An unexpected find in Barcelona

Sometimes while travelling it's the unexpected things that stand out most.  When I was in Spain in 2009, I stopped inside a mall in Barcelona to pick up a few things in a department store.  While waiting for a clerk at one of the counters, I wandered over to some framed photographs on a nearby wall.  It was some sort of photography contest and looked interesting.  One of the first photos I looked at felt instantly familiar and really struck a chord with me; it looked like my hometown of Trail, Canada, a smelter town with a population of 8000 people.  I thought: "That's strange, there's a town in Spain that looks like Trail".  Then I looked closer and thought: "Wow, the resemblance is remarkable".  About a second later, I decided there's no way it could not be my hometown.  And indeed it was Trail.  An elderly man from Trail, named Thomas Gardiner, had entered photos into the contest halfway across the world in Spain, and had been chosen as a finalist.  What a strange coincidence it was.  It made my head spin a little bit.  It made me nostalgic and homesick, and made the world feel small but also strangely interconnected.

An early season hike

It's early spring on the West Coast of Canada, a gargantuan winter snowpack still lies on the mountains, and it's way too early to do any serious hiking.  But nevertheless, I've had the urge to get out and hike, so I made it happen this past weekend.  I decided to try a lower-elevation hike, one below or near the snow line.  I chose the Lindeman-Greendrop Lakes trail in Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park.  This is in the Cascade Mountains, where they edge north over the border from Washington state.

It was a short, steep hike up to Lindeman Lake, which is around 800m elevation.  The trail was free of snow and upon reaching the lake I was amazed that the slopes of scree and brush above the lake were lacking snow too.  Lindeman is a beautiful little lake with gorgeous blue water and striking views of rock pinnacles above on Flora Peak.  Content with Lindeman, I headed onwards to Greendrop.  The hiking was more challenging, with some boulder fields to scramble over, but simple enough as it followed the Post Creek valley bottom.  Eventually though, I hit snow.  The deeper, shadier forests in the valley bottom still held quite a bit of snow.  The trail was also icy in spots.  It started to feel like a winter hike, I didn't have gaters to keep away the snow or snowshoes to stay on top of the snow, and I was very much alone.  It was one of those moments where you realize that a few little mishaps could be troublesome.  It was still a good distance to Greendrop, so I decided to turn back and return to Lindeman, the lake that held what I was looking for.  Sometimes as a solo hiker, you have to cut your plans short, and you can't let your pride get in the way... not always an easy thing to do.  Greendrop will have to wait till next time.  Looking forward to scrambling the boulders that were hiding under the snow! 

Here are a few photos of Lindeman Lake. 

A winter weekend in the NORTHwest

More on the American Southwest later...  I just spent a weekend in the American NORTHwest, so that's what I'd like to share with you today.  Just this past weekend, Nadia, myself, and friends Dennis and Ashley spent a few days at a backcountry ski resort in Washington state called Scottish Lakes High Camp.  It's a high mountain camp in the Cascade Mountains, east of the crest, not too far from the town of Leavenworth.  To get there, you can either ski in (a long slog) or fork out the extra dough and shuttle in on snowmobiles (along with your gear, which gets hauled in on snowmobiles anyway).  The camp itself is nestled in a small wooded notch below McCue Ridge and consists of a main lodge, hot tub and sauna, and several small cabins with rustic amenties.

There were many highlights over High Camp weekend.  I tried out telemark skiis for the first time (Dennis lent me the gear) and I took to them quite naturally.  The ridiculous amount of snow was also a highlight, transforming the whole landscape into a winter wonderland.  Hanging out in camp was also lots of fun... playing Balderdash and drinking good Northwest beer.  The cabins themselves are quite endearing and grow on you, even when you are too hot trying to sleep beside the woodstove at 2am, and cold two hours later once your fire has burnt out; a nightly ritual was waking at 4am to rebuild the fire in my underwear.  Uhhh... not the fire in my underwear.  The fire, while in my underwear. 

Another highlight was the fierce weather.  Overcast and snowing on the Friday and Saturday, along with gale force wind gusts to go along with our Gale Force India Pale Ales waiting for us back at cabin.  Then clearing out and dead calm on the Sunday, with some good views of the mountains south of McCue Ridge.  Ahh, yes, and can't forget about the tobogganing... probably the highlight for Nadia!

