This is the promised second story - so called 'Après-ski story'. When I finished the skiing on the glacier in Whistler, I thought this was THE experience of the day. I did not know, this was just a beginning not the end. Skiing is not the only adventure I am going to experience on that day.
Back in the hotel, last goodbyes, change for the drive, have small snack. My friend DrA wants to join me to go to Vancouver. Great. We are leaving Whistler, having fun and intellectual discussion. everything goes well until ...
We were just passing the Shannon Falls. I wrote about this place in the post 'Road to Whistler'. My plan was to discover the falls on my way back to Vancouver. I remember I saw the sign - 2,5 km hike to see the falls from top, thinking it may not take more than two hours. I suggested DrA to take this short pleasant hike and see the falls from top. At this point I have to mention the rule - be aware of all your wishes as they will come true. Many of our wishes came true that day. DrA agreed and the unbelievable story started.
This was the first wish which came true - DrA wanted to spend the day on a hike, but it did not happened in Whistler. Here we go - hike to Shannon falls.
The equipment - for a short moment I thought I will keep my flip-flops. It is just short walk. In a last second I decided to take my running shoes (good decision, thanks for the idea). Next time I will wear my hiking shoes, I promise. I had it in the car trunk, did not consider it as an important outfit. My equipment was small bag with one napkin, money and credit card, sun glasses and running shoes. DrA equipment - camera, iPhone and hiking shoes. We kept same dress code - shorts, t-short and sweater. This may seem like enough for short walk. No food, no drinks.
We started our journey. Nice walk up the hill. We reached the sign with basic rules for hikers. At that time we find most of them funny. Later we remember one after the other. People we meet are all going down, back to the parking lot. Short chat with three guys ends with the question - and how fare it is from here. One of them said - you have something like 10% behind you. I could not believe it. Let's go further I want to see my fall from top. DrA is excited to do it.
First crossroads, first map. It is difficult to understand it. We decide to go to the Third peak - in my opinion the best point to watch Shannon falls from top. DrA is happy, she likes hiking. The truth is, we have about 90% of the trip in front of us. No problem. It is not far away.
The hike up there was not easy, sometimes very steep, sometimes almost climbing. I started to think about 'how do we get back', but immediately chasing away such thoughts. We shall not worry about the future, we shall enjoy the moment of NOW. This is what we have learned all week. Let's use it.
After unknown amount of time we reached the Third Peak. It is just two of us enjoying the view, location, terrific atmosphere. We are alone on astonishing peak point, discovering more and more unexpected views and amazing corners. Beautiful sunset, quite lake down in the valley, in front of us snowy peaks, quite pond on the top of the hill. Is this the pond I was looking for all week? Fulfilled wish? Yes!
Time to go back before sunset. Knowing the way up was quite steep, I suggest to take 'the other' (via Second Peak) for the way down. Great. At the beginning looks the pathway bit better than the way up. We reached the Second Peak and enjoyed it as we did enjoyed the Third Peak. The only disturbing fact is the darkness approaching slowly.
The way down looks more and more like climbing. We are walking on rocks, parts of the pathway are equipped with chains. When we reached the point where the pathway disappears in a hole between two rocks, I think whether we would need some climbing equipment as well. Fortunately we found ladder leading to the 'hole to hell'. The question remains - do we need any climbing equipment later?
DrA started to manifesting safe way down. As we are declining, the light disappears and the darkness surrounds us. Exactly in the right moment DrA takes out her iPhone and uses it as a flashlight. The pathway is hardly visible during the day, the worst it is in the night. We are searching for the path signage, hoping we are on the right track. Every time we see a map, we celebrate the fact - we are right. We see first light in the valley. It still seems quite far away, but it makes us happier. Suddenly we see moving light approaching us. It can't be a bear. Do bears carry headlights? We hope not! I remember the famous Czech song from Ivan Mladek 'Bears don't not know tourists do not carry guns ...' (Medvedi nevedi ...). Funny!?! I hope bears will not wake up today to see whether we have guns or not. Moving light turned out to be group of crazy people going on night hike to Third Peak. OK, they are less crazy than us. At least they have water, food, sleeping bags, FLASHLIGHTS and other handy hiking equipment.
We feel we must be almost on our parking lot. Another map. Oooops, we are a little out of the shortest way. Fortunately we meet a guy who explained that we are very close to the See-to-sky-Highway, which can lead us to the parking lot. Or in case we want to take the originally planed path, we need to go back. Decision - we go further, getting lost on the Highway is almost impossible and we can hitchhike somebody. We reached the Highway safely.
