Well after a few days I’ve become much more comfortable with traveling and everything it brings with it. I’m sure I’ll be mailing home a couple of things to lighten my load but I still have to decide what that will be. I’ve kinda been gathering some random thoughts or observations throughout the trip that I will share. They’re quick and I won’t really elaborate on them right now but I want to get “pen to paper” so to speak. Also, if you want to see more pictures from the hike click on the Flickr link to the right. I uploaded a bunch earlier, some twice unfortunately and not all of the pics I took, but they are some of my favorites for sure.

1. There are a ton of Brits, Aussies, and Kiwi’s (New Zealander’s) in the Vancouver and Whistler areas. I talked to one shop gal who said she only knows person from Whistler who works there. All of the other international workers make ends meet by squeezing into small apartments, seven people in a two bedroom apartment.

2. You can’t assume people will speak english here. Most do but for many it’s not their first language. Very refreshing actually.

3. Blenz Coffee is actually pretty good. I steered away because I din’t know it at first. Now I like it.

4. I’m not as crazy as I thought being a solo traveler. I’ve met many other solo travelers so it doesn’t seem as weird to me anymore.

5. When traveling alone you have no one to blame but yourself for your time, mistakes, or indecision. This has been good for me to deal with.

6. Public transportation is much easier than it seems at first.

7. To fit in with the locals you can do a few things: don’t carry too much with you, walk at a fairly brisk pace, act like you know what you’re doing even if you don’t, and act like you are supposed to be there. I’ve already been asked a few times by other visitors where to find things or how to get around.

8. Solo travelers in hostels can be a bit antisocial. That’s okay, I can be too. But I didn’t even get to talk to my first roommate and the one today so far was sleeping while I was in the room. The first one didn’t come in till after 2 am each night and wasn’t around at all the other times I was there.

9. So I missed out on the perfect Seattle trip. I knew this a couple weeks ago but I’m still bummed. I’m going to the Twins vs. Mariners game tomorrow, and the Vikes play the Seahawks on Saturday. Only problem is it’s in Minneapolis, dang it schedule work with me here.

10. With all this moving around there’s not much down time. At least there’s not as much down time as I’d like during a vacation. On the other hand I am seeing and enjoying a ton so it’s a good tradeoff.

11. The Toronto Blue Jays are a big deal in Canada. Seriously! I don’t get it. Yes they are a Canadian team, the only one now, but they aren’t good and haven’t been for awhile. Not only that but the Toronto Maple Leafs are a hated team throughout Canada by people not from Ontario but then everyone adopts their baseball team as their own. I absolutely cannot bring myself to like the Vancouver Canucks, as nice as this city is and the area around the stadium, so how can other fans adopt them? In fact, twice now I have seen the tv replay the Blue Jays games from that night right after the game ends. They have the entire Canadian market to themselves, I wonder how large their audience is? No wonder they are still able to keep a team in Toronto.

12. Canadian sports tv is terrible for recaps. TSN, the same company that runs ESPN, is okay but they have another station that’s pretty bad. I tried watching highlights two straight nights but couldn’t make out what the final outcome was. They’d replay important plays from the game and I could tell the announcer was talking about them but then they committed a critical error. They NEVER posted the final score and stats. Maybe I’m just brainwashed by ESPN and FSN but I couldn’t be sure of a final outcome.

13. I’ve never been a people watcher before, until now. Maybe it’s being in a foreign place with non-english speakers, maybe it’s my schooling, but I am finding people to be quite interesting to observe.

14. I miss Holly. Wish I could have brought her as she would have loved it. In Whistler there was actually an organization that has rescue dogs that need walking so you can go and walk a dog when you want. I was planning on it but my hike and subsequent time on the mountain prevented me from getting there in time.

