Black Tusk, BC

Happy New Year!  Hope everyone’s holidays were enjoyable; I had a relaxing Christmas vacation in Alberta hitting up Canmore, Calgary and Edmonton.  It’s always great to visit the usual suspects and see my friends’ cute kids, but unfortunately there weren’t many exciting pictures.  Instead I thought I’d rewind a bit and show some shots from a late fall hike up Black Tusk, part of Garbaldi Provincial Park.  Photos are mainly mine, but credit also goes to JS and Rod.

This is a highly recommended hike off the highway between Whistler and Squamish.  It’s got everything – mountains, glaciers, turquoise alpine lakes, flowers, meadows and a freakin’ volcano!  I was excited since it was my first hike since recovering from my knee injury.  It was a bit of a struggle to get up the shale at the end, but the views were definitely worth it.   30 km and 1740 metres of elevation gain isn’t too shabby for a day hike, although it made for a long day. 

Not too early of a start at the trailhead.  Looking a little tentative before starting the countless switchbacks to get us up the mountain. I'm keeping warm with some thermal layers while JS follows the adage "be bold - start cold".  

Caught our breath at a lookout with the Tantalus mountain range in the distance.

Garibaldi Lake was our lunch stop.   Glacier-fed and surrounded by mountains, I’d definitely return here for some backcountry camping and a nice sunset.

Fall colours in Taylor Meadows

  

Onwards and upwards!  My first glimpse of the black lava tusk poking out the top. 

Getting closer….trees and shrubs are starting to become sparse.  The tusk looks almost unnatural with its dark, jagged edges.  The weather is amazing - could I have asked for a better day?  

  

The trickiest part is climbing the loose shale which slides with each step – it felt like it was one step back for two steps forward.

 

Made it!

It’s crazy looking back and seeing what we just did – looks pretty precarious although you’re further from the drop-off than it looks. I like that this picture captures the long line of people struggling up the slope in the background.

Other Black Tusk trivia:

·         Black Tusk is a stratovolcano characterized by “a steep profile and periodic explosive eruptions”.  Krakatoa and Vesuvius were both stratovolcanoes.

·         Formed ~1.1 million years ago, it last erupted ~170,000 years ago (hopefully no more “explosive eruptions” in my lifetime).

·         To the Squamish First Nations it is known as the “Landing Place of the Thunderbird”

Views from the top

Tofino/Ucluelet, Vancouver Island

Where better to spend an extended September long weekend than hanging out on the beach in Tofino and Ucluelet and attending a fabulous wedding?  Rod’s friends from his Montreal-days converged on Vancouver Island for a week-long party/sight-seeing adventure, where we made it out for a few days of pre-wedding fun in Tofino.  Photo credits go to myself, Rod, Derrick (all the professional looking ones are his), Trish, and a random British bloke on our kayak tour.

Tofino is a small surf town on the West side of Vancouver Island.  It’s a harrowing drive to get there on winding roads where one is inevitably stuck behind mega-large-RVs, only to pass one after 50 km (passing lanes are few and far between) and promptly get stuck behind another equally-large RV.  But when you finally arrive, you are blown away by the beautiful endless stretches of beach (one beach is literally called “Long Beach”) and the incredible realization that there is nothing but Pacific Ocean separating you and Japan. 

But before doing the drive you first have to take the ferry across to Nanaimo, where we caught a beautiful sunset and enjoyed hamming it up in the extreme wind on the sundeck.

We rented a cute little house with four others just across the street from Chesterman Beach.  The bride, groom and some of their friends however splurged on an absolutely gorgeous house right on the beach which was the place to be.  They were right on the doorstep of the world-famous deluxe Wickaninnish Inn  (say that 10 times fast!), which glowed beautifully in the evenings.  It got chilly at night and a campfire was pretty much a necessity.  I can't believe some of the guys are still wearing shorts in ~4 deg. weather!

The beaches were picture-perfect but unfortunately there were no waves for surfing (those people in the title photo were probably tourists who got ripped off at the surf shop).   After some unsuccessful frisbee throwing (too much wind for one of us ;) we decided to rent bodysuits and boogie boards and just hang out in the Pacific.  More hilarious but unfortunately with no photographic evidence was us struggling to get out of our wet wetsuits and then help another friend in.   Also funny were the stereotypical surfers at the board shop.  Hard to believe, but one guy actually said “excelente” at the end of every sentence (e.g. “Everybody got a suit?  Ex-cel-en-te.”)

On our last day in Tofino we took a kayak trip to Meares Island (pictured in the background).  It wasn’t quite as athletic as I would have liked, but I guess on a beginner’s trip they have to make it easy enough that any couch-potato can handle it without drowning.

Lots of majestic red cedars on the island.  Plus we all got to wear Crocs (this trip may have convinced me of their comfyness).