It is dangerous to walk on Highway, on the other hand, it is not safer to walk in the dark through forest full of bears and other cute animals. We are back on the parking lot. YEAAAA! YES! YES! Hungry, thirsty but alive. Lets get in the car and go to Vancouver.
Our car ride stops after 200 meters at the parking lot gate. Locked! No way out. I am trying to fit in-between two huge stones next to the gate. No, this will not work. Almost midnight, we both want to get out. I keep trying to fit with the car in the space, DrA is working on opening the gate without the key. We must look like very funny couple. Do I see piece of paper under my wipers? Yes, this is the message from the Park ranger, who left his number. We can call him at anytime, he will come and rescue us. Unbelievable He is still awake! We can leave. First we go back to Squamish to eat and drink. Despite the plan eat healthy and tasty meal, we land at McDonalds. No wonder, it is after midnight. Done, we can finally go home.
Time for visualization. This is the map. Red circle shows Shannon Falls, red lines show Third and Second Peaks. Green circle shows the parking lot. Blue circle shows the camp we reached when coming down from the hike.
SUMMARY - VERY SPECIAL THANKS goes to the park ranger Pavel (he is Czech, you find Czechs everywhere), who rescued us and released our car from the parking lot next to the falls (green circle). It was at 23.45. Total journey was more than 10 km, 550 meters (from parking to Third Peak, the way down not counted) in 5 hours, at least 1/3 of the hike happened in the dark (real mountain night = no light at all, not even stars in deep deep forest).
Special thanks goes as well to bears, who found another entertainment that night, than to hunt for two crazy girls. Sometimes you have to break ALL rules to experience real life. This trip was such experience.
As soon as I get pictures from DrA, I will update this post. The beauty we discovered was worth any effort.
Medvedi nevedi, ze turisti nemaj zbrane!
Bears do not know, turist do not have guns!
I hope they will never find out! Go on hike and come back safe! See you soon ...
Back in the hotel, last goodbyes, change for the drive, have small snack. My friend DrA wants to join me to go to Vancouver. Great. We are leaving Whistler, having fun and intellectual discussion. everything goes well until ...
We were just passing the Shannon Falls. I wrote about this place in the post 'Road to Whistler'. My plan was to discover the falls on my way back to Vancouver. I remember I saw the sign - 2,5 km hike to see the falls from top, thinking it may not take more than two hours. I suggested DrA to take this short pleasant hike and see the falls from top. At this point I have to mention the rule - be aware of all your wishes as they will come true. Many of our wishes came true that day. DrA agreed and the unbelievable story started.
This was the first wish which came true - DrA wanted to spend the day on a hike, but it did not happened in Whistler. Here we go - hike to Shannon falls.
The equipment - for a short moment I thought I will keep my flip-flops. It is just short walk. In a last second I decided to take my running shoes (good decision, thanks for the idea). Next time I will wear my hiking shoes, I promise. I had it in the car trunk, did not consider it as an important outfit. My equipment was small bag with one napkin, money and credit card, sun glasses and running shoes. DrA equipment - camera, iPhone and hiking shoes. We kept same dress code - shorts, t-short and sweater. This may seem like enough for short walk. No food, no drinks.
We started our journey. Nice walk up the hill. We reached the sign with basic rules for hikers. At that time we find most of them funny. Later we remember one after the other. People we meet are all going down, back to the parking lot. Short chat with three guys ends with the question - and how fare it is from here. One of them said - you have something like 10% behind you. I could not believe it. Let's go further I want to see my fall from top. DrA is excited to do it.
First crossroads, first map. It is difficult to understand it. We decide to go to the Third peak - in my opinion the best point to watch Shannon falls from top. DrA is happy, she likes hiking. The truth is, we have about 90% of the trip in front of us. No problem. It is not far away.
The hike up there was not easy, sometimes very steep, sometimes almost climbing. I started to think about 'how do we get back', but immediately chasing away such thoughts. We shall not worry about the future, we shall enjoy the moment of NOW. This is what we have learned all week. Let's use it.
After unknown amount of time we reached the Third Peak. It is just two of us enjoying the view, location, terrific atmosphere. We are alone on astonishing peak point, discovering more and more unexpected views and amazing corners. Beautiful sunset, quite lake down in the valley, in front of us snowy peaks, quite pond on the top of the hill. Is this the pond I was looking for all week? Fulfilled wish? Yes!
