Yesterday we crossed the border and came back to the USA after spending about 6 weeks in Canada. We were both surprised that we got the feeling we were coming home. It seems that the 1.5 years we spent in Phoenix made us appreciate everything that we used to have around us. There was Olive Garden, Jack in the Box, Five Guys and other things we passed every day. Not that we liked or visited these places often or ever but just the sight of them made us feel just like home. Our home in Phoenix was the first one we had together which makes it special.
Month: September 2012
Testimonial after 100 days of travel
During our first 100 days on the road we have visited 14 national parks, climbed 29 mountain peaks, spotted 11 bears (no grizzly, only black bears), driven about 15000 km, taken 3 ferries, stayed 20 nights in hotels (the rest camping), visited 4 larger cities and a lot of more or less small towns. You can say we have seen and done quite a lot during this time. I do not have the feeling though that we have been busy, we have had a lot of lazy days in between driving, hiking and sightseeing. A few times I have felt that maybe we should have stayed longer because it was a great place and the chances that we will return is not so high. But USA and Canada are really big countries and even though we are only visiting parts of them we can still not see it all.
Sightseeing at Lake Louise, Banff National Park.
It is extremely rewarding to be able to decide every day what we want to do. Being fully flexible and having the possibility to change plans as we please. But it is not always fun. When it is raining and is cold it is not so much fun to hang around a campground in the evening. This kind of trip requires good weather. Luckily we have had very little rain. Usually it was only showers and we could still cook and do the things we wanted outdoors. The times we have had to change plans due to rain we can easily count. Fortunately we can follow the good weather which it is time to do now. We will shortly be heading south in search of warmer temperatures.
Our camp at Movie Flats at the foot of Mt Whitney. This was a great camp. Free, calm, warm, bear free and easy access to Whitney Portal.
It is also hard to always be moving. Having to pack up all our stuff and find a new place to stay for the night. When we camp it is not so difficult because we have to pack up the car to be able to drive somewhere and then it is easy to move. But to always search for a new place to stay gets to you after a while. It has been great the few times we have stayed longer in one place. In Tuolumne we chose to pinch our tent so that we did not have to pack the car every day. In Vancouver we stayed in a hotel with a small kitchen and washing machine which was a real treat. Probably from now on we will try to stay longer in a few places rather than moving all the time.
In about a month we are going to Hawaii where we also have a hotel booked for a number of nights. We are looking forward to that and consider this to be our “vacation”. 🙂
Just the other day we left the city of Vancouver. We both loved it there and did extend our planned stay with a few days. We have both wanted to go there for a long time and it was just as good as we thought.
During our bike ride through Vancouver.
Being in a great city like this makes us both want to go back to a normal life. We suddenly miss having an apartment, a wardrobe, a kitchen and money to have dinner and drinks for. It is funny how we can spend weeks in the mountains without any problems but when in a city we start actually missing a home. Don´t get me wrong, we are not ending our trip. We just need to go back to what this trip is all about. This time it is more about having the luxury of time and no responsibilities rather than doing expensive stuff. Our budget does not allow us to spend too much time in cities because at the same time as it is fun it is also expensive. Not being able to spend money in a city makes it boring therefore we choose to spend less time there but more money. 🙂 We do like cities so we´ll see how it goes…
Vancouver Island
What we did not really think about when we booked our hotel in Vancouver, which also decided how long we were going to stay on Vancouver Island, was that this island is almost the size of Switzerland. Trying to see the entire country of Switzerland in 6 days is very optimistic and so was our time schedule for Vancouver Island.
We decided to skip hiking the mountains. Due to lack of time and a cold. Instead we were eager to walk on the beaches. We had after all not been on a beach in a very long time. The ferry had taken us to the northern part of the island and we drove down the east coast to were we could find a road that would take us to the west coast and the ocean. The small sleepy villages along the coast all looked cosy and I got the feeling I wanted to just stay longer in every place we visited.
