Expedition Canada

Happy New Year! Looking across West Howe sound to West Lion Mtn Fri Dec 31st 2021 Just as the road was becoming more passable after the snow on Christmas Eve, another 200mm fell overnight of the 29th/30th.  The snow-shoes came into their own Thursday morning, just for getting Jack down the road.  What a great Christmas present. With temperatures remaining below zero the snow is expected to stick around until at least Sunday when we have a couple of days when the forecasts suggest we will get up to a balmy +5c. Although the council snow-ploughs and gritters have been out, even the main roads still have some snow on them so we have not ventured far.   He loves it! A neighbour with a plough attachment for his tractor/lawn mower again cleared the road below us as far as the section where it levels out and I decided to take on the drive.   I wish now I had bought a snow-blower rather than a snow shovel, as it took me the best part of two hours to clear our steep drive and get some salt down

Cold Jack on the Dakota Ridge snow shoe trail going grey with ice and snow Tue Dec 28th  The weather predictions were pretty accurate and the snow and cold temperatures have continued through the Christmas weekend.  It has been a very 'white Christmas'. Nick and Lizzie arrived mid afternoon Christmas Eve and stayed through to Monday afternoon. Hopkins Landing Wharf just after dawn Sadly the NZ branch could not make it because of work demands, (their summer of course) covid restrictions and expensive returning quarantine requirements, nor Fred's sister from London.  We had a great few days and though we could not meet in person, Zoom kept us in touch with distant relations.   The local walks and weather made Christmas rather special and it was mainly blue skies in between the snow showers.  Day time it's been around -5c and -16c at night. The road up to Sprockids Trails Boxing day (it's called that in Canada as well) we headed down to Cliff Gilker .  The snow had got

First White Canadian Christmas Fri Dec 24th It was lovely to wake up to snow on Christmas Eve morning, though we would have preferred it not to have been at 0430 when Jack heard the snow sliding off the roof. Today is the start of the snow and a prolonged period of cold weather. Temperatures are forecast to drop below zero for the next 10 days or so with it dropping down to -9C during the day and -15C at night. My new snow shovel and bag of salt came in to good use on our steep drive this morning though by the time I was back from walking Jack the snow had covered it again!  Perhaps I should have bought one of those machines after all! Actually having just seen a neighbour drive down the road on his large ride on lawn mower/tractor with a snow plough attachment on the front, I rather fancy one of those! I popped into the butchers in Gibsons this morning for our Christmas meat and having enjoyed the queues at Sumblers in Marlborough at 0600 on Christmas Eve, feared the worst.  More staf

Boys Day Out Hopkins Landing - Sunrise Tue Dec 21st The winter solstice has arrived and the days will soon start getting longer and nights shorter.  If we on the Coast needed a reminder that Dec 21st is the start of winter the -1c outside left us in no doubt, that's 6c below average.  Snow is due later in the day.   Six months ago it was 27.6c; the start of the heat dome that engulfed west coast North America and pressaged the 1600 fires that destroyed 8,700 sq km of BC forests, the third worst season on record.  That's five and half times the area of Greater London.   The lack of rain that accompanied the  warm summer led to water restrictions on the coast.  Locally, the Gibsons Well supplied water without problem, as distinct from Chapman Lake reservoir that serves Sechelt and the northern west coast.  Gibsons actually piped water to Sechelt at the height of the restrictions.  The dry summer was closely followed by a very wet Oct and Nov, the wettest since 2007 and 2006 respe

Shipping Scheduled Ferry inbound to Langdale Fri Dec 17th With Christmas around the corner there can be few who are not contemplating the impact of the latest Omicron variant on being able to get together with family, particularly if they are overseas.  Although the stats for BC and Canada as a whole are proportionality lower than the UK's figures, Canadians are being 'advised' not to travel internationally at Christmas.  More announcements are being made daily and visitors have to self-isolate/quarantine for two days in non-shared accommodation.  Fred's sister who was due to arrive on Christmas Eve, has had to postpone her trip, as we feared, further restrictions are likely to be put in place in the next few days.   Snow capped mainland mountains Canada is significantly behind the UK in rolling out booster jabs so it is a surprise that the numbers are not worse than they are.  BC had 763 new cases yesterday and 183 hospitalized in a population of just of 5 million.  Th

Dodgy Drivers Sub-zero and he's in shorts! Sun Dec 12th  Friday morning brought low cloud and snow showers so we abandoned skiing for the day.  We have a season pass which reduces the pressure to go up the mountain, rather than waste an expensive day on a day/weekly ticket.  There will be more opportunities.  In any event we discover that now we are no longer 35/34 year olds, it hurts more the next day! We had a wander around Whistler Village and then headed up to Lost Lake for a walk around the loop trail. At the moment it's sti ll open to walkers, but once the snow builds up it will be closed to everybody but cross-country skiers.  This is the walk we did in summer, past the slumbering young Black Bear a couple of metres off the side of the trail. There were few people out as the snow started falling more heavily as we got further round the loop.  It was very picturesque and Christmassy!  As we started around the actual Lake it looked as though several people had decided to t

Well it is Whistler! Thu Dec 9th  Paw Prints We've escaped to Whistler for a few days, after last week's excursion had to be cancelled because it was raining up the mountain.  Not so this week.  The snow above the mid-station was great and there were few fellow skiers on the slopes, more importantly, no lift queues.  The advantage of skiing in December is fewer people; the disadvantage is that conditions can be variable, as we found last week. Nick and Lizzie's apartment  which is now fairly well booked for the season (we got in early, but there are still some gaps) is in Creekside.  Worth keeping an eye on it for any last minute deals.  The 'loft' apartment is great for two people and good for a family of four.  It's a 5 minute walk to the Creekside gondola and there is a well stocked supermarket, BC Liquor store, bars and equipment shops close by.    Since we moved to Canada, Jack has been amazing and settled in quickly to wherever we are staying.  He has beco

Rail Services Restored Mon Dec 6th  Our current house in Gibsons The first snowfall of winter transformed the local scenery overnight and the house looked rather cosy nestled amongst the snow shrouded trees.    It's probably not going to be around long as rain is due to arrive later tonight.   The walk down to Hopkins Landing was quiet with the snow soaking up the usual morning sounds.  Some highways still have sections that are not passable because of the rain and land slips.  Canadian National (CN) Railways have resumed rail services that connect through to the port of Vancouver. Canadian Pacific had already resumed services within BC.  It'll be interesting to see which company will transport our shipping container across Canada.  A rail journey of 4,800km, compared to the 4,900km between the UK and Quebec, where the ship will dock. Speaking of ports, the container ship, Zim Kingston,  damaged by fire six weeks ago after losing nearly 110 containers is finally being allowed

Fred Takes City Tour Not a cloud in the sky - Vancouver on Thursday Sat  Dec 4th The 'atmospheric river' ran out of rain on Wednesday and the weather has started to get colder ahead of snow arriving over the weekend, through to the early part of next week. It will make a pleasant change, the gin clear sky on the right was a welcome sight. Flood waters in Abbotsford are almost gone and the evacuation orders rescinded.  Home owners are heading back to their properties to start the drying out.  Farmers have been badly affected but the impact on the usually fertile soils of the Fraser valley will not be known until next spring.  Livestock farmers have been particularly badly hit.  Some 628,000 poultry are reported to have been lost, plus about 12,000 cattle, pigs and other animals.  Whilst it is a relatively small percentage of BC's food production, and supplies are not expected to be materially affected, there will be many devastated farmers and local communities.   On Thursda