Time to go back before sunset. Knowing the way up was quite steep, I suggest to take 'the other' (via Second Peak) for the way down. Great. At the beginning looks the pathway bit better than the way up. We reached the Second Peak and enjoyed it as we did enjoyed the Third Peak. The only disturbing fact is the darkness approaching slowly.
The way down looks more and more like climbing. We are walking on rocks, parts of the pathway are equipped with chains. When we reached the point where the pathway disappears in a hole between two rocks, I think whether we would need some climbing equipment as well. Fortunately we found ladder leading to the 'hole to hell'. The question remains - do we need any climbing equipment later?
DrA started to manifesting safe way down. As we are declining, the light disappears and the darkness surrounds us. Exactly in the right moment DrA takes out her iPhone and uses it as a flashlight. The pathway is hardly visible during the day, the worst it is in the night. We are searching for the path signage, hoping we are on the right track. Every time we see a map, we celebrate the fact - we are right. We see first light in the valley. It still seems quite far away, but it makes us happier. Suddenly we see moving light approaching us. It can't be a bear. Do bears carry headlights? We hope not! I remember the famous Czech song from Ivan Mladek 'Bears don't not know tourists do not carry guns ...' (Medvedi nevedi ...). Funny!?! I hope bears will not wake up today to see whether we have guns or not. Moving light turned out to be group of crazy people going on night hike to Third Peak. OK, they are less crazy than us. At least they have water, food, sleeping bags, FLASHLIGHTS and other handy hiking equipment.
We feel we must be almost on our parking lot. Another map. Oooops, we are a little out of the shortest way. Fortunately we meet a guy who explained that we are very close to the See-to-sky-Highway, which can lead us to the parking lot. Or in case we want to take the originally planed path, we need to go back. Decision - we go further, getting lost on the Highway is almost impossible and we can hitchhike somebody. We reached the Highway safely.
It is dangerous to walk on Highway, on the other hand, it is not safer to walk in the dark through forest full of bears and other cute animals. We are back on the parking lot. YEAAAA! YES! YES! Hungry, thirsty but alive. Lets get in the car and go to Vancouver.
Our car ride stops after 200 meters at the parking lot gate. Locked! No way out. I am trying to fit in-between two huge stones next to the gate. No, this will not work. Almost midnight, we both want to get out. I keep trying to fit with the car in the space, DrA is working on opening the gate without the key. We must look like very funny couple. Do I see piece of paper under my wipers? Yes, this is the message from the Park ranger, who left his number. We can call him at anytime, he will come and rescue us. Unbelievable He is still awake! We can leave. First we go back to Squamish to eat and drink. Despite the plan eat healthy and tasty meal, we land at McDonalds. No wonder, it is after midnight. Done, we can finally go home.
Time for visualization. This is the map. Red circle shows Shannon Falls, red lines show Third and Second Peaks. Green circle shows the parking lot. Blue circle shows the camp we reached when coming down from the hike.
SUMMARY - VERY SPECIAL THANKS goes to the park ranger Pavel (he is Czech, you find Czechs everywhere), who rescued us and released our car from the parking lot next to the falls (green circle). It was at 23.45. Total journey was more than 10 km, 550 meters (from parking to Third Peak, the way down not counted) in 5 hours, at least 1/3 of the hike happened in the dark (real mountain night = no light at all, not even stars in deep deep forest).
Special thanks goes as well to bears, who found another entertainment that night, than to hunt for two crazy girls. Sometimes you have to break ALL rules to experience real life. This trip was such experience.
As soon as I get pictures from DrA, I will update this post. The beauty we discovered was worth any effort.
Medvedi nevedi, ze turisti nemaj zbrane!
Bears do not know, turist do not have guns!
I hope they will never find out! Go on hike and come back safe! See you soon ...
Super funny, your hiking story. But I suppose, this is because I am sitting comfortably on my couch, knowing that you made it home safely and did not have to fight any grizzlies (by the way, are there any grizzly bears?!?)
ReplyDeleteMOUHAAAAAAA....HAAAAAAAA....MOUAAAA. That's MY GRILS.... DrA and Director Martinnna.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteSounds definitly like grizzly to me ;))
DeleteFor Marty - yes, there are also Grizzly bears. We practiced with DrA the newly learned 'manifestation of a wish' and it worked very well.
ReplyDeleteFor G.I.Joe - you know, we are special :-) Doctor and Director cannot miss the peak. Thanks for support