Footnotes to the Vertical Venture through the Mountains

Before I post these photos of the British Columbia mountains we saw. keep in mind several things. Many pictures were taken from the window, because there was no way we were stopping to photograph the spectacular scenery. Also, the mountain scenes may be somewhat out of order, as we had two and sometimes three cameras flicking away at one time. The key fact is that we did drive up and down most of them!

When we left Vancouver to head north toward Whistler, we marvelled at the great road. Funny thing, the quality quit just after Whistler. Thinking back, all that 2010 Olympics tourist traffic turned around at Whistler after viewing the skiing events and returned to Vancouver. We did not do that, of course. We continued on.

Just before we headed up the first STEEP grade, a two foot tall black bear cub scampered across the road, not 30 feet in front of us! It was so cute to see how it moved. We never saw it's mother, but we should have seen the omen for what it was...it was getting wild ahead.

To make the trip more exciting, we lost our exhaust brake (jake brake) that morning. We still haven't had a chance to have it looked at, and we have not been able to fix it ourselves. So, we have been braking with gears and camper brakes, as well as the truck brakes. Fun.

Today, we arrived in Banff National Park. We will try to catch up the blog during the next 6 days that we stay here. Everyone is ready for a break (...a brake, too...ha-ha).

Butchart Gardens, Vancouver Island, BC

Vancouver, BC

Of Vancouver, Victoria, and a Very Vertical Venture through the Mountains

Hello, again, everyone! Since I haven't posted for a while, a lot of work has piled up for me. You might want to get comfortable. This post will be a little bit longer than some of the others. On Tuesday of this past week, we crossed the border, and pulled into BCRV (British Columbia Recreational Vehicle) Park, in the town of Burnaby. Vancouver, a short distance away by public transit, was first on our list of visitations. Leaving at noon the day after we arrived in the park, Mom, Philip, and I walked to Vancouver's automated transport system, known as the "SkyTrain." From the station nearest to the campground, roughly fifteen minutes away on foot, we travelled to Waterfront Station in Vancouver. Once we reached the station, we stopped to eat an extremely nice (although somewhat expensive) restaurant that was adjacent to the station. We all got very different and very delicious lunches. Mom had halibut tacos, Philip had a chicken sandwich, and I had some exquisite Korean short ribs, with cucumbers and kim chi (a sort of spicy cabbage, which adds a great deal of flavor to the ribs). After consuming our respective meals, we walked across the street to the Harbour Centre, the site of the Vancouver Lookout. The Vancouver Lookout is another one of those observation towers, just like Seattle's Space Needle, or Toronto's CN Tower, except for the fact that it is not a lone structure; it is positioned on top of a building. Anyway, we got some great pictures from up at the top. After our trip to the top, we walked to Canada Place, home of Vancouver's World Trade Center, and a LOT of cruise ships - you can see some of them in our pictures from the Vancouver Lookout. We walked around the piers for a little while, then we went back to SkyTrain's Waterfront Station, and headed back for our campground.

The next day, we got up nice and early for our trip to Butchart Gardens ("Butchart" is pronounced like "Boo Shart," not "Butt Chart") on Victoria Island. Our driving was accompanied by a three-hour round trip ferry ride, so we got some great stretching and picture-taking opportunities. Butchart Gardens is amazing. It used to be some rich guy's private estate, but he converted the better part of his property into an expansive set of Gardens. Unlike many gardens, this one is divided into several different themes. There's the Sunken garden, which was created from an old quarry, the Italian Garden, the Japanese Garden, the Rose Garden, and the Mediterranean Garden. After arriving back at camp, we got to sleep pretty soon, as we had a long drive the next day.

We got up bright and early to disconnect and move out. We got out of our tight spot without damaging the camper. What we weren't prepared for, however, was the terrain of the drive. Before long, we were driving up and down a myriad of mountains. Although the scenery was beautiful, it was also tough to drive on. At one point we even ended up stopping because our brakes were smoking. We stopped around 6:40 pm at a very nice RV camp. Today isn't nearly as bad as yesterday (the driving), and the scenery is very nice. Thanks for staying with me on this post, if you read this far; stay tuned! This is Spencer, signing off.

North Cascades National Park

Goodbye to Washington

We are all amazed at the sights in the western part of this lush state. The three parks we visitied are quite different, which was a surprise to us. Spencer hinted at it. At Mt. Rainier, there were such huge Douglas Firs (we think), they reminded us of small redwoods. The roads in the park were built around the big ones. No pictures; we were intent on staying safely on the road.

In the Cascades, the road seemed to remain in the valleys, following the Skagit River. We found it hard to get up high enough to see many of the snow-capped peaks and glaciers that we know are there. The steepness of the mountains continues to be astonishing. The movie about the area in the Visitor Center even mentioned it. Early loggers left many of the trees standing, because the nearly vertical terrain was simply impossible to log.

Throughout this time, we have had gorgeous sunny weather and no bugs at all...even in the deep, green, shadowed forests. It seems impossible, but the "Off" has not come out of the camper. In this typically rainy corner of the world, we were blessed with the best -- wonderful weather and a very good friend's visit.

Yesterday, we headed to Vancouver after dropping Tommy at the airport. The Canadian Customs official was very thorough...questioned if we were carrying firearms. When I responded that we weren't, he asked me "Why not?" I sort of choked out a reply, "We aren't hunting." I guess that was an acceptable answer, as we got through without being searched.

We are in the tightest space in an RV Park we have ever been in. A special tractor with an arm that grabs the hitch pivoted us into our spot for the next two days. It's very nice here, once the camper got settled. We'll let you know what happens next...

Mt. Rainier National Park