tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36335592360104115922024-03-05T16:58:46.217-08:00Have I seen a bear today?Blog about wildlife and other stuff from year in Vancouver and British Columbia, CanadaNicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-28977851484535636312016-03-27T11:53:00.003-07:002016-05-09T17:05:33.397-07:00Farewell Road Trip (8): The final glaciers, bears and... a pedicure?<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I was pretty dedicated to this blog whilst living in Canada - 50 posts detailing animals, birds, parks, campaigns and a lot of roads. After returning in 2013, I wrote up our final road trip, except this very final post. So this is written in March 2016, trying to remember what I can about our final ten days in Canada...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It actually turned into two final adventures in the north. On the way to the first, we saw Adam's only bear of the trip (I was feeling anxious we still hadn't spotted one ten days in), a black bear munching happily by the side of the road.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Our first stop was the very remote Brazeau Lake loop, although a flooded bridge meant it wasn't quite a loop, but three days hiking through some of the most remote and lonely lands which we had encountered. In almost two months we had barely encountered a shower, but we had a good twelve hours of heavy rain on the final evening - necessitating a very early night sitting it out (we're still arguing over what Adam said in the tent that night...).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The next morning we realised how early winter can come in the Rockies; the rain at our campsite had been snow on the hills. It made for a beautiful final day's walking. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Mark did a great job hitchhiking to collect the car and before we knew it, we were enjoying burgers and beers in Jasper, the northern gateway to the Canadian Rockies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Then on to our second adventure; hurriedly planned in the admin gap whilst in Canmore but to a mountain we had long coveted; Mt Robson. A huge glacier covered massif standing relatively isolated to the western edge of the mountain chain. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">An easy day's walk led to the campground with one of the most spectacular views from any tent spot so far; pine trees framing the glacier tumbling down to the turquoise waters. As it was such an easy walk, we didn't neglect to bring red wine, cheese and biscuits for our evening sit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We returned the following day and spent the night at the provincial park campground, before starting the final drive west back to Vancouver. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If you're travelling from Vancouver to the Canadian Rockies, you should definitely take our route (captured here for ease: <a class="in-cell-link" href="http://goo.gl/maps/g98TK" style="font-size: 100%;" target="_blank">http://goo.gl/maps/g98TK</a><u>)</u> which takes you past Mt Robson, the huge Wells Gray Provincial Park and then past the beautiful Marble Range Canyon and Joffre Lakes to Pemberton.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Pemberton is the scruffier, friendlier, nicer cousin of the prestigious Whistler ski resort to the South. Its local park, Nairn Falls, was our final night under canvas. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The following day, the boys climbed whilst I got ready for my return to civilisation, a rather uncharacteristic day of manicure, pedicure and hair cut. It felt strange worrying about whether my nails were dry after so many weeks of washing in water from the kettle from the fire. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And then the final day, driving down the single best road in the world: the Sea to Sky highway past Whistler, the unbelievably beautiful Howe Sound and finally into North Vancouver. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Our brilliant and kind friends Dan and Cazz Grima put us up for our final two days, which we mainly spent sorting the huge amount of kit into many different piles. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And then we flew home.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Looking back almost three years since we left; it was a totally brilliant two years. We learnt so much about ourselves and each other. We saw some of the most beautiful places that the continent has to offer, made great friends, pushed ourselves to run harder, ski faster, drive longer to make the most of every minute.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So if you're wondering whether you should pack up your lives and emigrate, or take that long road trip you've always planned, or, really, do anything that you think you'll regret if you don't: then do it. Don't hesitate. You'll never look back and wished you worked a bit harder or earned a bit more. </span></div>
Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-84969319021015274762016-03-27T10:52:00.001-07:002016-03-27T10:52:43.600-07:00Farewell Road trip (7): Hypothermic swims, wolverine hunt and a bit more cake<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Lake O'Hara is invariably described as 'the jewel of the Canadian Rockies'. One poor Albertan lady acts as the gatekeeper to that jewel, manning the phone which you must call at 7am precisely three months before your arrival date to book your camp spot and shuttle. Two hours of hitting redial and we had the booking, but as the most hyped place in the Rockies, could it possibly live up to it?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It did. With multiple unbelievably turquoise lakes ringed by huge sheer mountain faces and only a handful of people able to access the trails every day, it was a hikers paradise. We tried in vain to spot a wolverine (kind of a cross between a bear and an aggressive weasel). They're so rare that normally you don't even consider it a possibility but four were spotted whilst we there. But it will have to remain on our hit list for another day...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7RjHAjVIk69QfCAE1tXb_XNBYFMjhBtQ7B3xGZfIwUTq7mcqGzEVgbDEwqe0PvDZmoMKH612gZMBC651HxZf2vagG3uzt32Vcc-fGhn2Ef5VhqZb7AfGXVHQ0cXizvqMA8Yl4N8AVsDKG/s1600/blogpics+%25282+of+9%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7RjHAjVIk69QfCAE1tXb_XNBYFMjhBtQ7B3xGZfIwUTq7mcqGzEVgbDEwqe0PvDZmoMKH612gZMBC651HxZf2vagG3uzt32Vcc-fGhn2Ef5VhqZb7AfGXVHQ0cXizvqMA8Yl4N8AVsDKG/s400/blogpics+%25282+of+9%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPjJnAG32qDQrnMlujf3-BM5hI_G2DRoSEeWNIVQVieKIsm4_9GuD-kxqkJ1uhT-U7-7FTqAj8Q4hDdZAwOJtnanoIDQx7GYJzcpM9haGHs-p3SO33UMsdd_9_2Z-z0UTSO-914ENNEgvV/s1600/blogpics+%25283+of+9%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPjJnAG32qDQrnMlujf3-BM5hI_G2DRoSEeWNIVQVieKIsm4_9GuD-kxqkJ1uhT-U7-7FTqAj8Q4hDdZAwOJtnanoIDQx7GYJzcpM9haGHs-p3SO33UMsdd_9_2Z-z0UTSO-914ENNEgvV/s200/blogpics+%25283+of+9%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">We caused much amusement with our British insistence on diving into the glacial fed lakes, although Adam received the gold star for swimming out to a rocky island without dying of hypothermia. A very civilised back country campground (complete with sinks!), fresh cake from the lodge and a bird talk sealed it as my number 1 Canadian destinat</span><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">ion recommend.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhel_IVnv2GJhD6Of6SucHXKzLlCmKTQMdkHMAYDsVATiyrG-NuIpf863MCdJEVmeFHbpBpEqcBXbIKKML-ep8mJKeUZZoi4TaqXg0ZJniqakAK1vXo1sbhAPTgpLx7pAod6Iy6qFHxnHgb/s1600/blogpics+%25286+of+9%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhel_IVnv2GJhD6Of6SucHXKzLlCmKTQMdkHMAYDsVATiyrG-NuIpf863MCdJEVmeFHbpBpEqcBXbIKKML-ep8mJKeUZZoi4TaqXg0ZJniqakAK1vXo1sbhAPTgpLx7pAod6Iy6qFHxnHgb/s200/blogpics+%25286+of+9%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a>A final Robyn filled car journey and it was goodbye to Nicola Timmins. My four days of planned relaxation whilst the boys climbed didn't quite pan out as I spent a good chunk of time adminning for my exciting new job and for a new final backpacking trip to Mt Robson. But I did manage to soak up some rays by a lake and solo hike in a grizzly danger area, turning around when I saw the biggest area (about the size of a tennis court) of grizzly diggings I'd ever seen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Then it was time to pack up and head to our final adventure in the north.</span>Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-52367529265853251462013-09-28T03:44:00.000-07:002013-09-28T03:44:10.918-07:00Farewell Road Trip (6): Cakes, lakes and fossils<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our first stop back in Canada was Calgary, capital of Alberta, a province which styles itself on Texas, just with much colder winters. So cold, in fact that it has constructed 15km of underground walkways to connect its downtown offices and shops, the centre of which was a strange indoor parkland on the third floor of a mall...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our booking at a youth hostel had been cancelled due to some pretty serious floods, so we paid just $50 extra to stay at a 5 star airport hotel. An ensuite shower felt pretty luxurious after five weeks in a tent and was good preparation for a 7am skype job interview (find out the result below). <span style="font-size: 13px;">We collected our second guest (the third Nicola of the trip) and made our way to a small campground on the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Those of you that own a Bugaboo pram might not know that it is named after a little visited, but world class, climbing destination, hidden from the highway by low hills and 50km of dirt roads. </span><span style="font-size: 13px;">Rain didn't deter us from a 5am start and we breathed a sigh of relief as the weather started clearing as we approached the park. The huge granite spires and tumbling glaciers only become visible a few minutes from the car park, which itself was keenly anticipated. Porcupines are prevalent in the area and attack brake lines and other car bits, so you must build a defensive chicken wire and stick cage before hiking. That achieved we hiked the short, steep trail to the hut and campground and marvelled that no one in Vancouver seemed to have heard of it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The Western Kootenays was our next stop, about 2 hours east of the Rockies. We love BC, but it is not renowned for the quality of its small towns. But the WK bucka the trend with historic wooden houses and stores, cute cafes and stunning mountain-lake combo backdrops. Our canoe/hike turned into an all day canoe (not saying who left her hiking shoes in the car) but if you squinted to get rid of the fir trees, the beaches fringing the turquoise water could have been a tropical desert island.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our penultimate stop with the Timmins was an incredibly steep guided hike to world famous fossil beds. We stood on top of literally thousands of 505 (apparently the 5 is significant) million year old fossils of trilobites, crazy headed shrimps and worms. Beautifully preserved in good enough relief you could make rubbings of them, it was a proper natural history treat (and a great complement to the much 'younger' dinosaur fossils of Utah).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Oh, and I got the job, pretty much my dream job actually, so we found the world's tiniest bottle of champagne to celebrate with. Next stop: the gem of the Canadian Rockies...</span></div>
Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-72617610580683205062013-09-15T04:52:00.000-07:002013-09-15T04:52:03.066-07:00Farewell Road Trip (5): Victorian splendour and Grizzlywatch (and avoidance) no.2<div style="background-color: white;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">The tea set at our B&B</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When you've spent weeks driving through sagebrush desert, hours on dirt roads and seen only a handful of small mountain towns, it is hard to believe that Montana's capital, Helena (population 28,000), will be an extremely pleasant Victorian town complete with huge gothic parliament building and tree-lined shady streets. But it is </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">exactly</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> that and we'd managed to select the most Victoriana building of them all for our B&B, complete with antique piano and clawfoot bath. We toured the town, drank micro-brewery ale and ate o</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ne of our rare meals out at a place so authentically Greek that I kept expecting a skinny stray cat to jump onto the table. So, in summary, a bizarre but very refreshing stopover before our next backpacking adventure...</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">I'd waited all trip for mountain goats, here they are, at Logan Pass</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Glacier National Park in Montana had most well organised and maintained backcountry campgrounds of our trip: each one had a food preparation area well away from tents, a proper pit toilet (sometimes with no roof, but MUCH better than digging a hole) and metal food lockers. The briefing video explained why: a one minute fluffy intro was followed by 25 minutes of 'what to do when a food habituated bear tries to eat you' with a cheery 'have a wonderful time in glacier national park' sign off. As the national park with the most infamous grizzly attacks (google 'night of the grizzlies') we were pretty highly strung as we headed out, bear spray cans dangling from our packs, especially as we'd seen a grizzly right by the road before we started out. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Day 1 took us through the Ptarmigan tunnel, blasted through the rock in 1930 to create the satisfying 80km hiking loop we hoped to complete. The sun shone as we forded our final river to our first campground, Cosley Lake, where each campsite had its own private sandy beach from where you could watch the sunset and the brewing thunderstorm. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">The view from our private beach</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The next two days were significantly less warm: heavy overnight rain left the 6ft high brush (yes, taller than me) soaking wet and freezing cold and, at one of our lunch stops, I even climbed into my sleeping bag to try and warm up (we always go very light on clothes knowing this is the option of last resort). The huge quantifies of bear scat and grizzly diggings, coupled with poor sight lines, meant we spent most of the two days shouting 'hey bear' which, when it got boring, was replaced with the thundercats' and bananaman theme tunes for a change. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">But it was all worth it for the approach to our final campground 'Fifty mountain': walking through the tree-less alpine meadows it seemed you could actually see the famed fifty separate peaks across the park. And seeing a grizzly, as inevitably happened, was actually pretty magical: a mum and juvenile cub foraging amongst the flowers a nice safe distance from camp. Instead of the usual retreat to the tents due to cold at 7pm, we sat out till after sunset watching the alpenglow on the mountains. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">A 5am start (yes, we do love them) heralded our final day, 20 miles of incredible mountain views, re-hydrated chocolate cheesecake (actually quite delicious) for breakfast, the biggest bull moose we've ever seen shaking the water off his antlers in a lake and even a cold coke at the </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Granite Park chalet. Back in the valley we had much-needed showers and lots of pie (why a hamlet in northern Montana has the world's best pie shop is a mystery, but for proof, just ask Mark to see his newest t-shirt). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">After a good night's sleep and NOT a 5am start we headed north, crossing the border back into the Canada, for the second half of our trip...</span></div>
Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-2929937534839288862013-09-12T13:22:00.000-07:002013-09-12T13:22:22.246-07:00Farewell Road Trip (4): Moosewatch no. 2, Grizzlywatch no.1 and amateur dramatics, Wyoming style<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We love guests visiting, especially on road trips. But it piles on the pressure to spot them some North American charismatic megafauna and Nicky Smith was no exception, confiding early in her trip that she would be 'really disappointed not to see a bear'. I thought this would be be easy: we had practically been stalked by one in Grand Teton the previous summer. So, it was more with a desire to discourage bears than see them, that we set off on the classic Teton Crest trail in Grand Teton National Park.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At least the moose and bison pressure was off: We had watched a mother and calf browse in wetlands for a good half hour the night before the hike, and gotten almost too close to a herd of bison with calves. But we didn't turn down the chance to see a couple of bull moose, and another mum and calf pairing, on our way up Granite Canyon. We slept next to a bubbling creek, complete with dippers hunting for insects, not even ruined by a traumatic midnight nature bathroom visit. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The next day we ascended to Hurricane Pass through the last remnants of snow for more classic Teton views, then through the most incredible wildflower meadows of our entire two years (its rare you hit them at their absolute best, normally the guidebook says 'delight in the amazing flowers here' as you stare at decaying marigolds).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Our camp spot on Death Canyon shelf ranked as one of the best of the trip; an incredible sunset over one of the huge canyons leading up to the Teton massif. A 6am start meant cold cokes by lunch time at the Jackson Hole gondola and an easy ride down. But, still no bears.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Three days of 5am starts characterised our next park, Yellowstone, as you need to wake up early and stay up late to spot the wildlife. After bagging a camp spot at sought after Slough Creek (also a favourite with a local grizzly) we set out on our bear-hunt. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We saw bison swimming across rivers at sunrise, coyotes marking their territory at dusk, a golden eagle chick begging for food, a wolf departing on an evening hunting mission and even a rarely seen American badger snuffling through the undergrowth (oh, and lots of world famous geysers in the world's most active geothermal hotspot). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I had interrogated waitresses, off duty rangers and even the postmaster for their top bear viewing spots. But, by Nicky's final morning, still not one bear had been sighted and I was now feeling the pressure.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">On our final morning, we drove to Hayden valley and stopped to snap the red rising sun behind a pair of feeding pelicans. As always, we chatted with fellow visitors to obtain wildlife beta and this time struck gold: a bear visible from the next lay-by! Mark navigated through an inconvenient bison herd and there he (or she) was; a huge grizzly foraging in the meadows at sunrise who then obligingly crossed a river and shook out his coat for us. Awesome (although it might have made our mission easier if we'd found out earlier that the locals called this 'Grizzly Overlook'!).</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">"Grizzly Overlook": I promise you there's a bear in this picture somewhere...</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">We left Yellowstone and breakfast at a movie-worthy locals' </span><span style="color: #222222;">diner heralded our arrival in Cody, Wyoming. The town was created by 'Buffalo Bill' Cody: a Western legend who started as a buffalo hunter/army scout and eventually led a huge theatrical 'Wild West' show around the world (Queen Victoria was a big fan) becoming the first global celebrity in the process. The story is brilliantly told at the Buffalo Bill </span><span style="color: #222222;">museum</span><span style="color: #222222;"> (when the guide book said it was 'world class' we were suspicious, but it was actually excellent) which also charts the demise of the 30 million strong bison herd of the West in the 1850s which numbers just a few thousand left today. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Yes, it was as bad as it looks...</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">His story is less brillliantly told, in fact you might say, terribly told, by a group of amateur dramatic locals in a mock shootout in front of the 1905 Victoriana hotel built by Bill in homage to all things English. But we did have the pleasure of meeting two seniors motor cycling across the States (in honour of her eightieth birthday) who demonstrated that new technology can be put to old-school uses by showing us numerous photos of their children on their iPhone 5.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We bid fond farewell to Nicky (at 5am of course) before heading to Montana...</span></div>
Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-72608559681007183742013-09-08T07:00:00.000-07:002013-09-08T07:00:31.379-07:00Farewell Road Trip (3): Bear baffling, gold and whiskey<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">View from top of Mt Zirkel - still lots of snow at 12,000ft</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Our first backpack (overnight hike) was to the Mt Zirkel wilderness. It was a short afternoon hike across stunning wildflower meadows, surrounded by butterflies, to the base of the mountain where we made our camp next to a tarn. We introduced Nicky to our plastic bear barrel (designed so bears cannot open it or take it away, just stare angrily at the food inside, (it occasionally baffled us too)) and the 'trowel and ziploc bag' approach to bathroom breaks. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">An alarm at 5.30am saw us climb Mt Zirkel (12,182ft/3713m) on another perfect morning with views into the utterly empty wilderness beyond. On our return we heard howling and barking across the valley - a hiker later told us a pack of coyotes had brought down one of the young elk we'd seen at sunrise.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Miner's Inn Delight's very own bluebird...</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A long drive through the Great Basin Desert (it felt a long way from the Vancouver rainforest) brought us to Atlantic City, Wyoming. Part of a trio of old Gold Rush towns (a big cause of settlement in the West), t</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">he first town, South Pass City (once the biggest town north of San Francisco) has been fully restored, complete with general store (operational) and brothel (not operational).</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Our town of Atlantic City was still lived in by 'real' people: </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">its original mercantile was still operating in all its 19th century wooden-panelling-and-stuffed-animal glory; it had Wyoming's most essential small town retail outlet, the gun store, run by one 'Wild Bill'; and our B&B, the original 19th century saloon. The final town, Miner's Delight, has been left to gently disappear into the sage brush; dilapidated wooden cabins with roof slats slapping in the wind and brush growing over the cemetery.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">and it's very own whiskey selection...</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">All reason enough to visit, but as our B&B (Miner's Delight Inn) also had the best whiskey selection in the West and a nest of mountain bluebirds, it seemed only right to spend to stay two nights. Our middle day was spent exploring the towns and the nearby Red Rock canyon. On our way back on dirt roads, we pulled over to take a photo and when Mark turned the key, the car wouldn't start. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">It didn't take us long to consider our options: the only nearby deserted house had two barking guard dogs on duty and we had zero mobile phone reception, so I hitched a ride back to our B&B so we could call the AAA. As the operator couldn't understand where we were (they only seem to know the highways) and we were 30 miles away from the nearest small town, I was sceptical when she said a mechanic would be with us in 15 minutes. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">and our very own miner's cabin</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But sure enough, as we all sat downhearted by the car, fearing our road trip was over, a pick-up pulled up containing Wild Bill from the gun store, who doubled up as the town mechanic. A litre of oil later (Subarus guzzle the stuff on steep roads) and we were on our way, now fully in love with small town Wyoming. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Next stop: Grand Teton.</span><br />
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Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-86280086582086670902013-09-03T09:57:00.002-07:002013-09-03T09:57:44.250-07:00Farewell Road Trip (2): Cowboys, coyotes and my first mountain summit<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">The easy hike at the start, as the sun rose</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, was our home for the second week of the trip. Colorado is the highest US state, on average its elevation is 6,800ft (2070m) above sea level with nearly 20 peaks above the magic 14,000ft (4,300m). The altitude takes some getting used to, so we planned our first major mountain climb for our fourth day there: the famous Longs Peak, 14,255ft (4,340m)</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">. Dire warnings were provided by the guidebook and rangers; most definitely not a hike, it would require some difficult scrambling, with huge sheer drop-offs, where one slip would be fatal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My nerves and a 2am alarm (you have to be off the summit by noon before the afternoon thunderstorms) meant little sleep. The first three hours to the boulderfield was an easy headtorch-lit hike. Then it got more interesting: we climbed through 'the keyhole' to start the scramble along narrow ledges, up a gully, along more narrow ledges to reach the final ascent on slabs to the summit. Snow on the slabs blocked the best route up, but after a few sketchy moments we summitted at 9am to a huge sunny windless plateau with dozens of Colorado peaks laid out before us, and hoary marmots sunbathing on the rocks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I was not looking forward to the descent with, as it turned out, very good reason. The snow had started melting, coating the rock slabs with water above the 3000ft drop off. A good quantity of coaxing from Mark later and we were back at the keyhole, feeling the effects of altitude lessen with every step. We celebrated my first proper mountain summit with our first meal out of the trip: deep pan American pizza (if you think of it as a kind of pie it's quite nice). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our next few days were less adrenaline filled: drives along the highest paved road in the US, early morning bird watching near the elk 'nursery' meadow, watching three young coyotes streak down a sun dappled hillside, and collecting Nicky Smith late from the airport as we watched a herd of bighorn sheep with lambs cross the road.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Singing the national anthem precedes all N. American events</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And a truly American cultural experience: our first rodeo. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The Estes Park rodeo is apparently the best small rodeo in the US, easy to believe as you watch the cowboys (and girls) compete at sunset in front of the mountains. Our favourite events were the female 'trick riders' troupe racing around the stadium and the calf roping round: calf and cowboy are released simultaneously from the gates and the cowboy has to rope the calf, securely tie it and remount the horse in under 14 seconds. Awesome.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzJQxNnBcB6HqAK9DkVceOCG6Vkw2EI2BzwN0Bz4GO85qWBoCk2q9mNbgB4QHA4Zq0zC_YD8dlsWi50FXH8PhoWyB-RPr8sa7BykMXBbs1HuLXaOvXnGrLOjRpve8TUlEMRvfPVc0OYhMq/s1600/2013+US+Can+Road+trip+Nick's+blog+pics-18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzJQxNnBcB6HqAK9DkVceOCG6Vkw2EI2BzwN0Bz4GO85qWBoCk2q9mNbgB4QHA4Zq0zC_YD8dlsWi50FXH8PhoWyB-RPr8sa7BykMXBbs1HuLXaOvXnGrLOjRpve8TUlEMRvfPVc0OYhMq/s200/2013+US+Can+Road+trip+Nick's+blog+pics-18.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">A quick stop at the restored <a href="http://www.carouselofhappiness.org/" target="_blank">Carousel of Happiness</a> in Nederland (best $1 spent of the trip) completed our stay and we headed west to Mt Zirkel. </span></div>
Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-22781201438469569342013-09-01T09:31:00.001-07:002013-09-01T09:31:56.838-07:00Farewell Road Trip (1): Phantom bears, icy caves and a real life Jurassic Park<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">8 weeks, 12,000km, six US states, three Canadian national parks, and fifty nights under canvas: the spreadsheet for our final farewell road trip alone took six months to finalise. But it was well worth it...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Getting lost on the outskirts of Vancouver was not a good start, but things got more scenic as we travelled over the Cascade mountains and through the baking plains of Washington and Oregon to our first stop in Idaho. Idaho has the largest area of wilderness (i.e. no roads or buildings) in the lower 48 states and two and a half hours on dirt roads took us just into its edge.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Night one campsite, OR, too hot for the fly-sheet at 39c</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We'd picked the hike in the Frank Church wilderness as the guidebook said it would be 'less busy'. When we arrived at the deserted campground, with picnic tables still upturned and no water, we realised what that meant in the least populated state in the US. Slightly spooked by its emptiness, it's fair to say we over-reacted to the midnight snuffling outside our tent by spending night two sleeplessly in the car, watching for bears. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Next day we picked a different mountain range to hike in; the jagged Sawtooths. Short, sharp, afternoon mountain thunderstorms would become a feature of the trip, but our first one caught us out and, despite still being 35 degrees, we chilled down pretty quickly. Once we had them figured out though, it was pretty much the last inconvenient rain of the entire trip.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Suzie Q (the Subaru) spent a lot of the trip looking like this</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our next state was one of our favourite from last year: Utah. Mainly desert, with incredible rock formations and weird wildlife, our first stop did not disappoint: the Craters of the Moon national monument. 618 square miles of spiky black laval rock formed during eight huge volcanic eruptions. It was an unexpected National Park service gem including hikes up an ancient cinder cone, into an underground desert cave with permanent ice and our first sighting of bats.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Mark touching a real life dinosaur bone</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our next national monument had been a must on the itinerary ever since I'd read its single name in the guidebook: Dinosaur. In 1909, the Carnegie Musueum in Pittsburgh had an empty Dinosaur Hall and, in the mission to fill it, they found one of the worlds biggest fossil beds from the era of the huge Jurassic dinosaurs. They extracted dozens of complete skeletons and then left an entire quarry face filled with bones for the public to enjoy. The exhibit hall was gob smacking; complete stegosaurus, diplodocus and allosaurus skeletons still embedded in the rock which you could even touch. My 8 year old geeky, dinosaur obsessed self would have been stunned. If our car hadn't already been packed to the gills, I would have insisted on the full size allosaurus bronze head...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It was time to wave the desert goodbye for a few weeks and head east, to Colorado...</span></div>
Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-43627136533096066142013-06-12T22:24:00.000-07:002013-06-12T22:24:31.144-07:00Campaigning for the Coast<br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Regular readers will know that I have been involved with a non profit organisation called the Dogwood Initiative (named after BC's provincial flower) for the last few months. I wrote emails, attended events and even waved a placard in support of their campaign to protect BC's coast from the threat of oil spills in 2012. But with a provincial election in 2013 (pretty critical in a federal system) it was time to take the next step - volunteer to lead a team in my 'riding' of North Vancouver-Lonsdale.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I had always admired the campaigners at Save the Children (the international development charity I worked for in the UK). So creative, energetic and ready to get out and talk to people who might not agree with them. But I'd always been the goal oriented project manager whose only role seemed to be to hassle them for clearer targets and their final results. Could I actually campaign myself and encourage others too?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So without giving myself time to think, I clicked 'yes' to the email invitation and put a pin on the virtual map with my details and a team name (very original: North Van for the coast). I emailed Dogwood HQ with an honest assessment of my skills and experience: great organizer, loves politics, no campaign experience and as an immigrant, poor networks in the city. I'm not sure how delighted they were, but they sent a very encouraging and informative reply back.</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Why was I doing it?</b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In short, letting the world's dirtiest oil travel across mountains and rainforest via pipelines to be loaded into supertankers who then have to navigate one of the worlds most dangerous coastline obviously makes no sense for the environment. But exporting raw resources with no refinery profit or job creation also makes no economic sense.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For a longer answer, check out the final section!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Brainstorming and building networks</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So that's the why, but what did we actually do? First job for me was to read Dogwood's awesome campaign kit; tons of info, planning tools and tips and activity guides. We had three main jobs:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>1. Form a team</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I found this the hardest part. After roping in my other half and some close friends, it was time to reach out to other Dogwood supporters over email. Lots of people were supportive but already involved in other volunteer work. Making links over email was hard - as soon as I met up with people it was so much easier to build a relationship and get them to take action.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In hindsight, my first step would have been to organise a quick get together to just meet people, without the pressure of asking them to help organise anything. But I also should have worried less if people weren't keen to organise at first, and just try to get them to come to one event.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But a handful of us managed to form a plan to get to step 2.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>2. Contact the candidates for the election and get their positions</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A couple of us researched the party and candidate's positions, using Dogwood tools and then contacted them, tailoring the template and adding our own personal experiences.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The NDP opposition candidate (equivalent to UK Labour) got back quickly with a detailed response. The incumbent Liberal candidate (pretty much a UK Conservative equivalent) took much longer and, for the supposed greenest MLA, with a pretty pathetic reponse.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We used these as a basis for step 3.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>3. Tell people in the riding the candidates' positions and encourage them to vote to protect the coast</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our key ways were through door knocking and phoning. Again in hindsight, I would have organised these earlier to get people to at least one, this would have built momentum and repeat participants. But we managed to get out five times, covering about 1000 households.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our leaflets showing the different parties' positions</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Everyone really enjoyed it: most people supported us, and those that didn't were polite and even thanked us for getting out for democracy. It helped we started by asking people to sign a petition against tankers, and then told them the candidates in a non partisan way. It was interesting watching how reactions changed: in week 1 people were very undecided on who to vote for, by week 4 (just 6 days before the election) people were more defensive as they'd often been contacted by several of the parties.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Definitely not for anyone with a phobia of dogs. But as everyone in Vancouver seems to have their own, I can't imagine this would be an issue for most! Highlight was people thanking us so profusely for being out there. Lowlight was realising even a North Face waterproof is no match for a BC monsoon...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Phoning was less fun: its harder to not be nice to a smiley volunteer on your doorstep in the rain, easier to an anonymous voice on the phone. But one Dogwood supporter was delighted to see his donation being put to work and it was definitely quicker per household.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>What did we achieve?</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Well, what we wanted was for British Columbians to vote for one of the two parties who opposed pipeline expansion. But people vote for a whole variety of reasons and, contrary to every poll, the Liberal government remain in power.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But, a couple of weeks later, the Liberal government submitted their final response to the environmental review of the Enbridge pipeline project... and they opposed it! In 2011, no one was talking about oil or pipelines and the project seemed a dead cert. In contrast, during the 2013 election, it was a top issue with questions to leaders, candidates, and lots of column inches and air time. The Liberal government felt the pressure and voiced their opposition. The pipeline isn't dead yet (the current federal Prime Minster is from the oil patch) but BCers are now highly aware of the issue and the majority oppose it. Hundreds of people volunteered for and donated to Dogwood, and other environmental groups, and these individuals are now more engaged and motivated to keep fighting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As I make my preparations to return back to the UK, I will be taking back my committment to the cause. If the world is serious about preventing more climate change, a good place to start is helping BC be Canada's conscience and stopping Alberta's tar sands leaving the ground...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Why I did it, the long answer:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The world's dirtiest oil is drilled in our neighbouring province of Alberta (think Texas without the death penalty). It takes 5 gallons of water to drill 1 gallon of heavy bitumen oil, making the water too toxic to return to the water table (so it currently sits in giant lakes waiting for a scientific solution).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The oil companies and the federal government want to access Chinese markets by building more pipelines to Canada's west coast. To do it, they want to lift the ban on the huge 'Suezmax' tankers moving through BC's treacherous coastal waters. And overcome the mounting and loud opposition in BC.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Its a no brainer its terrible for the environment:there's a high chance of a spill from a crashing tanker (think Exxon Valdez); certain spills from the pipelines through BCs northern wilderness (the oil companies have a very poor record of clean up); and it encourages development of the climate changing and water source ruining Alberta tar sands.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But it also doesn't make economic sense for BC. Sure, the increasingly foreign (mainly Chinese) owned oil companies will get a higher profit from every barrel, but that just means higher oil prices in Canada. Not investing in refinery capability means very few real jobs are created. And its not a long term plan for Canada's future: it ships off their highest value commodity at low prices, why not refine in house and allow slower development so Canada can, if it still wants to build an economy based on fossil fuels, at least make some money out of it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You can find more information (and sources) <a href="http://dogwoodinitiative.org/no-tankers/learn-more" target="_blank">here.</a></span></div>
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Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-42139273641312268812013-05-14T22:23:00.001-07:002013-05-14T22:24:04.532-07:00Hummingbirds, hippies and hikes<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The first cruise ship just docked in Vancouver downtown which means summer has officially begun.But we've actually already had a summer-like spring, here are the highlights:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>An Easter weekend of tree frogs, hummingbirds and hippies</b></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/freshbean/8694261161/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" title="Untitled by Freshbean, on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="213" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8545/8694261161_f7a935bd2d_z.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">No, we didn't visit Costa Rica, just my relatives on Vancouver Island. Just a word on 'the Island' as its known here in case you're imagining something Isle of Wight like - its roughly the same size as England, but is populated by the wolves, cougars, bears and is the most left wing place in BC (and probably Canada).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A day with my cousin, the incorrigible EC Pielou (pioneering ecologist with her own wiki entry, which does not do her justice), who at 88 delighted in choosing the steepest trail for our morning hike. Then on to my cousins Richard and Joyce on the even wilder Quadra Island. Our first Canadian 'pot luck' turned into a barbecue on their friends' deck, only retreating inside when the sound of the hundreds of treefrogs inhabiting their wetland property became deafening.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/freshbean/8695481220/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="Untitled by Freshbean, on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="400" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8404/8695481220_90e9b6637a_z.jpg" width="194" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Hummingbirds are incredibly territorial, in spring the crimson throated male Anna's hummingbird is busy protecting the best food sources ahead of the mating season. The Pielous' new arrival did not appreciate Mark's efforts (you can guess at whose behest) to get the perfect photo, but he kept his cool amid the close shaves to get a pretty awesome one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And mustn't forget the hippies: Mark had to work Easter Monday so my friend Dan and I took the ferry to the 'Sunshine Coast' (rainshadow of the Island) and cycled its quiet roads past beaches, rocky headlands and hippy cafes (BCs biggest export is growing marijuana "BC bud" and there's plenty of domestic consumption...) Those of you who have visited us know that under no circumstances can one sit inside on a ferry crossing in case you miss a marine mammal sighting - it paid off yet again with three dolphins on the way home.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sounds odd, who has to train for hikes? But with my niggling ankle injury (an ultrasound, MRI and specialist eventually showed a strained tibial and other foot tendon but nothing too serious) meaning no running for months I was becoming increasingly nervous about the multi day backpacks we had planned for our two month summer road trip. Gym work had definitely strengthened my legs, but now it was time to get on the trails...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In classic Marshall style I planned a 10 week program, increasing the hike length by 1 hour a week. It was a good test of my footwear (rubbish - now trialling a new pair), new orthotics (excellent) and self reliance (well mainly not having anyone to witter to). The latter was solved by meeting a very nice hiking companion on hike 3 (esp lucky as the falling snow meant my hands got too cold to do up my jacket), listening to Ironman world champion Chrissie Wellington's biography and numerous episodes of In Our Time (though even I lost interest in the assasination of Tsar Alexander).</span></div>
