Hiking the Chief

Yesterday friends took me hiking in Squamish to climb the Stawamus Chief. Squamish is about halfway to Whistler to the north of Vancouver, and the upper end of the Howe Sound, so it's a lovely drive with water to one side and mountains all around.

This is what the Chief looks like from the ground. We ended up at Second Peak, the middle of the three peaks.

I've done a fair bit of mountain hikes in the past, but this was probably the most technical one I've done. I'm more accustomed to switchbacks and having a beaten path to follow. The Chief is actually a granite monolith, so you're almost always on stone. It's also very vertical. With few exceptions, there's no place where you could drop something and expect to retrieve it.

We had occasional light rain and the rock was mostly wet, so I was really concerned about slipping. At one point I joked: Is there any part of this trail where you could lose your footing and not be killed? The rock was actually pretty grippy; the slippery bits were the tree roots occasionally underfoot. But I got pretty spooked in parts. In a few places chains are drilled into the rock to help you climb. The part below (with Elena) wasn't quite so scary as you're between two rock faces, but in some parts you have the gaping void to your side, and they were my least favourite parts.

At the summit, the sheer face is behind me. I was really spooked and could hardly get close to the edge. The view was fantastic though.

 

Here are some panoramas. Elena and Yann are in the second.

 

We came down a different way and got to see this chasm between the second and third peaks, with a slice of Squamish visible.

I got this on the way down to try to capture the verticality. The trail to First Peak is the most accessible, with lots of wooden stairs and steps carved into the rock. (I was awed by the effort that must have taken.) But the Second Peak trail had a fair amount of scrambling like this.

After making our way back down we went to the other reason for our trip, a visit to the Howe Sound brewpub. It's a large, lovely pub and a great place to showcase their award-winning beers. I've been enjoying their more exotic brews (my current favourites are the Total Eclipse of the Hop Imperial IPA and the Gathering Storm Cascadian Dark Ale) but I wanted to sample some of their more standard beers, so here are five smaller samples.

They also had their Pothole Filler Stout on special and so we enjoyed a few pints of that also. It was a great way to end the trip.

News Story of Brain-Dead Teenage Daughter Has Absolutely No Relevance to Our Family

We all had a good laugh at this ...

http://www.theonion.com/video/braindead-teen-only-capable-of-rolling-eyes-and-te,27225/

Vancouver Views

Yesterday I had the day off and so I did a lot of wandering between some favourite places in Vancouver. Zulu Records in Kitsilano, Yaletown, Downtown, the Waterfront, Commercial Drive.

For my money (which is not much), one of the best views in Vancouver is the west side of the Granville Bridge, and I enjoy walking it when I get the chance. You can see a lot of the city's finest features from one spot. You're about ten storeys up so you can see for quite a distance. There's none of the restrictions of office building views - no window frames or glass reflections. And of course it's free and accessible. Just don't drop your camera.

As I was crossing it yesterday I considered the futility of trying to capture the view with a single picture when I realised my phone's camera has a panorama feature which would be a good match for it, so here's that view after all.

If it's unfamiliar, here's a bit of a tour, from left to right. In the left foreground are the sheds of the Granville Public Market and Granville Island. On the horizon you can see some of the mountains of Vancouver Island and the beginnings of the North Shore mountains. There are cargo ships anchored off the coast. There's the lovely Burrard Bridge, a glimpse of Stanley Park, towers of the distant West End, and towers of Yaletown and Downtown, ending in the barely-visible attractions of Granville Street.

Later when I was on the waterfront I took another panorama from the upper plaza of the Convention Centre. The North Shore mountains are better represented, as is Stanley Park on the left and centre.

House Repossession

Our realtor never mentioned this - perhaps he was unaware - but since we moved into our house I've been noticing ... strange ... happenings. Like, I would walk into a room, and a light would be on, and there'd be no one else in the room. Or, I'd leave a tidy room, and come back in a while, and there'd be a pillow on the floor, or a hairbrush on the sofa.

At any rate, today, all day, it seems these ghosts, these poltergeists, are gone.  I can clean the kitchen, come back later, and it's still clean. I can't explain it.

And in unrelated news, Margo and Sarah are out of town for the weekend.

Cleverbot

I recently found a new site called Cleverbot. Apparently it's a robot with actual intelligence. The Cleverbot people apoligize for any bad words and stuff, because Cleverbot learns from that stuff. You Family, freinds, and devoted fans should try Cleverbot. You can insult it, verbal kill it, or just pretend your someone else!

Sarah Gets Silly

Last week was the first week of spring break for Sarah. She spent the week at an improvisational comedy camp at the nearby Second Storey Theatre. We weren't sure how she'd take to it but she enjoyed it a lot. Every night she'd be telling us about the day's activities.

Yesterday afternoon at the end of class, the students put on a show for parents. Here's the troupe introducing themselves.

Warming up ...

In this sketch Sarah and her companion are about to get in a Ferris wheel but they are very concerned about its cleanlinesss, so Sarah is hosing down the seats.

I'm really glad Sarah enjoyed the experience. She's interested in getting further into theatre, and we'll be going to more improv shows as well.

My Favourite Emoticons

(Emoticons are faces, or pictures made of words and simbols. Some you have to look at sideways to see the picture/face.)

:)
:D
>:D
O.O
>.<
-_-

(\(\
(=',')
(")(")

T_T
L.L