15. Evidently mochas in Canada have foam. Nowhere else have i received a mocha with foam.

Yesterday’s hike was amazing and I want to make sure to tell you about it. I started the day with that amazing blueberry crepe and a mocha. Then I went up a gondola and a chairlift to the top of Whistler Mountain. I had no problem with the gondola even though it was high and a long ride. The chairlift was another story though. I was the only one on my chair which was both good and bad. Bad because I was alone and nobody was there to distract me. Good because I had room to put my bag down on the chair and hang on for dear life. There was one point where the chair goes up a pretty steep incline over a cliff, pretty intense for me.

Once I was at the peak I got off the lift and just looked all around. It was absolutely beautiful. I spent a good half hour or so just looking out at the surrounding mountains. Next thing I decided to do was the longest, most intense of the hikes on either mountain, the High Note Trail. My hiking in all was about 7 miles and had a lot of climbs and descents. The total elevation change throughout the hike I think was about 1,000 feet. The trail took me around the backside of Whistler mountain with amazing views everywhere I went. The trail at times had some pretty steep drop-offs so I had to stay aware at all times. There was even a spot where they had to put in a platform to walk on because the crevasse would have been too difficult to navigate. There was also a spot where you had to use ropes to pull yourself up between some large boulders because you couldn’t get a good grip or step.

There were several cool mountain streams I walked through and some snow too. The most beautiful part though had to be Cheakamus Lake. It is the lake you see in the pictures, the big one, and was a bright aqua blue. One really annoying thing on the hike though were some of the insects, meaning flies. They have these black flies and some sort of bee that would seemingly appear out of nowhere. They kept landing on me and pestering me throughout the hike but nothing too bad to make me want to get away. They seemed at their worst if you would stop so I mostly kept going. I stopped and took in the views many many times but kept a pretty good pace while I was moving. About 2/3rds the way through the hike I came around a corner and saw a couple taking pictures. As I walked towards them I heard this high pitch shriek or whistle. I was really confused and kept watching them thinking maybe something was wrong and they turned and pointed almost right at me. I turned around to see what was making the noise but couldn’t see anything. I was looking for something too big because the couple told me to look to the side and there was the very large prairie dog looking thing staring straight at me. When I say large though I mean LARGE. This thing was much bigger than any other prairie dog I’d seen. Even bigger than the fattest raccoon I have seen. I couldn’t have passed with more than seven feet of him which is why he screamed at me I guess and was so wary of me. The couple said it was some kind of marmot. I’ll have to look it up.

By the time the hike was over, about three hours, my feet were getting quite tired. It wasn’t so much my feet as it was the blisters that were forming on the bottoms. You see I forgot my hiking socks that morning and remembered after I was on the gondola. So I had on my Keen’s, which are usually great hiking shoes, but didn’t have my blister preventing hiking socks. With all of the movement, ups, downs, and side to side it did a number on my feet. In fact I just examined my shoes a little bit ago and I am going to have to make a warranty claim I think. This is my third pair and each has lasted at least a year of constant wear and even abuse. This one has a spot that’s coming apart and it’s only five days old. My knees were also quite sore by the end of the hike. There was a lot of going down the mountain and suddenly hitting rocks and I already don’t have the best knees so they took a beating. I came to look forward to when I had to climb up the mountain, which in fact I had to do for the final half hour which was nice. As soon as I got to the chalet, which was down the mountain from the peak and by the gondola, bonus was I didn’t have to ride the chairlift again, I went and bought hiking socks, tightened my shoes, and my feet were happy for it.

I also went and hit up the chalet cafe. I honestly think that just the food on this trip my just bankrupt me. It’s like one person can’t find anything of substance and something to drink for under $15-20. I am absolutely not kidding either. My half sandwich, half caesar salad, an orange, an apple, and juice cost me $17! It is worse in Whistler because it’s a resort town but even Boston’s Pizza was spendy, about $20 for a solo pizza and a drink, and Vancouver is pricier than the Cities though I can find fast food there. As I continue on now I just may have to find some grocery stores and prepare food at the hostels if I can. Traveling with any food is going to be difficult though because of the added weight, bulk, and crossing the border three more times, which you have to declare if you’re bringing meats, fruits, or veggies into each country.