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<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/ca/u/0/?ui=2&ik=d1b79f030a&view=att&th=13ea69a54c95e970&attid=0.1&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Photo" border="0" height="320" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/ca/u/0/?ui=2&ik=d1b79f030a&view=att&th=13ea69a54c95e970&attid=0.1&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now up to 7 hours, 22km and 1100m of elevation gain on the very rough north shore trails so, tw, all should be well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Camping and campaigning</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">First camping trip with Mark to Alice Lake Provincial Park. Out of practice we forgot essentials like an axe for firewood but managed to borrow from neighbours and had first outdoors cook of the year, yay!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And lots of campaigning to persuade people to vote to protect the coast in the elections on May 14 (but that deserves its own post...)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So next up is a May long weekend trip a couple of hours north to climb, camp and horse ride. No bears yet for 2013 so fingers crossed...</span></div>
Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-59564050286949457692013-04-07T17:30:00.002-07:002013-04-07T17:30:42.086-07:00Winter round up<span style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It's been a while (ok, several months) since my last post and that's because I don't like to post unless there is something new to say. And I've only collected new things to say at the rate of about two a month. So here are the December to March highlights:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>A lot of rain.</b> Almost every day. For three months. Just as we were building the arc, it eased off and worst seems over now and as it was 18 degrees at Easter weekend, cannot really complain given the UK's winter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Serious gym time</b>. Learning to ski and trail run in one season was a challenge for my legs. About 50 gym sessions have made my legs stronger and, weirdly, straighter. Started running again last week and back in the mountains soon to get ready for our summer trip...</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/freshbean/8502108565/" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="First rays by Freshbean, on Flickr"><img alt="First rays" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8378/8502108565_5f271200b8.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sunrise at from Grouse Mountain, Mt Baker, WA in the distance</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Plenty of skiing.</b> We had season passes for a different, more challenging, local mountain. I took lots of lessons because I love lessons, Mark didn't but was, annoyingly, almost as good. We conquered moguls (no style, but can get down them), did the double blacks and even a few blacks at the way more hardcore Whistler. We skiied at sunrise and sunset with the coast mountain range and the ocean bathed in golden light. A winter without weekly skiing now seems strange: Milton Keynes snow dome anyone?</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHWQc2gK2kSMdOIuOjv66Dyy1mvBwc6o9qCL5QU-LsMRR2OUNLZ2q0ehCnxC9owrFDgwIRuQWG2oOw-ZIOnbwhaDGpbjbIvsX1w6NcBXiEyonGAW-E4-NY16Ud5qQykuqBsTz3_zH_mxqU/s1600/IMG_1715.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHWQc2gK2kSMdOIuOjv66Dyy1mvBwc6o9qCL5QU-LsMRR2OUNLZ2q0ehCnxC9owrFDgwIRuQWG2oOw-ZIOnbwhaDGpbjbIvsX1w6NcBXiEyonGAW-E4-NY16Ud5qQykuqBsTz3_zH_mxqU/s320/IMG_1715.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Me, last summer, looking at the complex coastline</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Campaigning for the coast. </b>As you saw from my last post, BC has a pristine rainforest clad northern coast which is threatened by a mega oil pipeline from Alberta's tar sands to the coast and the huge tankers which would transport the oil to China. It doesn't make economic sense (Canada loses the benefit of refining the oil) let alone the environmental damage. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So in February I volunteered to lead a North Vancouver group to make it a huge issue in the upcoming BC election. Email campaign, door knocking and an event planned to persuade both main political parties to say no. Bit nervous as a new kind of project me, so fingers crossed, will update you after the election!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/freshbean/8571413912/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Untitled by Freshbean, on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8100/8571413912_8c839ed360.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From Port Townsend pier, back to the same Mt Baker but 200km south (it's a big mountain)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/freshbean/8551215046/" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="A musical note by Freshbean, on Flickr"><img alt="A musical note" height="212" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8234/8551215046_f27a71ced2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I don't remember this photo being taken</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>A pretty awesome ten year anniversary mini break. </b> I know: 10 years. Spent the weekend in a rain shadow (v important to know location of these) in Port Townsend, Washington state. Beautiful hotel, lovely walks and I pretended I was 21 again and got a little too merry at our romantic dinner out. Mark got me an amazing present of a box of 100 mini cards, each printed with a photo from our first ten years; I cried.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And now the blossom is out, the daffodils are up and spring has sprung. Next post is about our glorious Easter weekend, meanwhile, here is a <b>picture of the morning commute</b>:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/freshbean/8499998895/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Seabus Commute by Freshbean, on Flickr"><img alt="Seabus Commute" height="332" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8226/8499998895_3d587b882f.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"Seabus" from North Vancouver to downtown</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">p.s. Noticed the quality of the photos has gone up? That would be Mark's new hobby, check out his own photo blog here: <a href="http://www.letsclearuplater.com/" target="_blank">Letsclearuplater blog</a></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-16812705409683366852012-12-08T18:04:00.001-08:002012-12-08T18:04:08.834-08:00Fall in Vancouver: Rain, placards, pancakes... and a bit more rain<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPneea6p6Li3yEPZ3u_WoZKIqcQ18PHtjXQ_KvwC2lfJUGVLZbCVNxOhdRiIZ-aVgm0g717yJGW7VP5YieCBjGHTRdTVhqDBTFRk91ok7OE742K4wMokVD0uCoMWQhiFViSs_xYZkVwc0a/s1600/IMG_2876.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPneea6p6Li3yEPZ3u_WoZKIqcQ18PHtjXQ_KvwC2lfJUGVLZbCVNxOhdRiIZ-aVgm0g717yJGW7VP5YieCBjGHTRdTVhqDBTFRk91ok7OE742K4wMokVD0uCoMWQhiFViSs_xYZkVwc0a/s1600/IMG_2876.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPneea6p6Li3yEPZ3u_WoZKIqcQ18PHtjXQ_KvwC2lfJUGVLZbCVNxOhdRiIZ-aVgm0g717yJGW7VP5YieCBjGHTRdTVhqDBTFRk91ok7OE742K4wMokVD0uCoMWQhiFViSs_xYZkVwc0a/s200/IMG_2876.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><div>
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Summers are long, sunny and dry in Vancouver and this one lasted well into October. After getting back from our States road trip we had plenty of time to hike in the local mountains, show our friend Lucy the local celebrity wildlife and 'out-camp' the Provincial Park system by camping after it had technically closed (who needs running water anyway?).</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgceGtznmiiwDmrFU_QBOTQfBgin1FrxTf-oXhavKOfM4_rZI5SmslnvQxeseKEDKr3I7h_RnFUkfL8Ojbt9DGGvOgv4jGrp0sA1Bee6XJ4BbzUPlqB2GUrDZFkZbMS51bNYpUb_QV3NIky/s1600/IMG_2857.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgceGtznmiiwDmrFU_QBOTQfBgin1FrxTf-oXhavKOfM4_rZI5SmslnvQxeseKEDKr3I7h_RnFUkfL8Ojbt9DGGvOgv4jGrp0sA1Bee6XJ4BbzUPlqB2GUrDZFkZbMS51bNYpUb_QV3NIky/s320/IMG_2857.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our penultimate trip to Garibaldi lake</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But, on the day our friend left, the heavens opened. Eight weeks of pretty consistent rain followed, sometimes heavy, sometimes light, sometimes just showers; but definitely water falling from the sky. Now we're past the 40 day mark, I am wondering whether it might be sensible to commence arc construction...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anyway, enough whingeing. Without the outdoors not exactly out of bounds, just a bit less fun, what have we been up to?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Good ol' leftie activism</b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dogwoodinitiative.org/images/gtimages/loonie" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="notankers.ca loonie" border="0" height="200" src="http://dogwoodinitiative.org/images/gtimages/loonie" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Neat stickers to put on dollar coins</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Canada has one of, if not the, most incredible and pristine landscapes left in the world. Unfortunately some of it has immense amounts of very dirty, sticky and difficult-to-extract oil in the form of 'tar sands' beneath it. Our next door province, Alberta, fancies itself as the Canadian Texas and wants to sell all its tar sands to China as fast as possible. To get the oil there, they want to construct a pipeline across British Columbia through the 'Great Bear rainforest' to the coast north of Vancouver. Tankers the size of the Empire State Building would then navigate the very complex coastline with several hairpin bends through fjords to collect the oil.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXRCGIfbq-y3OKgS2KlAfaU6LZgPSWungXj29I8Mra4adnpb4IP3q3Bm_ag-FhKKLplLuSkEMctBhAsrl6L5zY8N0xTq5dZJyDFVOjDcnaoM2YmRFg_H8hu2sUQOC3ZHkRkWhi87lydBJm/s1600/placard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXRCGIfbq-y3OKgS2KlAfaU6LZgPSWungXj29I8Mra4adnpb4IP3q3Bm_ag-FhKKLplLuSkEMctBhAsrl6L5zY8N0xTq5dZJyDFVOjDcnaoM2YmRFg_H8hu2sUQOC3ZHkRkWhi87lydBJm/s200/placard.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">It did have writing on...</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The experts think a spill is pretty much inevitable, and the environmental and human consequences would be huge (think Exxon Valdez multiplied). So I've been writing lots of letters, attending company sponsored information sessions to ask awkward questions and waving my (not very pro!) homemade placards at one or two rallies. It is heartening to see that the city that gave birth to Vancouver has not yet lots its radical streak. The mainstream media's messaging has swung pretty much 180 degrees and now the pipeline deal looks less and less likely, so here's hoping...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Raising cash</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Child poverty is alive and well in British Columbia; one in five under six year olds live in poverty. A national/local charity 'United Way' coordinates a huge fundraising campaign every fall to raise money to prevent child poverty, bullying and social isolation of seniors. It has clear goals and excellent fundraising resources for its corporate partners, including my employer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I used them to helped organise our annual campaign, kicking off with the favourite North American fundraising staple; a 'Pancake Breakfast', then cookie competitions, online auctions and, my favourite, a slightly menacing Superman cut out with our President's face which you had to pay to have removed from your office. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I (hopefully tactfully) encouraged the fundraising committee to become more results focussed and also overhauled the communications to lead with cost examples and case studies. I was pretty chuffed that the number of staff who pledged (either one off or monthly) went up by 35% and we increased our cash intake by 10%. Hopefully a strong platform for next year. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Serving time in the gym</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Never been a big gym goer, preferring life outdoors, but in an effort to finally beat my achilles problems and get strong for skiing, I've hit the gym in a big way. Got myself a programme from a strength and conditioning coach and work on it at least three times per week. Fingers crossed it works and I'll be back running in January and super strong on the slopes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Whistler's had about 10 feet of snow, but the local mountains have had thin pickings... until this weekend. Just back from our first venture up to Grouse Mountain which had a few runs open and got us nicely warmed up. Also got to meet my friend Dan's office mascot.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">With most of our friends away for Christmas we'll be house sitting for Mark's boss, taking his slightly nervous dogs for walks, watching 'It's a Wonderful Life' and hopefully hitting the slopes. Have a great holiday season! </span></div>
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Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-33200494102054975682012-10-04T21:28:00.001-07:002012-10-04T21:28:35.829-07:00Yosemite, Napa Valley and Mt Rainier: Big walls, expensive grapes and trash TV<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0yR1bMbHH5icWJ6PsB3nLkZRFt98xNTjQOyqCLzFsVPCPJjrHjteI82LiwY_Kaga0yA9hqBV4Kub6M5qN4eBiBLdCIy9LiffaNuXVwYaly2_T6zf0sjhHLzus32FlcrG_gIcOaG6Hgcjn/s1600/IMG_2605.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0yR1bMbHH5icWJ6PsB3nLkZRFt98xNTjQOyqCLzFsVPCPJjrHjteI82LiwY_Kaga0yA9hqBV4Kub6M5qN4eBiBLdCIy9LiffaNuXVwYaly2_T6zf0sjhHLzus32FlcrG_gIcOaG6Hgcjn/s200/IMG_2605.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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Yosemite. Another one of the US National Park biggies. And, like many of the 'desert parks', defined by rocks but not your wishy-washy-eroded-by-a-bit-<wbr></wbr>of-wind-and-water rocks, but huge kilometre high granite walls carved out by the relentless force of glaciers.</div>
