Home sweet home, for now....

If you've not already heard, I finally have a new, temporary home/travel base. I now reside in Kitsilano, Vancouver, and for those of you who don't know it's kind of like the equivalent of St Kilda in Melbourne. Its just out of Downtown (city) and has a beach, and is a bit of a trendy hub, close to pretty much everything. If you're not familiar with Melbourne, I have no other comparison, you'll just have to google it if you're that interested.

The new roomies are Joel (25y.o. Installer of Outdoor Watering Systems) and Jodi (28y.o Valet for Mercedes...for another 2 weeks anyway; he informed me last night that he gleefully quit). It will be interesting living with 2 guys; at this stage they seem tidy enough. I'm still deciding whether taking this room was desperation based or not, while I feel around to regain my groove in the comfort zone. Hopefully it won't take too long. But at least I have my weekends back to do with what I will, and can get back into the serious business at having a look around this outdoor playground.

Whistler seemed like an obvious place to start. I think I mentioned a while back organising a trip for the Canada Day long weekend just passed, so jumped on the Moose bus on Saturday morning with about 18 others and headed off...to the grocery store actually. It was promoted as a stop to prepare for lunch and drinks, but I suspect it was the all important coffee stop, and well received it was. Nourishment organised, we headed off to Shannon Falls, about the 3rd highest falls in North America, and um...it was OK. We had a short half hour walk through the forest which was amazingly spectacular. There's just something about looking at trees covered in almost wispy, flouro green moss as though you're looking through slime that is amazingly soothing.

Back on the bus and off to Alice Lake, and our picturesque lunch destination. It was a welcome break, as my eyes were getting sore from always keeping them ooot for bears. I was surprised to find people swimming in the lake, with wetsuits, when I was rugged up with jumpers etc. This acclimatising thing has only just kicked in, as the sun has been elusive for most of the time I've been here so far. Its about 25deg today and relatively nice - I can just manage a t-shirt.

Back on the bus with Whistler aboot 40 minutes away and I was getting excited about jumping off and having a look around...OK I wanted to run smack bang into a bear at the earliest possible moment! We'd got a big rap for the hostel we were to stay at, the Alta Vista Hostel, a.k.a. Alta Vista Chalet B&B. Its a very flash establishment during the peak winter season, but for the summer they rip out the nice queen beds and cram in the bunk beds. It was nice, but the only complaint was that the shower was clearly clogged, so you kind of had to stand in everyone else's shower water. I'm sure I've stood in worse...

It was about a 15 minute walk into Whistler Village from the hostel, on a little pathway that ran sandwiched in between the highway and the golf course. Even within close proximity to both the road and the busy golf course, I was slightly nervous on that 1st walk alone that I would tragically, yet excitingly, fall victim to an opportunistic cougar. Alas, and then thankfully not. Now, I didn't get to the nice ski spots in Europe, but if I had, I expect that Whistler Village would look a lot like them. All lovely chalets crowded around a tiny market place and winding walkways. I would love to see it in full snow - so I think I will, although clearly not staying at the Alta Vista Chalet B&B when the price gets about as steep as the slopes.

Being the long weekend and a hot spot for summer biking (pardon the pun), Whistler was hosting the Red Bull Elevation BMX competition with BMX'ers from all over the world. Having only ever seen a few bike parks, usually consisting of some small ant hills and shallow puddles, I was blown away at the course set up for those crazy adrenalin junkies. Whistler has almost as many mountain biking trails as they do ski runs - which is a lot. I watched the BMX final on Sunday, and despite some heavy, heavy falls there were no major injuries sustained - they had clearly been sustained in earlier rounds and many of the competitors were carrying wrist and ankle injuries, the severity of which was unknown as yet, as it might mean that competing in finals was jeopardised...


Sunday morning I jumped in a gondola with a fellow traveller from Ontario - c/o Bermuda, that would take us to the top of Whistler Peak. There are often bear sightings on the way up, and when we got to the first section change there was a notice for bear sightings about half an hour prior! Excitedly we carried on in hope, and with excitement mounting as we approached Tower 16, where the sighting had been. Nothing. Not for all the wearing out eyes looking in the gondola.

When we reached the main jump off point there was snow laying about lazily in patches, like snow does, and such a chilly breeze blowing about that I was pleased with my prudent decision to bring a second jumper along for the trip. Further on up the next chairlift we reached Whistler Peak, and the valleys and snow-capped mountains spread out 360deg around us. It was a pretty amazing sight. I mean I've stood in the middle of the Himalayas before (ooh, what a name dropper!) and that was mind blowing , but to actually be on the peak, even if the elevation is only 2,182 m (7,160 ft. for pre-Gen X - furlongs unknown...) kinda did make me feel like I was standing on top of the world. But if I had to choose, its still Nepal all the way - sorry Canada.

I'll try to post some of the pics, even though they do, as pics of mountains often do, fall shot of telling the true story, as soon as I can. And just so you know, I risked frostbite to get them it was that cold - they talk about batteries freezing - what about shutter button fingers!?

Wandering around up there, Canadian Traveller was lucky enough to spot and point out a creature that we didn't recognise at a distance, so for story telling purposes we dubbed it a Cougar. Unfortunately we later accurately identified it as a Whistler Marmot that does in fact whistle, and whistled so much that they named the mountain after its call that echoed through the valleys. Well, I think its a good story even if they may have been pulling my leg. Shortly after that I spotted the cutest little chipmunk, but it ran away before I could ask whether it was Chip or Dale.

As the gondola went back down the mountain down, in a manner similar to that of my hopes for seeing a bear, it finally happened. In a clearing offering a full view there was a bear, better described as brown. As we kind of floated over it we noticed her two cubs standing in a trickle of snow run off. It was very exciting, and I don't think I need to tell you that there was definitely Hi 5'ing going on in that gondola. I suspected that it was a Black bear, as they are more common around Whistler, but Canadian Traveller thought Grizzly. I'll hold my final call until I have more bear classifying experience.

That's pretty much it. I've still been working out at University of British Columbia, filling in where required, and trying to get my manners up to a level suitable to take out into the Canadian Public. For those of you who have not encountered this before, Canadians are extremely polite, and it kind of makes you feel like a red-necked neanderthal to be honest, and I would not consider myself all that ill-mannered. Well, maybe some room for improvement.