One more bear, a slight head wound and a general bruising...

We were greeted on our late night arrival at Lightning Lake campground (about 3 hours from home) by an amazingly clear starry night and the standard warnings about bears and cougars... but this time we heard an actual cougar yowling the night away. There were no middle of the night loo trips.


A suprisingly cold morning (the park gets so much snow in winter they trucked it from the car park to Vancouver for the Olympics) didn't deter us from gearing up for what turned out to be an eventful day of trail running.  Let's just say that from now on, I will give a VERY CLEAR warning to Mark if a branch is across the path.  Being, as you know, rather smaller, I ducked neatly out of the way, only for it to hit Mark full in the face, causing a long gash on his forehead.  Despite my first aid training, it was hard not to look a bit shocked.  After brief discussion, we decided stitches weren't needed, patched it with steri-strips and continued. 

Imagine a Harry Potter-esque forehead gash

Usual beautiful mountain views, lots of grouse, and regular shouting of 'hey bear' until about 2 minutes from the turnaround point, there was a very real black bear, munching on wildflowers in an alpine meadow about 200m ahead of us.  Awesome to see one in the true wilderness with no warning (and a good safe distance away).  We took a different route to get to the turnaround, but after 5 minutes of running in bear prints and seeing bear scat, decided to turn around... (No piccies I'm afraid in the name of safety!)

Unconcerned grouse

Great run down, until I took a bit of a tumble on a cunningly concealed rock.  Just some bruising to my right side, but necessitated walking the last 3km. Our first campfire (fairly successful without too much bickering) ended the day.  

Northern lights but no more bears yet...

Just before I met the other climbing widows

Spent Friday night and Saturday in Squamish, one of the world's most lusted after climbing destinations. Mark got trashed on boulder problems in the forest, I hiked and met two other climbing widows, awesome! 

Deep thought then 30sec of activity

Whilst listening to tales from the climbers who've moved to squamish for the summer (how do they afford it we wondered? Apparently the local homeless shelter doesn't ask too many questions re meals and showers provided you don't mind the used needles) we spotted some weirdly lit up dancing clouds.  On closer inspection not a laser show in the wilderness but the northern lights! Mainly green and yellow and pretty far but spell binding nonetheless.



Sunday was spent capsizing in the cold sea learning how to rescue one another, actually easier than it sounds once you get over the fear of going in.  So when you all come and visit we'll be perfect paddling companions!

Some things that are different in Canadia...

Despite moving 5000miles away, a lot of things are pretty similar, but here are some that aren't:


- When a child goes missing, every bus in the city displays an 'amber alert - check your radio' message alternating with the route number. Very clever once you realise that a nuclear attack is not imminent and you're the only one that doesn't know.


- Cheese is an unaffordable luxury. Something to do with milk regulation. People go to the US to buy it. If you ever visit, please bring brie.


- You can't buy alcohol at the supermarket. Or a newsagent. Or a petrol station. Or anywhere which isn't a BC licensed liquor store. And if you do buy it, you can't drink it outside anywhere.  Which has reduced our alcohol consumption and is probably a direct cause of the next one...


- Everyone seems to smoke marijuana instead. Climbing a mountain, on the beach, next to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police station, the inviting unmistakable whiff is everywhere. Apparently its a West Coast thing. And it keeps the riots down.


- If you work more than 8 hours per day, you get paid 'time and a half' and over 12 hours is double time. And you can't be made to "opt out". Although with my new life, overtime seems a distant concept...


- With the best climate and the worst weather in Canada, Vancouverites love discussing the weather. Okay, so that one's not really a difference unless you're reading this from Toronto.
That's it for now, will post others as we think of them.

A brand new verb, lots of snow and the Jeep has the last laugh...

Me in Manning

Canada lagged a week behind the UK in its last public holiday over the summer with the 'Labour day' long weekend just over.  Superb sunny weather, making up for the crappy early summer so:


Saturday: shortish 17km hike in EC Manning Provincial Park just above the US border with the Vancouver Natural History Society where I 'botanised' for the first time (discovered that lichen is in fact a mix of funghi and algae, who knew?  Thanks Olivia, UBC botanist extraordinaire)

View from the top of Black Tusk

Sunday was a longer 30km hike and around 1750m elevation at Garibaldi Provincial Park about a 70 minute drive away.  Dan and Cazz climbed the final 30m 'Black Tusk' but the flying rocks put me and Mark off.  Some pretty stunning views, slid down snow instead of scree at the top and pleased that my hypothermic experience in Loch Torridon last May taught me not to stay in the glacier fed lake too long; Mark's hands took an hour to thaw out! 

Mark about to get very cold

Monday bit more chilled out; Lighthouse park in West Vancouver.  Some huge trees, which makes you realise that everything else you see is post-logged second growth forest, and a trip to the beach.  But on the way home the Jeep may have got a bit tired of fish stink jokes.  Refused to start at the off licence; called out the BC AA: embarrassed faces all round when it turned out Mark hadn't tightened the cable to the battery enough... but good to know she isn't too bust! 


Off to Squamish this weekend and then a rescue course to further our kayaking adventures...