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We camped at one of the highest points, Tuolumne Meadows, a sea of meadows and forest amidst smooth domed islands of granites. We hadn't worried about bears for days but were back on high alert: California's bears have figured out the rich pickings available in vehicles, 1000 are 'beargled' each year - just one paw inserted in the top of the door rips open the entire side to access the loot. On guard at the campground, we weren't expecting one to sprint in front of our car (he crossly safely but I have definitely lost all pretence that I could outrun one).</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">El Capitan</span></td></tr>
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The nighttime freezing temperatures (we camped at over 3000m) were a welcome relief from the Death Valley heat. In early morning, we tackled the main valley; its proximity to the major urban centres of California made it the busiest park we encountered. But, as always, the 'car park effect' worked a treat and we hardly encountered anyone on our 14 mile hike to the back of Half Dome (you can guess the shape of that enormous lump of granite). Crowds do make for creature comforts though so pizza and shower followed. On our drive home in the dark, we spotted the head torches of climbers settling down for the night mid way through their multi-day climb up some of the kilometre high walls (they sleep on portable ledges strapped to the face and poo in tubes, a bit too rustic even for us). Next stop: wine country.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeUPTUUP6EySzWHv8bQklEPiM-mdSL4HdlO4bTrORpt1LdfA3syXiOLxTBIsb4FKJgI_a6Dv4KBF7OWsmkZfa306-UKaNryFmkJhORNQZnQmQtPO12_TUYnarjvJQkAbMroThsr9lEBPzq/s1600/IMG_2684.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeUPTUUP6EySzWHv8bQklEPiM-mdSL4HdlO4bTrORpt1LdfA3syXiOLxTBIsb4FKJgI_a6Dv4KBF7OWsmkZfa306-UKaNryFmkJhORNQZnQmQtPO12_TUYnarjvJQkAbMroThsr9lEBPzq/s200/IMG_2684.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Their summer residence</span></td></tr>
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Napa valley, near San Francisco, first started growing vines in the late 19th century. Prohibition pretty much killed the industry and it took until the 60's before they could produce decent wine again. And it turned out to be very decent indeed, winning gold medals on the international stage at the 1976 Paris Wine tasting competition (snooty European judges needed blindfolds to get rid of their anti-Yank prejudices) and so launching California's wines onto the world stage. </div>
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We camped in the heart of the valley with our American friends, Kathy and Tracy who we met kayaking in Greece. Mark sufficiently impressed various winery tasting room hosts with his vino knowledge to get us some tastes of the good stuff. And the good stuff was very good but came with hefty price tags: making us realise how good local BC wine - similar quality for around half the price. It was good to relax for a few days (although 5am starts are fun, they're rarely restful) and we finally perfected our s'More technique (non north americans: google it).</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ehqu8gl4r6w/UFiMjv0ScAI/AAAAAAAABzE/TnPT_GBl1No/s1600/IMG_2728.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ehqu8gl4r6w/UFiMjv0ScAI/AAAAAAAABzE/TnPT_GBl1No/s200/IMG_2728.JPG" width="150" /></a>And so to the final weekend. No bookings made, northern Oregon campgrounds were full so we had our first night in a proper motel complete with microwave dinner and trashy TV (turns out a reality show about constructing fish tanks is actually quite addictive). Our Nat Geo map showed one more National Park on our way home, the mighty Mt Rainier, a dormant, but definitely not dead volcano. Plenty of camp spaces, we got in one final hike, back on what felt like familiar ground: pine trees, alpine meadows and glaciers. A final drive, three border crossings in four hours (to give back our hire car) and we arrived home. Piles of stuff to unpack, no car, but some awesome photos and instant plans for the next trip. Roll on ski season!</div>
Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-49217829477824788382012-09-24T17:35:00.000-07:002012-09-24T17:35:08.187-07:00Grand Canyon, Vegas and Death Valley: Early starts, wet t-shirt competitons and flamingoes
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBz-0OBoQmR59llyNkJsbRtigPx1LEqNj8dRGRQA7xvHeMKBjl1XcCMD5BwgFk6x0-jnq20W6PWNh5vCHjhfADvAs5k_kN5JDENAWhYdgqEzNmv116n9O6HyihddPlIHycKGUmdkCw6L6s/s1600/IMG_2425.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBz-0OBoQmR59llyNkJsbRtigPx1LEqNj8dRGRQA7xvHeMKBjl1XcCMD5BwgFk6x0-jnq20W6PWNh5vCHjhfADvAs5k_kN5JDENAWhYdgqEzNmv116n9O6HyihddPlIHycKGUmdkCw6L6s/s320/IMG_2425.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">5 million people visit the Grand Canyon every year for, on
average for 2 hours, and only about 1% make the journey down to the bottom
where the temperature can be 20c hotter, rattlesnakes are common and water
sources unreliable en route.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With a list
of attractions like that, we couldn't resist.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We based ourselves at the less popular North Rim which sits on the higher, cooler,
green Kaibab plateau. The canyon is awesome in the true sense of the world and a full moon
rising shortly after a fiery sunset certainly didn't detract.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I’ll admit; we were a bit nervous about
the next day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The park literature makes a
summer descent in the heat sound a bit insane and even a little dangerous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We'd chosen the longer 28 mile route and
seemed to have budgeted half the normal time to do it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The advice was to complete all hiking by 10am
so it was an early night...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho7sNVBPDpFj3KA_QMIaN2sC54J_cy20ZLCxBUqy891NSj_hpomtIeNhF9QUuFHIVy8G6PO3eQQ3GQ4vAfiUj7is6Xk0DZZ97hkWNAVYpyNNNXgqqgqTKAbQ-ppvSBnNgGXchNveQEllYL/s1600/IMG_2465.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho7sNVBPDpFj3KA_QMIaN2sC54J_cy20ZLCxBUqy891NSj_hpomtIeNhF9QUuFHIVy8G6PO3eQQ3GQ4vAfiUj7is6Xk0DZZ97hkWNAVYpyNNNXgqqgqTKAbQ-ppvSBnNgGXchNveQEllYL/s200/IMG_2465.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">...followed by an early start; alarm at 4am and we were on
the trail by 5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It took 7 miles to
drop to almost the bottom, then another 7 to reach the mighty Colorado river
1000m below the rim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And actually, it
was pretty easy; with only 1 hour not in the dark or shade we arrived at our
campground at 11.30.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plus, it was all
downhill, though you knew what goes down must come up....</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQeX6i_FrU2mRRgr30QJZdI46Wgl714xrWohkcmcgsTnlseVQN3RiScF0_LbSacX8d-kVxDww0JEhlGiMswYYjIT3EBem8A8Z-ONh_vowjqg01YAPRDv0o4X7nYbbVlL7uEZqpJsIMg3Ds/s1600/IMG_2478.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQeX6i_FrU2mRRgr30QJZdI46Wgl714xrWohkcmcgsTnlseVQN3RiScF0_LbSacX8d-kVxDww0JEhlGiMswYYjIT3EBem8A8Z-ONh_vowjqg01YAPRDv0o4X7nYbbVlL7uEZqpJsIMg3Ds/s200/IMG_2478.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It was actually pretty comfy</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We had no tent, sleeping bags or stove to save weight, (at
38 in the shade we didn't get too cold) and so rigged up a survival
blanket for a quick afternoon nap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every
activity factored in a trip to the river to soak t-shirts in the cold water to
try and regulate our temps (it stayed around 50 in the sun all day).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The highlight was an extra 3mile hike at 4pm half
way up the South Rim with phenomenal views and another great sunset.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we hadn't been quite so cautious we
realised we could have attempted the Rim to Rim to Rim, but always good to
leave a challenge for next time...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdus5ZxDzL7DDB5GFNIKeyRKbVo-RvpRzm14d3nzM2pVnYhGl-6nogYGX4tSO9igXjEXPu9wmQSt8eaed-Dpr6HVkzo-x4Jfelk_RyasYTfXTW14hyphenhyphenDs1pbsvh7Zh2X-sWFRvcvU_xwEiK/s1600/IMG_2493.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdus5ZxDzL7DDB5GFNIKeyRKbVo-RvpRzm14d3nzM2pVnYhGl-6nogYGX4tSO9igXjEXPu9wmQSt8eaed-Dpr6HVkzo-x4Jfelk_RyasYTfXTW14hyphenhyphenDs1pbsvh7Zh2X-sWFRvcvU_xwEiK/s200/IMG_2493.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A 3am start got us to the top by 10.45 (yes, weirdly it took
us roughly the same time to get down and up), but 45min in the full sun was
enough for me to feel a bit strange - must be lack of sodium which convinced me
to eat a whole tube of Pringles (except for those stolen by a chipmunk after I dozed
off).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pizza, a rare shower and beer
completed an awesome trip.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We left the
empty green plateau, drove through the empty desert and felt rather surprised
to arrive at...</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Las Vegas, baby!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
you've been, you'll know how crazy it is if you haven't here's a summary: </span><br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fhItT1eTlfc/UFiMUitHhiI/AAAAAAAABvE/HKK0r_iHi3c/s1600/IMG_2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fhItT1eTlfc/UFiMUitHhiI/AAAAAAAABvE/HKK0r_iHi3c/s200/IMG_2529.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Our low key hotel</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">- they've built the streets of Venice inside a hotel,
gondolas on canals on the third floor (I've been
to Venice, this was identical but cleaner); </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">- they've rebuilt Paris, including the Eiffel Tower and the
Arc de Triomphe, replete with Gordon Ramsay's face on it, (I've been to Paris,
it was pretty similar, but the waitresses were more polite);</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">- you can gamble wherever you want, whenever you want,
whatever you want but we didn't because my great great grandmother (the Countess
Voltaira dontcha know) lost all her money gambling in Monte Carlo so I can't touch it; and</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">- girls, girls, girls are available everywhere ("in
your room in 20 minutes") - not nice, now it becomes clear why so many
conferences happen in Vegas.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEuQgIV2zm6GpFK10ygZY3NNl4Ip_jPYz63TVfoxLZrewAOqJxjmi3hzoMoOqrXGBSeg6bA68jXL2YxL724W_V9JPq1QTiQR-AKe_kylb-bcbe6rI_Vc2wKdPDSI8lsOxoXeHQWBNKn6S6/s1600/IMG_2542.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEuQgIV2zm6GpFK10ygZY3NNl4Ip_jPYz63TVfoxLZrewAOqJxjmi3hzoMoOqrXGBSeg6bA68jXL2YxL724W_V9JPq1QTiQR-AKe_kylb-bcbe6rI_Vc2wKdPDSI8lsOxoXeHQWBNKn6S6/s320/IMG_2542.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zabriskie point, Death Valley NP</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Awesome to see, but having driven through hundreds of miles
of desert it's pretty obvious it's about 200% not sustainable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1000 years humans (if there are any left)
will pick over the ruins and hold it as an example that, despite all the technology of
the 21st century, we couldn't magic up water. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, it could
serve incredibly realistic French food about 8000 miles from Paris so that was
a bonus.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And, after 30 minutes of enforced pool time (by me) we
headed to our Park 8: Death Valley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Officially the hottest place on earth, can I admit we were a tiny bit
pleased to be in a car with air con?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
some reason, I had forgotten that valleys need mountains on either side, so the
3000m peaks on either side were somewhat of a surprise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDOt3HTuhBXp4MlcCmtfosJajNkZmjYHKyvaImeifbBlwTJX-rROpz-C6dMdDyqWDCHuHrK6N2MNNvOzwxhprMVvo3Ny3Nl0YNR0UPsGm5oXj1muWFwNaAiaQqttblGaXvhBJgtlSkDI0E/s1600/IMG_2559.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDOt3HTuhBXp4MlcCmtfosJajNkZmjYHKyvaImeifbBlwTJX-rROpz-C6dMdDyqWDCHuHrK6N2MNNvOzwxhprMVvo3Ny3Nl0YNR0UPsGm5oXj1muWFwNaAiaQqttblGaXvhBJgtlSkDI0E/s200/IMG_2559.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Don't worry, he came back</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We waited until 5pm to do the obligatory walk
on the salt flats at the lowest point in the US (the water in Badwater
certainly didn't look inviting) but it was still roasty toasty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And even with my desire to tick everything
off from the guidebook, the walk on sand dunes in 46c was too much and I fled
to the car.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our campsite was luckily
2000m higher than the valley floor so not too hot to sleep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But most excitingly we spotted a newly-discovered-in-the-park-newspaper-species,
a tiny, non water drinking, nocturnal kangaroo rat (so inquisitive about our
camp spot I nearly trod on </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">him).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Desert: tick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now
back to the mountains with the Sierra and the climber’s paradise of Yosemite...</span></div>
Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-44724249311632511272012-09-20T20:43:00.002-07:002012-09-20T22:02:19.576-07:00Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon: Hot rocks, cool campsites and scenic byways<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">So our usual northern evergreens were gradually replaced by rocks, sand and cacti as we drove 600 miles south to four of Utah's national parks</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Arches contained, you guessed it, around 2000 natural rock arches in a many coloured desert landscape. We arrived late, but the full moon illuminated the huge rock formations encircling our sought after campground. A 5am start ensured we arrived at Landscape arch just in time for sunrise, wowsers. We then packed up our tent (no. 6 in a series of 19 pack ups, - still always accidentally packed something inside the tent) and headed off on one of the many hikes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A word on 'hikes' in national parks. US citizens are not always known for their svelteness (no sniggering, Canada and UK aren't far behind). The Parks service recognises this and understandably doesn't want too many coronaries so the 0.3mile tarmacced walk to a sight is INVARIABLY described as a "hike". Which makes it tricky to distinguish between a stroll and an actual lung busting, tendon aggravating hike. (Rest assured, we found plenty of the latter.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A ranger led 'hike' through the complex Fiery Furnace left me obsessed with desert crust; tiny bacteria bond together sand grains to, over around 100 years, create soil in which plants can grow. Destroyed by a single footstep, it takes another century to reform; understandably not realised by early European settlers who couldn't fathom why their cattle quickly desolated what appeared to be dry but sustaining grasslands.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A night in the adventure mecca of Moab preceded our next campspot in Canyonlands NP. A huge distant lightning show and an incredible overlook over the very complex terrain of this park made up for the lack of water tap and stinky toilets. The only real way to explore is a multi day guided jeep or mountain bike trip (or if you don't mind risking a limb or two you could go solo aka Aron Ralston in <span style="font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">127 hours).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our tattered western states map was becoming unreadable but we found a gem of a replacement; the National Geographic adventure atlas in a Visitor Centre (yes, we did visit lots and yes, I did have to be torn away). We followed a scenic highway route through the lunar like landscape of Grand Escalante National Monument and had a bonus stop at our fifth NP, Capitol Reef, named for the huge fold of the earth's crust rearing up like a reef.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our final 'amazing rock formation' park was Bryce Canyon; not really a canyon (formed by a river) but a series of giant amphitheatres along a high plateau. A sunset hike among the salmon pink rock spires (named hoodoos after voodoo) was breathtaking (particularly as the park is based at over 2,700m elevation). However, it shouldn't surprise you the speed with which a mention of a new species in a park newspaper could give me a deep longing to spot one; the trip could now not be complete without seeing a rare Utah prairie dog (think more meercat than wolf)... A wrong turn on the way out rescued me from despondency as we spotted two little sentries on duty for the colony. Job done.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now we headed south again for a real hike: to the bottom of the biggest gash in the earth's surface, the Grand Canyon...</span></div>
Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-72930713909690521822012-09-19T21:06:00.000-07:002012-09-20T20:45:29.542-07:00Yellowstone and Grand Teton: "Moose-hunting, bear-avoiding and geyser-gazing"<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Canadian colleagues were already concerned that our 19 year old many-patched Jeep wouldn't make it 5000 miles through the US deserts in summer. She might have heard them or, more likely, she was concerned for our welfare and knew she wouldn't make it in the real heat so on day 2 she bowed out gracefully. As the extremely kind Montanan mechanic explained, we could invest hundreds of dollars fixing the radiator to see if the engine was okay but, with sterner tests to come, we bid her farewell on a parking lot in Missoula. So with just a day lost, we headed off in our new (bizarrely Hawaiian plated) hire car, to Yellowstone.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">They know they own the road</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Keen readers, or just my mum, will remember we visited the snowy expanses of the USA's first national park at New Year. Trying to catch up our schedule to our achieved-with-blood-sweat-and-tears campground reservations, it wasn't such a leisurely affair this time. A 4.30am start (don't worry, it won't be our earliest) ensured we didn't miss some magical wolf howling, traffic jams caused by 2 ton bison and the usual array of speedy antelopes and trotting coyotes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The park is actually the caldera of a huge exploded super volcano and so is one of the most geothermally active places on the planet. This results in a good stink in some places, yellow stone (geddit?) and some awesome erupting geysers. We just had time for the main show of 'old faithful' and some bubbling mud before we headed on to our park number 2...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Grand Tetons range is still pushing up, while the area around it sinks (into 'Jackson Hole') meaning you get a rare view of an entire range rising from the plains. We were lucky to have a day of good visibility as all summer humongous forest fires have raged across this part of the States. But it wasn't all about the peaks, we had one clear objective; to see a moose. You might think living in Canada would have sorted this already but my constant questioning always resulted in "oh moose, well, they're just everywhere". Yep, everywhere and NOWHERE! It was allegedly impossible not to see a moose in GT so the hunt was on....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">No. 1 recommended spot (yummy willow trees); no moose. Second choice (delicious boggy weeds); no moose. Place where nice visitor centre man saw <u>three</u> on his way to work; no moose. Place fellow moose hunter saw one an hour ago; no moose. My spirits were sinking. Our last chance was our overnight trip high up the mountainside... </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">He owns the forest and he knows it</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Armed with specific ranger taught brush observation techniques we set off with some trepidation. But it turned out the moose gods knew it was my birthday. A polite cough/grunt/neigh sound to our left revealed a set of palmate antlers... success! And then we couldn't stop seeing them: we followed a lady moose as she travelled amazingly quickly through dense undergrowth; watched a bull moose reclining in meadows and; as we ate our lunch, another bull walked straight across our path (a bit too close for comfort). So moose panic over.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We camped at a lakeside wilderness site (which means no north American staples like a picnic table, fire ring and pit toilets (in case you're wondering, you go in a hole and pack out the tissue, nice)). All very tranquil until at 8pm a large black bear nonchalantly approached the camp. Unlike BC bears he was undeterred by talking, shouting and clapping and only backed off after we banged rocks on the bear cache and Mark made a special, new poltergeist like bear scaring wail (our 6 neighbours seemed slightly perturbed by this development). But he didn't go far, just circled the camp until he disappeared into the dark trees...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Needless to say, little sleep was had by all, not helped by gale like winds which would have masked his approach (though huge padded feet make them pretty silent). But we survived the night and then bumped right into him sitting on the path as we left... When we later made our bear report to the rangers we discovered a hiker had his pack ripped apart by a bear in the same area that day so were lucky (more for not losing our dinner, black bears are rarely too dangerous). But then that's the challenge of spending time in prime bear habitat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We left the next day, saying goodbye to the familiar mountains and forests of the north to the deserts and canyons of the south...</span></div>
Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-91396629677728733952012-09-19T21:05:00.001-07:002012-09-24T17:35:23.773-07:00Whirlwind tour of the Western States - the intro<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13.33px;">Its hard to know where to start with blogging about our 3 week road trip to ten of the most iconic national parks in the US. We went from 46 degrees centigrade to below freezing in one day. We walked on the lowest point in the US, and on snow near one of the highest. And, obviously my fave part, saw wildlife from a 1 ton bison to 20gram hummingbird, and a bear with a very keen interest in our dinner. Oh, and we wrote off our car (turns out temperature gauges ARE really important after all...)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Instead of one epic post, I'll divide the trip into posts on each park, check out the sub title if the park names don't mean too much... WARNING: I've written some of it as much for us to remember all the good, bad and ugly bits: so some of it is pretty long, feel free to skim and just look at the piccies!</span></div>
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Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-67010805684528992512012-08-23T11:55:00.004-07:002012-12-29T19:11:19.650-08:00The most scenic ultra race in Canada...<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">19 August has loomed huge on the horizon ever since I clicked 'confirm' on my race entry form for the 30 mile portion of 'the most scenic ultra race in Canada'. An ultra race is technically anything further than a marathon. So, if I completed it, I would become part of a growing group of people who love running long distances, normally in the mountains. Pretty much the same group of people I had dismissed as insane when I discovered they even existed last year.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">One of the climbs (this one I did remember)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">My training went well, really well, for about five months: long runs at weekends on increasingly hilly and technical terrain; speed and hill workouts; and two 25km races on the local North Shore mountains. Then one of the inevitable endurance injuries set in, Achilles tendonitis and I had to back off training. Four weeks pre-race, my long run (which still wasn't really long enough) damaged my tibial tendon, which ruled out more more running. Adding insult (well, I guess injury) to injury, a cycle ride to keep up my endurance pulled out a rib with 7 days to go.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">So, many hundreds of dollars on physio later, I was at the start line. Mark, as always supportive and encouraging, had given me my final pep talk, with varying degrees of accuracy:</span></div>
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<li>"you're the fittest you've ever been" - this much was true;</li>
<li>"you know the course backwards" - we had hiked it the month before but I'd conveniently forgotten key elements like there being 7, not 4, brutal climbs; and</li>
<li>"if you start, you'll finish" - well, this was kind of true, you crossed one road 10 miles in and, if you didn't turn back then it was finish or wait for mountain rescue...</li>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Enough warm-up, what happened in the race?:</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The ridge section (on a recce run)</span></td></tr>
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<li>Adrenaline is a magical substance. I didn't notice my existing injuries and wasn't in much pain until mile 22 when both knees went on strike. For the final 8 miles, I mastered a stiff legged, arm pumping jog which was surprisingly effective.</li>
<li>Closest I've been to a cougar/mountain lion - at aid station #1 they (accidentally) told me one had been sighted on the trail I'd just run (as well as two surprised bears). "Lucky it isn't ahead of me" I thought. Took me 2 hours to remember that cougars don't respect race leg boundaries and start worrying about every twig snapping.</li>
<li>I felt incredibly nauseous for about 2.5 hours climbing 1700m. Meant I couldny eat which slowed me down, but just made the pringles at the 2nd/last aid station even better.</li>
<li>I performed really quite effective first aid on cuts sustained in a fall, simultaneously providing much needed food aid to passing moquitoes, and didn't beat myself up too much about losing my sunglasses.</li>
<li>I took an extended nature bathroom break. Traumatic. Mosquito ridden. 'Nuff said.</li>
<li>I was blown away by the views, the first brutal climb topped out on a magnificent ridge line with the snowy peaks of the Northern Cascade range on one side and acres of alpine meadows on the other. Sufficient encouragement to keep running.</li>
<li>And, what surprised me most was my totally positive attitude for the whole day. I saw only three runners, plus aid station volunteers, all day, but I entertained myself with odes to compression socks, the mountains, pringles and a very un-British sense of pride in my achievement. I had a few tears, but mainly when I thought about the support I'd had from Mark, family, friends and my trail running club. I only had to give myyself one serious 'marshall your resources' talking to (sometimes my surname is pretty useful).</li>
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</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I was out 10 hours and 15 minutes in the end. I had wanted to finish under 10 but considering the heat I was pleased to end it running with only a minor limp. I learnt some valuable lessons I'll take forward to future races, took home an abiding love for aid station volunteer heroes and finished with my first Canadian ultra race medal (hopefully not my last, but no plans as yet to enter the 120mile version next year). </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Chips are an essential recovery tool</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Still in considerable pain as I write this 3 days on (my tibial tendon hasn't quite forgiven me) but immensely satisfied. We leave Friday for our 3 week Western US States road trip. I'm off to buy physio tape and walking poles for our descent into the Grand Canyon... </span>Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-16849976458032753072012-08-17T20:54:00.001-07:002012-08-17T20:54:06.244-07:00The Journey North, final instalment<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Despite my innate capacity for witter, in this instance, pictures really do speak louder than words, so this entry is really all about the photos (in large parts thanks to Kat/Sandy's amazing camera)</span><div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjps5COXugpnaa0XwUcx-pIhaYqeqtRUSvXQf5PVhMHvncShXGOPC3AxRUP3QUtJ_yh_UqXTkShTBPNLhIog49kh3_NBcWL6Yq36abeJ-7y-4URuNh4rfrDvMUmY4JwgJdQqqGUTtW6QlY9/s1600/IMG_6965.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjps5COXugpnaa0XwUcx-pIhaYqeqtRUSvXQf5PVhMHvncShXGOPC3AxRUP3QUtJ_yh_UqXTkShTBPNLhIog49kh3_NBcWL6Yq36abeJ-7y-4URuNh4rfrDvMUmY4JwgJdQqqGUTtW6QlY9/s320/IMG_6965.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Great conditions = Tim getting us very close to the peaks</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">First up, our amazing 'flight see' over the Monarch mountains:</span><div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GjGd_KWx5sc/UAYdW6JBaAI/AAAAAAAABe0/i5QDZsZ9Hwk/s1600/IMG_1871.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GjGd_KWx5sc/UAYdW6JBaAI/AAAAAAAABe0/i5QDZsZ9Hwk/s320/IMG_1871.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You don't get more 'BC' than this</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj20TreCgcVNX3pLVPNX8KkHQLD4LxHcHDD5ZYR-YENxKxP3IrNwKmARekqkfRdn6pW1xvGo-p1CeT6nxs-_SbgzXbMOmYyUUDM9rWK_XWfV0KrExeyqxFN_bhbbpkbV-zHhYVhTpOdTEcj/s1600/IMG_6939.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj20TreCgcVNX3pLVPNX8KkHQLD4LxHcHDD5ZYR-YENxKxP3IrNwKmARekqkfRdn6pW1xvGo-p1CeT6nxs-_SbgzXbMOmYyUUDM9rWK_XWfV0KrExeyqxFN_bhbbpkbV-zHhYVhTpOdTEcj/s320/IMG_6939.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Seen from the air, a glacier really is a river of ice</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm loving the fire</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Next was our trip back to the 'big smoke' of Vancouver. Our final camp was by the glacial blue Chilcotin River, with requisite Canadian campfire. And then we descended from the Chilcotin plateau. You can see the Fraser river cutting through the dry grassy hills of the Cariboo, very different from our usual mountain forest home...</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Reminded me of the African 'veld'</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Don't worry, I didn't lose my lower legs</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But, gradually, we wound our way back to our 'home range' of the Coast Mountains, past the stunning Duffey Lake, with a late evening drive along our 'home fjord' of Howe Sound unable to resist a final swim in Marble Canyon on the way home). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A basically pretty amaze-balls trip. </span><br />