Three cuts from a log the guide swore weren’t carved in any way (well, at least the last one on the right).  Do you see the resemblance to three bear cubs?

Cool panorama from a British guy who dared take his camera out on the water (unlike this scaredy cat).

After Tofino we ventured down the coast a little to Ucluelet where the wedding was taking place.  Unfortunately the weather got  a little cloudy but a short hike along the Wild Pacific Trail still had some great views.

The Broken Islands peeking out of the fog

Amphitrite Point Lighthouse

All along the trail there were buoys with protests against the Northern Gateway pipeline.  Definitely attention-grabbing.

 

Wedding day!  Which way’s the beach?

The beach ceremony was followed by a reception at the swanky Black Rock Resort (pictured in the background).   Highlights were the Pimm’s cocktails, delish appetizers, candy bar (although some kids beat me to some of the good stuff) and of course the great company and dancing.  Like any ultra-successful dance party, the guys had their ties around their heads by the end of the night, although I don’t think the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle look is particularly attractive.   Unfortunately embarrassing photos of this haven't emerged yet!

Moscow, Idaho

This summer I went on a road trip to Idaho for the first time (other than a drive through Coeur D’Alene as a kid).  Our destination was Moscow, Idaho, home to the University of Idaho and a fun disc golf course, and located on the border with Washington in the heart of the Palouse (kind of a fun word no?).  It’s also home to Katie and JB – good friends of Rod and JS – who got married over the August long weekend.   

It was interesting to cross over from relatively liberal Washington and Oregon (where I normally visit in the US) into conservative, rural Idaho.  Being a university town Moscow is probably as progressive and diverse as they get and it’s still 92% white (2000 census), has Smith&Wesson gun demo trailers similar to food carts, and you are greeted on the highways by signs such as “Be cautious of drunk drivers”  (with sad pictures of victims) rather than signs saying “Don’t drink and drive”.    The picture above is the view from our hotel room; I loved that it captures the US flag, the university, and the rural setting.

Also fun is the name itself, which probably wasn’t too popular at the height of the cold war although they pronounce it Mos-co rather than Mos-cow.  I find the name-your-town-after-a-famous-international-city-but-pronounce-it-different phenomenon fascinating.   Did you know there are no less than 16 Oxfords, 16 Florences, and 12 Athens’ in the US?  My favourite creative pronounciation is Versailles (“Ver-sails”).  I think Louis XIV would turn in his grave.

But enough tangents and onto the festivities and the Idaho visit itself.  This was probably the most relaxed, well-organized and down-to-earth wedding I’ve ever been to.  They got their flowers from a U-pick, transported guests to and from the ceremony in charter buses, invited everyone to the rehearsal dinner and Sunday morning bagels-n’-coffee breakfast at their place, and there was even a Thriller flash-mob (led by the bride herself) at the reception.    This couple also has a great sense of humour, where the opening line at the ceremony by the officiant was “Ma-widge is wat bwings us togeder too-day” (from the movie the Princess Bride in case you didn’t recognize it). 

I didn’t want to get into the bride and groom’s faces (there are professional photographers for that), but here is what I (and handing my camera off to others) did manage to snap:

Our trio looking sharp at the ceremony before wilting in the heat.

Selfie.  As a result of taking this picture the happy couple behind us struck up a conversation.

The bride spent several years in Japan and I think she wanted to touch of the Orient for the wedding décor.  She and her friends spent hours folding ~800 paper cranes (their goal was a 1000, but hey who’s counting). 

Loved the light and dark cake and fresh blueberries.  

Moscow has a vibrant main street with a charming farmer’s market and great brunch places.

Brunch!  Monster omelettes, bottomless coffee, and delicious huckleberry zucchini bread.  JS prepares to attack his chicken-fried-steak and gravy.

On our way back to Vancouver we stopped at Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park.  Very dry but extremely hot (close to 40 degrees) we hopped out of our air-conditioned car for a quick tour.    The park features over 40 species of petrified wood created when trees were buried in volcanic ash ~16 million years ago and the organic matter in the trunks was gradually replaced by minerals in the groundwater.   I loved the mix of bleached wood and multi-coloured stone.

The park also has over 300 petroglyphs created by the Wanapum tribe.  

 The park is on the shoreline of the Columbia river offering great views.

Another highlight of the trip was our last night spent at a campground just outside of Leavenworth, Washington.  This town is modelled on a Bavarian village and having experienced the real thing I was pretty darn impressed!  Unfortunately we got there a little late in the day and the bakery and beer gardens were shutting down, but I still enjoyed it and felt like I could pretend I was back in the Alps.  Incorporated in 1906, its transformation to Bavarian-theme-town wasn’t carried out until 1962 as an attempt at revitalization.