Monday 9th July – Today we hired a couple of bikes downtown and headed out round the Stanley Park circuit. It was a lovely day with warm sunshine. We enjoyed the cycling so much we carried on round the south side of town along the shoreline and back towards Stanley Park. We stopped along the way at a beach for a brew and a butty, super stuff. Late afternoon we wandered back up through the problems of East Hastings to the hotel for another Chinese feast and a beer.
Tuesday 10th July – Moving on day today and another car hire adventure awaits. We went downtown to pick up the car but the car wasn’t in yet and we were early so we went back to the digs and I went down for the car at lunchtime then picked Lynn up with the luggage.
The hire experience went OK but we ended up with a bigger car than we had expected. It was a very nice car, as they go but it was all gadgets with buttons for this, sensors for that. However it was very comfortable and roomy so off we set for Squamish and some more camping. Before we set off we had to find some more camp fuel – proving to be a real nuisance out here. Found a DIY shop that didn’t sell it. Told us we needed a paint shop. Found the paint shop, they didn’t know what we meant until they got another guy who finally got us sorted.
Lovely run up to Squamish and we found the campsite quite by accident. Nice friendly owners but we were back with the trees again. Not only were there trees but also mozzies which were a real nuisance. We had a lovely big pitch as before and the chumping queen was straight on the case finding wood for the fire. After we had site set up we went shopping and had dinner and a beer by the fire. Well wrapped up in an attempt to keep the mozzies at bay.
Squamish was about 6 miles away from the site in a pretty mountain valley alongside a wide river. The site itself was set in ‘woods’ next to the railway which chugged up and down the valley to Whistler. Whistler is where they held the 2010 winter Olympics.
Wednesday 11th July – Managed to sleep in today. After a leisurely breakfast we walked from the site up the Thomson trail up to Lake Brohm. Steep start to the walk but then got easier and ended up on the lakeside where we lunched. Trail back was probably more difficult going down as it was so steep. Got back to site mid afternoon and headed out shopping. Here in Canada you cannot buy alcohol in the supermarkets you have to go to liquor stores – what a bind. Also it is far more expensive here in Canada than it was in the USA.
In the evening we had a BBQ and tried to BBQ as many mozzies as we could – what a nuisance they were. Dinner was good but the evening cut short as we had to sit in the car due to mozzies.
Thursday 12th July – A day out locally today. First stop was ‘eagles run’ in Brackendale which boasts to be the bald eagle capital of the world!! They allegedly counted 1600 one day last winter. Oh I forgot to mention the eagles come down here in winter so we didn’t see any that day!! After eagle spotting unsuccessfully we headed into Squamish for a brew then down to the beach side via Sawmills Road where we had excellent views of Shannon Falls and The Chief – a local huge granite monolith where all the local climbers test their skills. Quite a sight I have to say.
We then headed across town to do a short walk and ended up having to turn back as the path ran out!! Very frustrating but an interesting if only short walk. We then went shopping headed back to site and had dinner. Mozzies once again really bad so after dinner we drove up the valley to a place marked on the map called Garibaldi, which in reality did not exist as we couldn’t find it. There were some stunning views along the way which in some way redeemed the trip out.
Friday 13th July – The dreaded Friday the 13th and we are heading for Whistler today. Well I say heading as we didn’t actually get there 'til late afternoon. We got delayed at a place called Brandywine Falls – sounds like something from Lord of the Rings!! It was actually quite a spectacular waterfall but once we had seen the falls we saw a sign for the Whistler bungee so we followed that. It was further than I think the signs lead you to believe but quite spectacular when you got there. We stood and watched a few folks leaping off then headed back down the long trail back to the falls and car park.
We arrived in Whistler 3.30ish and were amazed at the number of mountain bikers queuing for the gondola to the top so they could come tearing back down. There were also guys wandering around with snowboards and skis and there wasn’t any snow to be seen!! We made enquiries about gondola tickets but were too late in the day to get any real benefit from the tickets so we headed back set on coming back early the following day.
Back at the site it was the ususal round of showers, fires, food, drink and battle with the mozzies – who seem to be winning at this place!!
Saturday 14th July – Early start as we were off to Whistler again! Got off to a bad start though as I left my boots back at the tent and we had to go back 17kms to get them, what a muppet!! Finally on our way again we parked in one of the many giant car parks and got our gondola ticket.
The first gondola was of the open bucket type with your feet swinging about under you, this took us half way up Blackcomb mountain. Here we had to get off and get another to took us almost to the top. Where we got off to change gondolas we saw a black bear, he was sitting in the grass about 100 yards away from the gondola station not bothered about anyone. It was great to see him sat there tucking into some alpine flowers. The second gondola took us to the bottom of the ski and snowboard trails where there was tons of snow!! So we got on the third gondola to take us up to the start of these trails. It was like a different world at the top with a dedicated course for snowboarding, downhill ski runs and courses it was remarkable.
Fourth gondola back down to the snow board finish, all gondolas so far have been bucket types. We were now waiting for our fifth gondola which was a large 16 person type enclosed gondola. Not just any old gondola tho’, this was the highest and longest in the world and we were waiting for a gondola car with a glass bottom!! It connected Blackcomb mountain to Whistler mountain via one continuous cable car system, what a feat of engineering and designed and built in Austria!
It was quite a ride across between the two mountains and it took about 12 minutes to do the journey. Now on Whistler mountain – keep up please – we headed for gondola number six to take us to the top of Whistler mountain. Another bucket type gondola and more spectacular scenery and piles of snow.
We actually walked down from the top of Whistler mountain back to the longest/highest cable car where we got in an ordinary car (no glass floor) back across to Blackcomb mountain. Here we had a wander about before getting gondolas number eight and nine back down to Whistler village and resort. We saw another black bear on the way down rolling around in the alpine meadow below us. It sounds like all we have done all day is ride on gondolas but we have in fact done quite a bit of exploring and wandering about in between.
A superb day was had on Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, probably one of the best ‘fun days’ of the trip!! On the way back down to Squamish number 1 chumper spotted some more wood at forty yards – good job as we were out of wood!! So after a quick gathering of the woods we headed back via the ‘Wigan chip shop’ in Squamish for dinner and the usual battle with the annoying biting little farts!!
Sunday 15th July – Moving on day again, this time it’s back to VC straight through town and down Tsasswassen where had a ferry booked for Salt Spring Island. The journey went OK although wet and foul, we did however manage to get the tent away dry!
The ferry across to Saltspring was steady but we couldn’t see much because of the bad weather. We arrived at the camp site around 4.30ish and it was an open spot with no trees!! We got all set up in nice cosy little site setting, just got the fire going when Mrs D spotted a huge Roland rat running at the back of the site so that was the end of this nice site feeling……… We got through dinner and watched some TV via the internet with good old free wifi on site. Despite Roland a good nights sleep was had and the following day the sun was back and all was beautiful!!
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