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We then had only 12 working days till our next trip, back to London to check out how well 'spruced' it had been ahead of the 2012 Olympics... </div>
Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-32692110184052166082012-07-31T03:08:00.000-07:002012-07-31T03:08:43.971-07:00The journey North, part 2<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">As a Brit, you feel like you know all about rain (and certainly this year) but, as the West Coast of British Columbia is one of the world's last remaining temperate rainforests, when it rains here, it can be a monsoon-like torrent which has the added bonus of being really quite cold. This exact combo is what greeted us on our arrival in Bella Coola; undeterred we set off on a 'bear-fari' to see if we could spot any of the large population of black and grizzly bears that inhabit the Bella Coola valley.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /><strong>BBB</strong></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Our second BBB</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">We struck gold with BBB score of 3 (Bears Before Breakfast) and 1 BAB. As the road is fairly quiet, and the locals pretty disinterested in bears, the black bears were happily munching dandelions and we got some good snaps. Then it was time for 'the Hill'; until the 1950s the government proclaimed the mountainsides between Bella Coola and the Chilcotin plateau too steep to build on. Locals took matters into their own hands and built the last 65km themselves, with up to 18% grades and too steep to tarmac properly it is an exciting gravel drive with unfenced sheer drops to the valley beneath. Kat and I maintained a calm silence (yes I know, it was a challenge) as Mark honked the horn round every hairpin bend...</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">No sticking plaster visible</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Into the wilds</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The Hill conquered we arrived at Nimpo lake to greet our pilot, Tim, sort our gear and board the 1955 Beaver floatplane to Turner Lake, our home for the next two days. The clouds cleared enough for him to see the lake and drop us off at the small beach, by the three basic log cabins. As the buzz of his engine faded, it was replaced by the less friendly buzz of mosquitoes, a LOT of mosquitoes. Mark secured over 50 bites on his left shoulder alone (through his clothes) and went into mild shock for the next hour or so as his body released a ton of histamine. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">George, on the other hand, seemed unconcerned by northern BC's most popular insects. Sent to 'clear up' the camps and hiking trails of this enormous park every year, George had huge knowledge and affection for the park and immediately bundled us into a canoe to check out the next lake along, the trail replete with moose and bear droppings...</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The picture of the trip?</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">We unwisely chose a meal which required us to be outside cooking for at least 10 minutes, 9 minutes longer than it took the mosquitoes to find us, but were rewarded with the incredible sight of a full moon rising in twilight over the mountains and lake. Even George said it was a first for him in the park, so I think a total of 57 photos between us was reasonable...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>Planes, boats and ...jettys?</strong></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Mark steadies the jetty</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The rest of our stay was spent zooming around in George's kindly lent motorboat, canoeing and helping George and Tim chainsaw the cables from and move a jetty (for complicated reasons we all ended up 'riding' the jetty as it was towed through the water, not the most aerodynamic of vessels). The park has had a tough time over the last five years; forest fire, the mountain pine beetle epidemic and floods in 2010 have made the park less accessible (hence the float plane) and made the trails tougher to navigate. These calamaties have led to a vicious circle of less visitors means less investment in trails and facilities which means less visitors etc. But if you're lucky enough to be there, it means that you really feel you have the enormity of the park to yourself. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">So a brilliant stay, now for the final flight over the mountains out....</span><br />
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<br />Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-28074039338057392742012-07-17T19:58:00.000-07:002012-07-17T19:59:47.661-07:00The journey North, part 1<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Actually, it wasn't very far North. When we came, we thought we'd 'explore Canada' - then we realised, actually, it's not just big, it's vast. So we thought we'd focus on our own province of British Columbia. But turns out that's pretty big too, about the size of France and Germany combined. So now we're mainly focussing on southern BC, where people happily drive 2 hours for a nice lunch... And in that context, although it was an 8 hour drive back to Van from our most northerly point, we still would only have covered the first quarter of the province. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So the journey. We planned to copy BC Ferries' vacation route 'the Discovery Coast circle route' pictured left, travelling on two ferries, one float plane and up Western Canada's most notorious road 'the Hill'. With the ever adventurous Kat game for the challenge (but with an Arbuthnott family gathering to return to at the end) we had an ambitious 6 day timeline...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Leg 1: Vancouver to Port Hardy</b></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Celebrating no rain, yet...</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Ferry number 1 took us across to Vancouver Island with the regular beautiful Friday night sunset on display. A quick stop at a family campground and we were off up the eastern coast of 'the island' to picnic with my ecologist cousin, E. C. Pielou, who took up sea kayaking at 75 and once woke up in her tent on the arctic tundra to find a wolf gazing in. Always an inspiration, she updated us on her latest book project and after a bird-filled beach hike, we said our goodbyes to carry on up the coast. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Our first taste of the remote north was the sign proudly welcoming us to Port Hardy and setting out their priorities underneath 'fishing, logging, mining'. Our second taste was the panic induced when the BC Ferries port staff asked Kat for her photo ID (passport sensibly left safely in Vancouver) and informed us she couldn't travel without it. Eventually, in true laid back West Coast style, Kat just signed a declaration that 'I, Katherine Arbuthnott, am Katherine Arbuthnott. Signed: Katherine Arbuthnott' which served as her passport for the next two days on the 'Queen of Chilliwack ferry'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Leg 2: Port Hardy to Bella Coola </b></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Still no rain!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The last time Kat and I visited a fjord together it was Milford Sound, NZ, and not only could you not see the snow capped mountain peaks surrounding it, you couldn't even see 5 metres in front of your face. Combined with one of the worst months of June weather in western Canadian history, I was understandably nervous about what the weather gods would bring...</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Kat's pretty excited re: no rain</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The first night on the ferry was therefore a real treat, incredible views back over to the mainland, the snowy peak of Monarch mountain (see more later) towering over the skyline, and a lacy network of inlets and islands before us. The night didn't prove so serene; a stern warning over alcohol was delivered; a couple's romantic liasion on the deck resulted in being escorted from the boat the following morning by the Mounties; and the ferry stopped dead at 5am to allow 4 sea kayakers a 'wet launch' into an empty bay. We slept in the solarium on the floor (no beds provided on the 2 night journey), the stars overhead and the sound of the engines lulling us to sleep (well sort of, mainly just being really noisy). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We spent Sunday cruising up and down the coast line, dropping off people and goods to the tiny and unbelievably remote First Nations communities along the coast. With no roads to them, no shops and no restaurants, it shouldn't really have surprised us that at our most northerly point, Klemtu, 103 of the 300 inhabitants boarded the ferry as visitors to have their regular Sunday night dinner in the cafe. Reliant on fishing, some forestry and eco-tourism, most of the communities are trying (actually fairly successfully) to keep their young people from leaving for the big smoke. But given that if you forget the milk on your monthly shopping trip to Port Hardy (2 day return journey) I can understand why it might be attractive to leave. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We, of course, spent a lot of time combing the ocean's surface for whales, although happened to all be dozing when the first humpback whale was announced. We saw 6 or 7, most very obligingly doing 'the tail thing' just ahead of the ferry. Bald eagles were a regular, as always on the coast, but our first golden eagle, with juvenile, was a real treat.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The weather turned, later than anticipated luckily, so we spent the second night sleeping in the lounge, waking up at 5.30am to a very rainy Bella Cool, pysching ourselves up for... the Hill...</span>Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-20447368322686144682012-07-17T18:55:00.001-07:002012-07-17T20:00:42.993-07:00A tale of two journeys: The South<br />
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4000km covered, two mountain ranges crossed and a LOT of big trees. The Jeep has performed admirably on 17 days of travel on two road trips: south along the washington and Oregon coasts to California and north along the misty fjords of British Columbia. </div>
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<b>The South</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-n4lPV22MhEFFncwvBv3_yLjkgKTkzjZxwwg6coa5uPMeeghyoLU8JOg-eIJFTtu7PY7UfudVLJEo1UvrBKY-JRQ12ZQCMlhuWXw57_dLm9S85pSh3Rv0TPA05kLszTlZ5c_qfnXK503s/s1600/IMG_1562.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-n4lPV22MhEFFncwvBv3_yLjkgKTkzjZxwwg6coa5uPMeeghyoLU8JOg-eIJFTtu7PY7UfudVLJEo1UvrBKY-JRQ12ZQCMlhuWXw57_dLm9S85pSh3Rv0TPA05kLszTlZ5c_qfnXK503s/s200/IMG_1562.JPG" width="200" /></a>When Nikki said her only free week was early June, my colleagues' warnings about the potential for 'Juneuary' rang alarm bells. With huge amounts of snow across the western mountains this winter, any kind of hiking was out as many places still had avalanche risks. So with Nikki's Canadian cousin Shelagh on board, we planned a journey along the famous (well, in these parts anyway) Oregon coast; long sandy beaches, rocky bluffs and plenty of wildlife.</div>
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A complex visa waiver run in with the US authorities was avoided thanks to my boss's timely warning and Nikki's disarming British chatter. Torrential rain on night one luckily wasn't represenative of the trip (although the other night of rain did necessitate a retreat from the tent to a yurt) and there were plenty of highlights:</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3p2fWRrhf84/T_upyBXKYaI/AAAAAAAABPI/VMTeKdAWuHE/s1600/IMG_1564.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3p2fWRrhf84/T_upyBXKYaI/AAAAAAAABPI/VMTeKdAWuHE/s200/IMG_1564.JPG" width="200" /></a>- Incredible long, sandy, undeveloped beaches with tons of picturesque driftwood and rocky out crops. Leftie liberal Oregon decided to keep its 350 miles of beaches public and much is protected as state parks.</div>
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- Yet again the vindication of my incessant questioning of locals re wildlife opps: rewarded with immense star filled tide pools, huge colonies of seabirds, seals and sealions and lots of teetering on slippery rocks</div>
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- Beer (oregon is the microbrewery capital of N America), ice cream (where else to celebrate Nikki's birthday but with 57 flavours) and everlasting home made cookies</div>
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- First encounter with US police in the form of a speeding ticket for Nikki (okay, maybe more of a lowlight for her bank account) in Kurt Cobain's home town - once you've left Eugene as quickly as you can its not hard to see why he was so miserable</div>
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- An unexpected sense of remoteness; in crescent city, CA, you're 350km from the nearest big city and cut off from the freeway by the mountains. They don't follow baseball or ice hockey but the local little league soccer and it felt like the whole town, all generations, attended the trivia night.</div>
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- And finally: our first encounter with a real life US marching band, replete with trombones, baton spinning and glitter outfits.<br />
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So much fun was had by all in the journey south. You can check out the photo album here: <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/103002243824878276777/Oregon2012Highlights?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMrrtqja3KLesAE&feat=directlink" target="_blank">Oregon highlights</a><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Next instalment covers the journey north...</span><br />
