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| the ferry to Bowen Island |
We rented a double kayak and headed out to the sea,
surrounded by mountains on all sides.
After about 5km we reached a little island which became a
part of the mainland (the main island?) at low tide.
Somebody lived on the island and had the coolest tunnel
driveway ever, which probably fills with water every high tide.
At that point we turned back and paddled hard so that we
could make the next ferry and make it back to the mainland with time to have
beers and say goodbye to everybody from our lab.
The next day my friend Matt, who I met in Germany last
summer, came to visit. Ev and I had packed all of our belongings into the car
and moved out of our apartment but somehow we still managed to fit Matt and his
friend Andrew in the car. We drove to Cypress Mountain with plans to hike
part of the Howe Sound Crest Trail and camp at the base of the Lions (big
mountains about 11km in).We gained quite a bit of elevation on the drive so we
thought that the crest trail would be an easy hike along a ridge, but it seems
that no matter how high you get, there’s always more to go.
The hike was rated moderate, which meant that it was pretty
steep and tiring but not impossible. It was impossible to stop and rest without
getting eaten alive by the flies though, and having no time to catch our breath
made the hike quite a bit more difficult. After carrying our camping gear 5.5km
in and debating turning back a few times, we made it to the summit of St. Marks
Mountain. This is what we could see from the peak:
We debated turning back yet again because of the bugs but
decided to try to make it to the next peak, called Mount Unnecessary. Five
minutes later we reached a point in the trail with a long, treacherously steep
downhill slope ahead of us into a valley followed by an equally treacherous and
even longer uphill portion to the top of a mountain even higher than the one we
were on. We now fully understood why the mountain was named Mount Unnecessary,
and decided that it would be quite unnecessary for us to lose all that
elevation just to hike back up it. Dripping with sweat and covered in bug bites,
we turned back with the beach on our minds.
Apart from a quick stop to make snow angels and fill our
water bottles from a patch of melting snow near the trail, we kept a pretty
constant pace on the hike back to the car. Even though we carried all of our
camping gear for nothing, it was at least a good work out for future
backpacking trips. We drove back down Cypress Mountain and along the Sea to Sky
highway to Kelvin Grove, where Ev and I had gone diving a few weeks earlier. It
was really nice to jump in the water and there were some fun rocks to climb
around on and cliffs to jump off of. While we were swimming we noticed a nasty
poopy smell and looked towards the shore where we found a giant sign that said
“SEWAGE”. So that was kind of gross, but I haven’t gotten any diseases yet so
it’s probably ok.
We camped that night at Anderson Beach on the Squamish
River, which we had stayed at before. The soft silt was great for sleeping on
and there was an overabundance of driftwood for campfires. The zillions of
stars in the Milky Way created a glowing blue band across the night sky and we
fell asleep under the stars while a meteor shower dropped burning space rocks
into the atmosphere above us.
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| wasn't quite like this, but it was still cool |
We woke up in the morning and drove towards Squamish to take
Matt and Andrew to the Howe Sound Brewery before we headed out. On the drive we
ran over a tent stake which somehow got itself stuck directly in the middle of
our car tire. We pulled over to check the tire and it had a very large hole in
it. After un-tetris-ing the luggage in the trunk, we pulled the spare tire out
and put it on. Re-tetris-ing our baggage was pretty complicated with the bigger
wheel in the trunk but luckily I’ve played a fair amount of tetris in my
childhood so I was pretty good at getting everything to fit in a small space.
The spare tire was pretty flat too, but at least it didn't have a hole in it.
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| tetris |
After getting turned down by Canadian Tire and Wal Mart, we
went to Kal Tire, which is the best car mechanic place ever and if your car
ever breaks down in Canada you should go there. They took the wheel with the
flat tire and pumped up the spare for us and told us to come back in an hour.
We went to the brewery for that hour, got some beer and poutine, and then went
back to Kal Tire. The owner had an awesome dog that we played with while he put
the tire back on, and then when we went to pay him, he refused to accept any
money for it.
With four working tires, we left Squamish, dropped off Matt
and Andrew at the bus stop, and got on the ferry to Nanaimo. It was time to
start living the island life.
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