a small group of Canadian retailer partners chosen to launch their innovative Common Threads recycling program here in Canada. Common Threads is a Patagonia initiative that seeks to take environmental responsibility for manufacturing of the goods that they produce. It is their long- term goal to make every portion of their product line both recycled and recyclable. Launched in 2005 the expanded program is now being offered closer to home. Beginning November 10th, Wild Rock will be collecting any worn-out Patagonia Capilene (long underwear) products as well as any Polartec fleece garments from Patagonia or any other manufacturer. This is a huge initiative as Capilene and Polartec have been market leaders in the outdoor industry for almost 20 years.

Once again, Patagonia is setting the bar for environmentalism very high. We will continue to support their initiatives in whatever way we can here in our local community. Feel free to peruse both the Common Threads press release as well as a FAQ sheet. If you want to understand the recycling process or look into Patagonia's research please click and read on. For now all you really need to know is that you can wash up you old fleece or Patagonia long undies and bring them down to Wild Rock on or after November 10th. We will take care of it from there. If you are not certain that you old clothes are eligible just bring them down and we can assess them for you.

If you bring a piece for recycling on November 10th between 10 am and 2 pm, you will be entered into a draw for one of two women's and two men's capilene zip neck tops. If you aren't ready to recycle your gear yet, feel free to ask Mellissa (our Patagonia Representative) about the program and fill out a ballot!

Click on the Mission Recyle Video to get the idea...

At Wild Rock we are doing our best to be a competitive retailer and sell with integrity. We operate in a competitive environment and are always accountable to our clients.

So let us get to the crux of the "Hot Topic". Are prices at Wild Rock higher than the US Retailers prices? In all honesty we can't answer for every product on our shelves. We have 20,500 separate priced items in our store and we cannot have performed all of the over 20,000 price checks that would be required.

So here is our commitment. Although we have changed many prices we cannot change all of the prices in our store instantly, so we commit to adjusting our pricing to fairly reflect US Dollar pricing plus shipping, duty and brokerage. If you see an item of interest in the US let us know what the pricing is and we will do the math on it. On most products in our store the duties will range from 5.5% to 18% unless made in Mexico or the US. This is an on-going project so if we are off please politely inform us.

To learn more about how prices are set please read-on

"Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty plans to meet with private retailers next week to urge them to reduce prices as the dollar soars in value, said a report Thursday. "

I don't think Jim Flaherty has ever been in business as he is a lawyer by trade. Our products and their prices have a long history before they reach our shelves. Here is how our prices are set for the products that sit in Wild Rock in the fall of 2007.

At tradeshows in January and February 2007, Wild Rock buyers shop for new snowboards, skis, and clothing etc for the next winter. Price lists are handed out that are set by the manufacturers and distributors of our products. These price lists would have been created during sales meetings of the various businesses in November and December 2006 and are based on the fact our suppliers pre-pay for much of their production in US Dollars many months in advance in order to secure production schedules. At this point the US Dollar was trading at approx $1.17 in CAD dollars. Go to www.x-rates.com and click on the CAD/USD to see a brief history of the rates.

Our orders are sent in and finalized before the end of February 2007. Product is then manufactured. The final product for Winter '07/08 is then shipped to our store from August-September 2007 and is priced using the price list from our contracts agreed to in February 2007.

This issue will remain in the Canadian market for some time. The opportunity for manufacturers to truly address the pricing issue will be for product scheduled to deliver in the Fall 2008 season.

You are probably beginning to see our predicament. Here is an example. A Burton Blunt snowboard is supposed to retail for $439.99 CAN or $339.99 US. With the conversion at that time and the 7.5% duty we were doing well here in Canada. If you bought that $339.99 US board it would take $397.79 CAN. You would then pay 7.5% duty on it bringing your total to $430.00 CAN. That $10 would be quickly eaten up by the cost of shipping. Buying from your local shop for $439 would save you time and money over using any US dealer.

After reading and digesting this I think you will see we are NOT trying to take advantage of this situation. In fact, we are in a lose-lose situation as a Canadian retailer. We are losing customers and the money available to pay our monthly bills is vaporising in front of our very eyes through conditions beyond our control. Our pricing systems simply can't respond fast enough.

Please be patient and please support your local retailers they are not enjoying any advantage.

If you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to contact me at scott@wildrock.net

Every year at this time we have customers who interested in giving Nordic equipment but are unsure what information we need to help them with the selection. So if you want to buy Nordic ski equipment for that special someone this holiday season and want to keep it a surprise read on.

Here is a "how to" for collecting all the information you need to make the Nordic skier in you life happy on Christmas morning.

The Banff Film Festival returns to Peterborough! The first night is on Thursday January 17 at the Gordon Best theatre. Friday January 18 is at Showplace.

Tickets are $15 per night or $25 for both nights.

The Festival happens in November in Banff and starts travelling after that so there is no new info yet. Things will be updated in late December. You can check out things from last year by clicking below or wait until the end of the year to find out more about this years picks.

Here is a trailer from youtube.