Eagle's Bluff Hike

I made the trip to Eagle's Bluff based on friends suggestion. The hike itself is not difficult. Worts is the first part, where you have to walk-up the skiing slope called Fork. 

I shall mention the horseflies - it was again a day when they were a lot in action. I somehow get used to it. Notice for Marty - horseflies fly so fast you cannot catch them with a camera, so I do not have a picture. Bigger than huge is almost a size of small bird :-)
I was rescued by Cabin Lake. Place just before you reach the top of Black Mountain, first target on that day.

View from Fork Slope towards Mount Strachan slopes.

Cabin Lake - paradise just before Black Mountain

I did not believe I will enjoy swimming in Canada as I enjoyed this one. The water was nice warm, but still refreshing, almost no people, just a small group on the opposite side of the lake. Very comfortable entry into water (big stone and sand - see the picture). Refreshed I climb the Black Mountain to get another amazing view that day.

View from Black Mountain

The trail goes than trough forest to Eagle's Bluff. Place above West Vancouver offers amazing views. Here are some of them:

Eagle's Bluff is a busy place.

Ships waiting to enter Vancouver harbor.

View towards Bowen Island.

The whole hike was pleasant. Walking in the forest on such a hot day was refreshing. Despite the long-lasting period of sunny and dry weather most of the lakes and ponds on the way still have enough water. 

One of many lakes I passed on my way.

Blossoming still pond.

Only sad thing about the hike - I lost my anti-bear jingle-bell. I can now only hope it rescued life of the person who find it. 

Good luck with bears and keep smiling! Come back for more stories!

Rent a Boat - it's fun!

I had the spontaneous idea to spend one day on boat. Shot research on the Internet showed there are two locations in Vancouver where you can rent a boat - Granville Island and Horseshoe Bay. I decided for Horseshoe bay. Granville Island is located in city center and I had the feeling it would be much more fun to explore the ocean outside of the city.
Together with two friend we have spend almost all day on the ocean (OK not the open ocean, 'just' on one of the bays between mainland and Vancouver Island).

Map of 'our' Bay - the star shows location of the Horseshoe Harbor.

Before you rent a boat, you need to pass through 'boat driving license procedure'. It is not difficult, the main purpose to to scare you.

Boat Driving LIcense Material

Once you pass, the ocean is yours. We had small boat for max. 4 people with the lowest power (40 HP, stronger were 60 and 75). I do not believe there is much difference. You always feel you go too slow until you hit bigger wave. 

Leaving the Harbour

Once we left the harbour we started to practice the boat driving. It looks very simple, but even small boat can sometimes surprise you. Watch for waves! Looking on the map we planned to explore all islands in the bay. Soon we realised we do not have enough time or boat fast enough to manage this in one day. Plan changed and we started to search for nice place to have a picnic and swim. We found wonderful quite location.

Our beach on Anvil Island with rock entering the water on left side and tree trunks - perfect for picnic.

We had lots of fun parking the boat without destroying it and hoping it will not swim away while we were enjoying the beach. 

Safely parked boat.

As you can see on the picture it was a stone beach. The entry into a water was very challenging because of the very slippery stones. My friends swam few strokes. I only dipped my feet and hands. The water was very cold and the stones very very slippery. 
After lunch and swimming is time to explore more. Some of the islands are inhabited. It must be wonderful to have a cottage there. 

This lovely place is for sale.

I recommend everybody to have a boat trip when in Vancouver. It was worth the 220$ we have paid for 4 hours rental. 

Amazing day!

Enjoy summer, it is still not over and see you soon!

Garibaldi Lake Hike

Few days ago my friend B. talked about their trip to Garibaldi Lake. This lake was not on my Canadian list, but now I am happy I added to it. The trail starts about 20 kilometers after Squamish (halfway between Vancouver and Whistler). Here are few technical details:

Difficulty: Intermediate
Time: 5 hours
Total distance: 18km
Elevation Gain: 820 meters

The track is very nice and maintained as you see on the pictures below. Plan at least six hours to have enough time to enjoy the lake fully, especially on lovely sunny day.

Walking up the hill.

Pathway to Taylor Meadows.

Almost there - the road declining to Garibaldi Lake.

The hike is very comfortable. You will not need to climb on slippery rocks. Challenge is the elevation. First eight kilometers are pure walking up the hill. The track is not steep, but continuos. It goes up ... and up ... and up. After six kilometers is time to decide what way to choose. There are two options - longer (about 23 kilometers in total) going through Taylor Meadows or shorter (18 kilometers in total) along two smaller lakes. I chose the way through Taylor Meadows. It was good decision. 

Compare to the pathway along small lakes, the Taylor Meadows track offers beautiful views on surrounding mountains. 

... and nature beauty.

Once you cross the Taylor Meadows the way starts declining and soon you begin to feel the lake.

Garibaldi Lake for the first time - the blue is amazing.

The pathway down the hill to the lake was exciting. Amazing blue flashes through the trees. After one kilometer you reach it - Garibaldi Lake.

Garibaldi Lake - this is first full view on the lake from the weir.

I do not like cold water. I hate to swim in anything what does not have at least 30 degrees centigrade. I did it. You will do it too. Especially if you come on such a sunny, hot day. It was very refreshing and very quick.

Just a perfect day.

Here I swam a few laps, but swam.