I almost forgot to tell you about the Peak to Peak gondola. It is the longest unsupported stretch of gondola in the world at over 2 miles (if I remember correctly.) It was really really cool and I felt safe the whole time because the gondola car was big and sturdy, the cables were thick, and the supporting structures were massive on each mountain. It was really thrilling to be up so high between two mountains. Most of my pictures from this did not turn out so well thought because of the glare from the plexiglass and because there were a lot of us in there so I couldn’t push through people to put the camera right next to the glass. We did see one really cool thing while we were up there, a bear sliding down the mountain on snow. I’ve seen that on the Discovery channel but not with my own eyes. Over on Blackcomb mountain I mostly just strolled around and took in the views. I didn’t really have time to head out on another hike even though I was feeling up to it after eating, resting, and getting socks.

I took the Greyhound back to Vancouver this morning. The bus was packed so I had a seatmate this time. She was quite loud and annoying with her friend who found a seat behind her so I put my headphones on and found the time to watch a movie on my iPad. I had my luggage underneath the seat and my backpack under/between my legs so I pretty much didn’t move for three hours. By the end I was in desperate need of moving around. When I got off the bus I quickly found a city bus to my hostel and didn’t have to walk too much at all. I did stop at a Starbucks though to recharge with an iced tea. When I was there a guy who was working on a film set in the park outside the Starbucks and between the Starbucks and transportation terminal came in. I overheard him telling the workers they could be on the lookout for some explosions and lots of gunfire for a scene they were about to do in the next little while. It sounded like fun but I wanted to get going.

This hostel is not quite as nice as the last one but it will do. It is pretty big and there are a lot more people here. Tonight I think I’m just gonna chill out. I might go to a park and Granville Island but I bought a bus pass so I won’t have to walk too much. Tomorrow first thing in the morning I catch a bus to Seattle so I better get used to sitting, I am so glad I got that bike ride and hike in. Hopefully I’ll get to update you tomorrow but again you never know. I want to upload my pictures from the hike to Flickr but there’s no good way I’ve found yet to do so from the iPad in a bulk upload way. That’s one drawback of the iPad but so far this thing has been great and I’m happy I brought it and only it. Talk to you later. Peace.

Ok I just tried to post this and the app crashed, losing all of my writing. I’m a little ticked right now as I have a bus to catch in 9 minutes. So here goes a brief update. Yesterday I biked a ton. From the hostel to the village, around the village, and then most of the way back using the scenic route. I stopped at a lake for a quick swim to cool off, very refreshing. I didn’t quite make it back to the hostel because I was shaking from being so hungry. I decided to stop at Boston Pizza which is a franchise we also have in MN. This one was more of a small town bar though. I also did some shopping and got a good deal on a shirt that proved very helpful today. This morning I had an amazing blueberry crepe. Very tasty.

Anyway , I gotta run. Give you an update later.

I just checked into my hostel. I am staying at the Hostelling International Whistler hostel for the next two nights. This place is sweet. It’s a bit outside of Whistler Village, about 4.2 miles, but they have regular buses to and from quite often. I also rented a bike so I can bike back and forth and check out all of their trails. They have some really neat looking biking trails all around the mountain and I will be sure to do many of them. They also have four mountain lakes in the area for me to check out. As far as the hostel goes I’ll have to take pictures for you because it’s much nicer than some hotels I’ve been in and is very affordable. I’m sitting in their lounge area right now and they have public computers and wifi, many brand new couches, a fireplace, pool table, and a coffee shop. This place was where athletes stayed for the winter Olympics in January and was built for that and then converted to a hostel.

It’s 2 pm my time so I have to get out and do a bunch of stuff but I’ll try to post an update later, probably quite late actually.

Tomorrow I’ll be going up the mountains on the gondolas and taking the Peak to Peak gondola between two peeks. I’m also trying to decide if I should do one of the following: a zipline that spans 2,000 feet and drops 20 stories, a 45 minute glider ride, or rafting (not sure if they call it whitewater rafting but it kinda looks like it.) Well that’s all for now, I’ll check back later. Peace.