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<br /></div>Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-59088941942824566342012-05-30T21:31:00.001-07:002012-05-30T21:31:46.927-07:00Whales, wine and the first bear of 2012<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Most Canadians only get 10 days annual leave, 15 if you're lucky. So the 'long weekend' assumes huge importance as a chance to get away and into the outdoors (well, I'm sure some of them use it to visit the Home Depot but the sensible ones go camping).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Luckily long weekends crop up almost every month (much more sensible distribution than the UK) and we've made excellent use of the first two of spring:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Easter time whale watching</b></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMROPpBbBRPZcr_-nBbB5PYp18wvoN1AcG6sNIvYJopk6OBqL4K5Z-gl5q3ftguwYDdUTEyTrCw0R0JnN4U4Y8gyjEaJWyzKvhYP15wiT_LEDQaz4sUDwhXOcDg4fD44Kl_KUNt-ftMbKO/s1600/IMG_1475.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMROPpBbBRPZcr_-nBbB5PYp18wvoN1AcG6sNIvYJopk6OBqL4K5Z-gl5q3ftguwYDdUTEyTrCw0R0JnN4U4Y8gyjEaJWyzKvhYP15wiT_LEDQaz4sUDwhXOcDg4fD44Kl_KUNt-ftMbKO/s320/IMG_1475.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sunset, West Coast style</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">On the way to the west coast of Vancouver Island (just "the island" to Vancouverites) we had a whistle stop visit with my awesome first cousin twice removed, Chris Pielou (my only known relative with her own wikipedia entry </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._C._Pielou" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">E.C. Pielou wiki entry</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). Still hiking and writing books at 87, she is a force to be reckoned with in the sleepy seaside town of Comox and I was touched to be given a signed copy of the latest reprint of her first popular science book 'The World of Northern Evergreens'. I'm still sorting out my spruces from my pines but I'll get there...</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLDeBMXFPG51MWwvMlWZcIzLCiHT0jD4ppg6ZsIS4J5T2_jND2Gcmieae813dC-BvUqo1XuFe2iOqxKqIW-X7QY5JBODtn8PlAAXo8xD23cAiSwGfpZp7q5x9HCl7dwioRjkZkkxvAe7gI/s1600/IMG_1436.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLDeBMXFPG51MWwvMlWZcIzLCiHT0jD4ppg6ZsIS4J5T2_jND2Gcmieae813dC-BvUqo1XuFe2iOqxKqIW-X7QY5JBODtn8PlAAXo8xD23cAiSwGfpZp7q5x9HCl7dwioRjkZkkxvAe7gI/s320/IMG_1436.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Yes, we think it did walk there</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The island's west coast bears the brunt of the northern Pacific Ocean's wind, waves and, with amazing frequency and force, rain. So we had low expectations of a dry weekend on the drive over (particularly as there was st</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ill about 3 feet of snow on the roadside on the passes) </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and much time was spent rigging up a complex tarpaulin arrangement.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But actually, it turned out pretty nice. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We walked on the huge expanses of sandy beach in the Pacific Rim National Park, watched grey and humpback whales, saw our first sea otter (!) and cooked up on the beach in an amazing sunset. No coastal wolves yet, but there's always next time...</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Wine tasting and rock</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHpUienytVBEH7wQ4WvFTzasxmBdQ5raNgg_aSDnOHvzhimaga89V2mXgOlys3mVd2nwOr-dl16javhDuXl0YO9LwiHxfh_A6G_KxaZfiJJQrxd0ihsHDxdSRobCEYWsqYemnN9zIeU8ds/s1600/IMG_1503.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHpUienytVBEH7wQ4WvFTzasxmBdQ5raNgg_aSDnOHvzhimaga89V2mXgOlys3mVd2nwOr-dl16javhDuXl0YO9LwiHxfh_A6G_KxaZfiJJQrxd0ihsHDxdSRobCEYWsqYemnN9zIeU8ds/s320/IMG_1503.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The long weekend towards the end of May heralds the start of Canadian summer. Proving this wasn't yet firmly embedded enough in our psyche, we headed to the major summer destination in B.C without a campsite reservation. And, predictably in hindsight, they were all full by the time we arrived in the Okanagan (300km east of Vancouver) at about 11pm after hours escaping the 'burbs so we put a motel night on our flexible friend.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6gwJvRrqWw9oa3KQzPdP0aFm49N_IPQsVTI-hHixsD1Uv6G1NLOpBwRtA1yRfD2C0G4jj-GYb2_BQ556EajRNoZaMjrsOopqcxLj9OI4EjebfMtkG_QzLIIiKNDxo1U_nTGASyDjFRjG_/s1600/DSC_0041.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6gwJvRrqWw9oa3KQzPdP0aFm49N_IPQsVTI-hHixsD1Uv6G1NLOpBwRtA1yRfD2C0G4jj-GYb2_BQ556EajRNoZaMjrsOopqcxLj9OI4EjebfMtkG_QzLIIiKNDxo1U_nTGASyDjFRjG_/s200/DSC_0041.jpg" width="132" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">All was resolved by morning, just in time to start out tour of B.C. vineyards. Little did we realise that the Canadian wine that makes it's way to the Vancouver liquor stores is the bottom of the barrel and they actually produce some excellent wine, particularly whites. I pretended to know the difference between Bordeaux and Burgundy style and Mark's savvy actually got us some 'below the counter' tastings. With temperatures in the high twenties, clear blue skies and acres of dry vineyards it felt very European and totally unlike our home turf. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">So they DO put the signs in the right place</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We were just about sober enough to run and climb the following day and have a mini night time safari to try to spot bighorn sheep (no luck, but we did see a well placed deer). On the way home the first bear of 2012 made an appearance looking a bit dazed from hibernation. And luckily dazed enough not to charge a the family of 6 who ran towards it from their SUV...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So, summer has begun (though it's raining as I type this) and next stop is the 300 miles of beaches of Oregon.</span>Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-83053570298987946182012-04-29T17:29:00.000-07:002012-04-29T17:29:07.258-07:00Spring has sprung on the West Coast...<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It's not really a 'Canadian' winter in Vancouver; it only snows in town a few times a year and it's certainly not cold enough for the pond ice hockey they have further north. But it's still nice when it finishes, so to mark it's passing h</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ere are some of our winter highlights (and, unfortunately, lowlights):</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We both learnt to ski. My initial advantage of 2.5 days of skiing 5 years ago quickly faded as Mark applied his normal training dedication and obsessive internet browsing to improve his technique. It was lots of fun until...</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Mark ruptured his posterior cruciate ligament (PCL, twin to the more commonly torn ACL) on our 'final run' at Whistler at the end of February. Walking wasn't very easy for the first week or so but he is now back in action with some light hiking and running with a mega carbon fibre knee brace. He might need an operation when we get back to the UK, but we're still planning lots of adventures (just with a bit less brutal downhill) </span></li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Me post race with running buddies</span></td></tr>
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I trained hard for my first 25km trail race on the North Shore mountains. The 1700m elevation was pretty punishing, but not as much as tweaking my knee on the final stretch - bit of a limp home but still really pleased with my progress. Next up is another 25km race in May in preparation for the big one, 50km, (12.5km straight up a mountain, eeek!) in August.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Despite occasional 'Baker days' (when you can see the huge and snowy Mt Baker 100km away in Washington State), </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">i</span>t rained A LOT, which I guess at least topped up the reservoirs...</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We had our first visitor, the fab Nicky Smith who had just finished being very clever at a 'ski conference' in Colorado (where there was no snow) and then almost drowned in powder (the rain does have its uses at altitude) at Whistler. And she reports our sofa bed is pretty comfortable for anyone planning a visit....</span></li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">From Bowen Island</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So, that was our first Canadian winter, next year we will try to get somewhere properly cold (I asked someone from the Yukon Law Society if they were having nice weather in February and she said 'yup, it's been above -40degrees for 3 days' now so think we need to try a bit of that...). We've already made our first camping expedition for 2012 (see next post) so hopefully we'll have many more sunny days to come... </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3633559236010411592.post-79131647755685123512012-01-04T22:10:00.000-08:002012-01-09T13:55:33.874-08:00Yellowstone in Winter: part 2<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Flushed with our success of day one, we happily attended the pre-briefing for the rest of our stay, a 3 day wildlife viewing tour led by a former Park Ranger, Anastasia. We saw an incredible amount throughout our 3 days, here are some of the highlights (not really in reverse order, but definitely ending with #1)...</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnNrGGqXVIjNnzBoTj7t-VO5pjmigh7p6Xhan3LQqJxTlM258_yDVAUEdqagxVsofAUJTgZnpnVYhcW2-oWPJncUBJLn5vl9EM8yJgkBjOvOTfiB60xQHPkNlcjfUroi0Kj_MnCasvaAk/s1600/IMG_1293.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnNrGGqXVIjNnzBoTj7t-VO5pjmigh7p6Xhan3LQqJxTlM258_yDVAUEdqagxVsofAUJTgZnpnVYhcW2-oWPJncUBJLn5vl9EM8yJgkBjOvOTfiB60xQHPkNlcjfUroi0Kj_MnCasvaAk/s200/IMG_1293.JPG" width="150" /></a></div><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">- <b>Bison </b>up close and personal, blocking the roads a few times, banging heads and generally looking massive. The guys have much bigger horns than the girls and giant woolly afro hair-dos, although its the ladeez that rule the roost. Seeing them in the falling snow was not just a bit like being in a David Attenborough doc. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">- </span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Beaver</b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> casually swimming down a tributary of the Yellowstone River. Our first sighting outside of Vancouver and apparently a first for our guide in the park.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">- Lots of lovely fluffy </span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">coyotes</b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, on the hills, in the long grass and, best of all, watching them listen intently for mice under the deep snow and then leaping through to catch them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">- Huge amounts of </span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">elk</b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, every wolf's favourite fast food on hooves, all around the park... which means you also get to see elks after the chase. Not quite so pretty, but good to see not much goes to waste.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyY7NfUI_0NOmNl4NZ6BdQGLKS3_YsxsKAhRUmm-S3EWm82ZF4qwIgQfLeoUBav07zI7Y8EMEafNZ5GhBb1bZm-gTSuzbrj9PqX43gQDBG0FCWKrING-qjG2LZ5mK4jGSTgKC91ts3fQU/s200/IMG_1359.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="200" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Before</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnjDvBa3SwIKI-th0YjzD1aO2NmmjhzlF8P36PkbuEcVrGVcmag8EVE4LtCMe1Bm6sll0vRtVB5uoofT50ExC9VBhyphenhyphen5ZxTelMgsD99dIaI9eE36RGCv-uBE_YeMww2yL4N14z8u0K3ujk/s1600/IMG_1342.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnjDvBa3SwIKI-th0YjzD1aO2NmmjhzlF8P36PkbuEcVrGVcmag8EVE4LtCMe1Bm6sll0vRtVB5uoofT50ExC9VBhyphenhyphen5ZxTelMgsD99dIaI9eE36RGCv-uBE_YeMww2yL4N14z8u0K3ujk/s200/IMG_1342.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">After</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyY7NfUI_0NOmNl4NZ6BdQGLKS3_YsxsKAhRUmm-S3EWm82ZF4qwIgQfLeoUBav07zI7Y8EMEafNZ5GhBb1bZm-gTSuzbrj9PqX43gQDBG0FCWKrING-qjG2LZ5mK4jGSTgKC91ts3fQU/s1600/IMG_1359.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">- </span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pronghorn 'antelope'</b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> venturing outside the park (pretty brave considering you can buy guns on pretty much every main street and there ain't much else to do 'cept hunt)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihU-a-drOee4vsiaSYn9vons8WHbAOIOMlSWZcpsWnTGT8MtWnxryQ-EtbxmitwpcIK27BYLy7u8J_SM6X-dK-t20KfxqIcBzOuiH97bEJoxZlGFVjSVGUCKMyCSCMp8tm4rC_jtsO0yE/s1600/IMG_1309.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihU-a-drOee4vsiaSYn9vons8WHbAOIOMlSWZcpsWnTGT8MtWnxryQ-EtbxmitwpcIK27BYLy7u8J_SM6X-dK-t20KfxqIcBzOuiH97bEJoxZlGFVjSVGUCKMyCSCMp8tm4rC_jtsO0yE/s200/IMG_1309.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Basically an African Savannah</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">- <b>Wolves, wolves and more wolves:</b> After our initial success we thought it would be pretty easy to spot them, but the next couple of times they were about half a mile away, only really visible through telescopes. But on our last afternoon, news of a kill near the roadside reached us. Despite it being New Year's Eve, we headed to bed early (after a hot tub in the falling snow) and met the another couple from the group (who were both super nice and happen to live in North Vancouver) at 6.30am the following morning. We headed to the river and gazed at the hillside in the pitch dark straining to catch a glimpse of a furry canine. After an hour we were losing hope, but then we saw them, wolves on the ridge. We watched them lounge around after their late night dinner of elk for over 30 minutes only a couple of hundred metres away. So entrancing that we all forgot to take photos!</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSA-RiXTDoK6230lqs8su2V2GkwsBkCbTL-danqQ8NrNyBvwxwgNCMAj2ClaMXC7Dhbtzv_tpYkgZxJ8uXL64tyGkiOGgGDeXehZr5C1nFClYhcNuRknIOUCIsCplScn06FxoRSvXZCMly/s1600/1287650965_1024x768_grey-wolf-howling-in-the-morning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSA-RiXTDoK6230lqs8su2V2GkwsBkCbTL-danqQ8NrNyBvwxwgNCMAj2ClaMXC7Dhbtzv_tpYkgZxJ8uXL64tyGkiOGgGDeXehZr5C1nFClYhcNuRknIOUCIsCplScn06FxoRSvXZCMly/s320/1287650965_1024x768_grey-wolf-howling-in-the-morning.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">- But even that wasn't the #1 highlight. On our second day, as we stopped at a regular wolf watching haunt we noticed everyone was even more silent than usual. As soon as we got outside we realised why; the magical sound of a pack of wolves just off the road in the woods, <b>howling in unison</b>. Much more mournful than we imagined it might be (partly as they may have been trying to cross the road!) and you could clearly hear the different wolves 'voices' at different pitches. Magic. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">All in all, an immensely good trip. We're returning in the summer on our road trip round the Western States so let us know if you want to come along for the second look! </span>Nicola Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831462183265475650noreply@blogger.com0