Our camping spot
On the west coast we settled in to a campground in Ukluelet. This might have been my favorite campground so far, just next to the harbor. We tried to find some sort of beach in town but did not succeed. Here the coast line was rugged with dark uninviting rocks. A new sport we learnt about here is storm watching. To make people come here even in the winter time they make watching huge waves pounding on the coast from a warm and cosy hotel sound like a nice thing to do. And actually I am tempted. I could definitely sit with a good book, a cup of something hot and a blanket in a comfortable chair and look out a window for a few days.
Rugged coast line in Ukluelet
Eventually we did find the beach which happens to be the longest surfable beach in the country. It is an about 18 km long sandy beach which is situated in a national park and therefore also accessible to the public. The visitor center is right on the beach with a café that promises safe storm watching in the winter time.
The visitor center on Long Beach
Surfers on Long Beach
The south east coast of the island which is the most populated, is littered with cute villages along the water front. We did not visit them all but one favorite is Cowichan Bay which we passed by accident really in search of ice cream. A sleepy little town on stilts with a very high concentration of restaurants and cafés.
Cowichan Bay
Apart from the small towns, Victoria, the largest city, is also very charming and well worth a visit. We particularly liked Fisherman´s Wharf. Unlike the more famous version in San Francisco, this is a little community on the water. There are a few restaurants but most of the buildings are houses.
The harbor in Victoria
Fisherman´s Wharf
Vancouver Island is pretty much the perfect place for vacation. There is hiking, surfing, kayaking, fishing, biking, wine tasting, city sightseeing, whale and bear watching – you name it. I am very sure we will return to this area in a not distant future. 🙂
More images:
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| Vancouver Island |
Time to get busy
After spending several weeks just traveling and not doing a lot of exercise it is now time to get back to business. I am feeling the clothes are getting smaller so time to burn some calories again…
We started off yesterday with a hike up the Grouse Grind outside of Vancouver. It took us 1 h 20 min for only 2.1 km and 800 m elevation gain. I had to stop several times and catch my breath. Terrible! It is amazing how fast you loose fitness. Time to do something. 🙂
The weather in the Squamish / Whistler region is supposed to be very good at least the next 10 days so no reason to be lazy.
Images from Jasper National Park
Before we headed out to the coast and took the ferry to Vancouver Island we spent a week or so in Jasper National Park. We climbed a few peaks, bathed in hot springs and had beer in downtown Jasper. Here are photos from our adventures.
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| Jasper National Park |
Fish spotting
After hiking three quarters of an hour through forest we reached the Bear Falls. Andy had a cold and did not think it was very much fun at all. It was a sunny day but on this side of the river there was shade and quite chilly. I was afraid we had gone there for nothing, expecting a lot and having to hike back disappointed.
We sat down on the rocks, had a snack and watched the water fall. My tactic was to look at one spot and wait. If you have ever tried looking at running water for a long time you would have noticed that it screws up your vision. Everything starts moving when you look at something else afterwards. I looked for a long time and was almost ready to give up. But then there was the first one. The first salmon that tried to get up the water fall. He just suddenly jumped out of the water and up what looked impossible to climb.
Our hopes had been to catch a bear hunting for fish in the stream but the bears were nowhere to be found this day. But looking at the fish as they tried to get upstream was definitely worth the effort. There was salmon and trout as far as we know. Some were a lot larger than I had imagined. My guess is that they were around 60 cm and others maybe only 20 cm. It turned out to be very amusing to watch them fighting against the raging water. At this spot they tried to pass a step that was about 1 meter high. It did not look like any of them made it but they probably did. In some cases though it was obvious that they were washed down the falls and had to start all over again.
A number of years ago the water in the river was reduced due to upstream industry. It made this waterfall impossible to climb and the amount of fish was also reduced. Luckily they decided to do something about it and built a staircase for the fish. Now the numbers are back to where they were before.
We stayed at the falls for an hour or two, spotting one fish after the other jumping more or less successfully through the water. After a while though the cold got to us and we hiked back through the beautiful forest.