American Southwest, Part 1

The land of the Wild West has intrigued me for years now... its massive canyons, its colours, its open skies, its desolation, its kitsch, its mystery.  Perhaps it was an article I read in a magazine, or Kerouac's writings in 'The Dharma Bums', or the imagery in 'Into the Wild' when Chris McCandless spends time in desert, or maybe it the classic film 'Easy Rider', which I saw for the first time last year.  I guess it doesn't matter what it was, but either way, this fall it was finally time to take a trip to this strange part of the world.  Nadia and I flew to Las Vegas in late October with Halloween costumes in our luggage, hit the strip for a few days, then headed out onto the open highway in a rental car.  The map below shows our route from Las Vegas counterclockwise into Arizona and then north into southern Utah, returning to Vegas.  Six nights on the road.  First night at the Hualapai Lodge in Peach Springs, Arizona.  Second night tenting in -5 to -10C temperatures at the Grand Canyon.  Then a night at a hotel in Page, Arizona.  Then three nights at Zion National Park in southern Utah with friends Dennis and Ashley.

  

Las Vegas was a blast.  We both enjoyed it more than we thought we would.  The timing was perfect too.  We were there October 29-31, right over Halloween!  It was lots of fun just to wander up and down the strip, stopping every now and then to take in the rather ridiculous and oversized sights.  People watching is something else there too.  A highlight for us was dressing up in costume.  I dressed up as Shaun from the British zombie comedy 'Shaun of the Dead'.  Nadia was dressed as a killer pyschopath.  Interestingly, our costumes were quite similar; the common denominator was BLOOD, and lots of it!!  There were others dressed in costume but we still seemed to stand out.  We got overwhelmed with positive comments and laughs from others.  We went out to dinner in our costumes and were the only ones in the whole restaurant in costume.

We left Vegas and floor 13 behind on October 31st and took to the highway.  After stopping at the Hoover Dam and driving long (and tiresome) straight stretches through open desert, we reached Kingman, AZ near dusk.  Then we continued east onto Route 66 and before we knew it darkness had set in, the road was growing more desolate, and the night ominous.  The passing towns were void of motels so we kept on going, hopeful but growing somewhat weary and worried.  Finally we found a lodge in the town of Peach Springs, operated by the local Hualapai Native Americans.  So we stayed the night there.  We were happy we did, because we had a gorgeous drive the next morning and saw lots of the kitchy Route 66 attractions at Canyon Taverns and in Seligman, stuff we would have otherwise missed in the darkness the night before.  Soon I will post part 2 and 3 of the trip, which will include the Grand Canyon and Zion. 

The last gasp of light at dusk before darkness took over on Route 66

Enjoying wacky roadside attractions along Route 66

Seasons and time of day

October is one of my favourite months because it is time of change and transition.  It is unlike any other month.  A recent drive through BC's interior on the Coquihalla highway to Kamloops and back reminded me how beautiful this time of year can be.  Now I don't have any photos from this drive but it did get me thinking more of how season and time of day change how we look at the world.  So I'd like to share with you photos of two of my favourite places.  Mount Seymour, BC in different seasons and Villamayor de Montjardin, Spain at different times of day.

Mount Seymour's 1st peak (Pump Peak) in late September

Same view of Mount Seymour in January, about nine months earlier

Village of Villamayor, cool and blue, near dawn

Villamayor in the afternoon heat, stormy sky in the distance

My new photo gallery

I've created a NEW photo gallery with Google's Picasa web albums. This will be where I post photos of my travels and hikes 2011 and beyond.  I still have my Pbase photo website, of course, and this is where you can find older photos (2010 and earlier) as well as any special photo project that I'm working on. If you want to check out my galleries, the links are in the column on the right of this page, near the top, underneath my profile photo.

Finding peace in the Kootenays and Pemberton Valley

Yes, it's been almost two months since I wrote last.  No shortage of things to write about, that's for sure.  But sadly I have no excuses to offer for not writing.  Blog hiatus aside, it's been a busy couple of months and I've been on the road a little bit, mostly local trips in BC and one trip south across the border to Seattle. 

A summer highlight was spending Labour Day long weekend in the Kootenays with Nadia and my parents.  I've been to my parents' cabin on Kootenay Lake many summers in years past, but it was different this time as I was showing it all to Nadia for the first time! (well, first time in the summer; she has been to the Kootenays before in winter).

For pictures of Kootenay Lake and other recent trips, visit my Picasa web albums.

Below is a neat find in the Pemberton Valley.   It's an "honour stand" offering  fresh corn, potatoes, cucumber, and other vegetables to passers by on the road.   The catch is that nobody mans the stand; you choose your food, add up the price, and put money in a metal box.  It was refreshing to be so far out of the city to find something like this.  Thank you Goat Mountain Produce!

A neat find in the Pemberton Valley.  It's an "honour stand" rewarding

honest people with good fresh food straight off the farm.