Time to go back. For return I chose the pathway along two small lakes. After all day in the sun, the way down through the forest was very pleasant.

The way down back to parking lot was sometimes a little more challenging,
not much, just to make the walk more colourful.

Quick look on the Lesser Garibaldi Lake
(first lake on my way back to parking lot).

Barrier Lake - must be nice for swimming as well.
For me once a day swimming in glacial lake is enough. 

Thanks all my friend for their recommendations. 
More hiking stories soon! Don't forget to come back.

Shannon Falls - Hiking or Climbing?

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 ...

Whistler ... Skiing in Canada ... Skiing in Summer ... Skiing?!?

Skiing day. I have planned this since I decided to spend summer in Canada. I love skiing. I cannot skip the opportunity to try in Whistler - las Olympic location. Especially I did ski in Sochi as well. 

Yes, you can ski in Whistler (click on the link and find all details) in summer - this year from June 22, till July 28. First impression - the skiing itself is much more expensive than in Europe. More about the glacier resort a little later.

I have the equipment (52 CAD for pair of ski, boots and poles ... as well bit more than Europe), skipass so let's GO! 

Ski and Poles, Boots Salomon

First difference compare to Europe is the timing. As a privat person, you only can get on the Horstman Glacier at 11 am. Official camps and national teams can get up from 8 am. As I was aware of this, I had time to digest this information. I am waiting in beautiful hot summer weather. Eleven o'clock - Start!

Wizard Express to Blackcomb Mountain

First you use two chair-lifts. Actually there are only chair-lifts on the way to Horstman glacier. The climate is changing slowly. By the end of the second chair-lift is time to use all garments I took with me. I arrived to the point called Rendezvous Lodge (very important place, I did not know at the time I reached it) where we change for bus, which brought us to lower station of the Seventh Heaven Express. Very strange experience to drive bus instead of using the chair-lift. 

Bus Ride to the Seventh Heaven Chair-Lift

Peak, we are on the Horstman Glacier. For a moment I thought I will start in the bar with a beer. I did not and I am glad I went skiing straight away.

Upper Station of Seventh Heaven Express

Bit cloudy, but lots of snow. First impression lots of people for such a teeny, made for dwarfs place. 

I am not grumpy, I am happy to experience Whistler, remembering Sochi and recalling the beautiful Alps memories. Winter in Whistler must be amazing. For those who love summer skiing like me, I advice - go to Alps! 

Most of the space is occupied by training camps of different categories. They are working on acrobatics, moguls, and jumping. For us common people is just one-and-half slope available. 

First ride - I am not counting it - it is just the way from peak to botom of the small valley - Horstman glacier. While going down, I am thinking where a I going to ski. Only narrow slope on the opposite hillside is free. Remainig space is filled with training camps.

My Slope - the Only Slope for Public
Remaining Space Occupied by Training Camps

Truly first ride - finally I reached the slope. Show is heavy, but not watery. I have heard chemicals are used to keep the snow in usable condition. Surface well prepared. 

Does it Look Like a Storm?

Second ride - my t-bar partner gets the information 'immediately leave the glacier'. He does not understand it. Me either. I just go for next ride. The ranger at the end of the T-bar does not want me to make one more ride. A storm is approaching the mountains. There is danger of lightning. Telling him I came extra from Czech republic, he allows me to get up once more. I am almost alone on the slope. All people are in the cue for the T-bar who gets us to the upper station of the Seventh Heaven express. 

Third ride - the last one, ended in the cue. I am meeting a man who - as will be disclosed later - is from Austria, and moved to Canada thirty years ago. We speak German. His Allgäu dialect is nice to hear. We are both a little disappointed by what happend. My skiing took twenty minutes. Just twenty. 

This is the End. We Are Forced to Leave Immediately. 

I am beck on top of the hill, thinking of next step. I see most of people disappear on their skies behind little lodge. There is way to go on skies to the lower station of the Seventh Heaven Express. Despite the fact, the path is very narrow, all the way is enough snow to enjoy it. 

Road to Valey

Seventh Heaven - it is not Heaven at all. Weather gets worst and worst. Cue waiting for transport into the valley is long. Rain! I realize the guys in front of me speak Czech. Chair-lift stops. Conversation starts. Heavy rain! We decide to go to restaurant and wait there. 

Beautiful View from the Restaurant in the Valey

The chair-lift starts again, but we stay in side and wait until the cue gets shorter. Not necessarily good decision. They stop it again. Just empty chairs are going down. Rest of us will be transported by bus. We are not allowed to leave the restaurant as outside is danger of danger of lightning. We stay inside in the cue for the bus. 

Guard in Red Anorak: 'You Are Not Allowed to Leave the Building' People in Background Are Guided to Their Bus.

Fortunately is the cue quite short and we are on the bus in fifteen minutes. All the way down are my thoughts dancing around the feeling - I should have gone by the chair-lift. It is somehow better to be offended by lightning, than in the very old school bus. 

Approaching the Valey

Thanks for meeting the Czech guys, it would be very boring afternoon without them. On the way down I saw my first bear and doe. Too fast, I did not have a chance to make a picture. 

Finally back in the valley. I return the equipment and receive the money paid for skipass. End good, all good. It is four o'clock and it is not end of the day. Second story follows soon.

Enjoy the weather whatever you do! At the end everything is FUN ... and come back for the second story!