Expedition Canada

Mountains, Waterfalls and Bears Fri June 17th Dandelion Diner alongside the parking lot in Whistler Turnaround complete we headed up to Whistler late Tuesday morning and up the Sea to Sky Highway, aka Highway 99.  Those who have driven it will attest to the beauty of the drive.  The first half runs along the eastern side of the Howe Sound as far as Squamish and then the Cheakamus River follows much of the route into Whistler as far as Daisy Lake where it heads away from the highway. Our first stop on route was the Shannon Falls, a short walk from the car park to BC's third highest falls at just over 1100ft.  It is also known for the cliff face off to one side that is a favourite of the more advanced climbers. The Sea to Sky Gondola alongside Shannon Falls takes you up to the top, near Squamish's The Chief where there are numerous trails that could fill a week. Dogs are not allowed on the Gondola on the way up, but if you hike the five hours to the top with your hound...

And Floods Tue June 29th The heat bubble is moving inland and though the morning walk was already 23c  at 0630 , temperatures were noticeably  cooler today on those occasions when we weren't in a store or air conditioned car. The Hyannis trail is a lovely mix of 'old growth' trees and not so old.  Many are covered with Spanish Moss, which gives the forest a slightly primordial feel, or at least what I imagine it to have been like. There were more early walkers out trying to avoid the "midday sun".   Today the Disco had been booked into Land Rover in Richmond, to have the auto stop-start fixed. It has not worked since we bought the vehicle, coupled with a persistent low-battery sign.  Three years old!  We were offered a Jaguar loan car, which we declined as we were off to Ikea to get some bits and pieces for the new rental.  The almost new Discovery Sport was quite fun, head-up-display on the windscreen, all glass instruments an...

 And a glass or two of wine! Happy hour! Proper food Tired of our hotel room and requiring a change of scenery and rations we made an early escape to the airport once the negative Covid tests arrived.   Imagine our delight, after 2 days without a drink to ease the frustration, to find the airport bar was doing Happy Hour.  Given the absence of passengers, it was probably doing it all day!  Several glasses of Sauvignon later and a few nibbles, spirits were restored.   Never has airport food tasted so good. As a domestic arrival in Vancouver we had bags collected and were in the back of a taxi in all of 15 minutes from touchdown.   The drive across to North Vancouver in the Blueridge area, just east of Lynn Regional Park took about 40 minutes.  It is a quiet, residential, tree-lined neighbourhood which we knew from past walks in Lynn.  Fred chose this accommodation because we have seven days of remaining quarantine after Jack arr...