Phelix Hut: Goodbye Lisa and Jules
Our friends Lisa and Julian returned to Austria. Just before they left, they organized a slew of excellent parties. One of the parties involved skiing up to a backcountry hut belonging to the outdoor club (VOC) and spending a weekend there. Maya and I stayed for three days with some of the others. It was a great combination of beautiful…
Mexico: November Sun – Cycling in Baja California
September was already rainy, October wasn’t much better. The famous “Mamas and the Papas” song “California Dreamin’ ” kept on going through my mind. The skies were indeed gray and the leaves were brown. As November was getting closer, “November Rain” by “Guns N’ Roses” was now stuck in my head. I had just submitted my thesis and the question…
- British Columbia (and nearby), Kayaking and Canoeing, Metro Vancouver & North Shore, Trip Reports, Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC)
Indian Arm: Kayaking Right From the City
Some highlights: – Indian Arm is located just on the other side of the city. It’s quite amazing how close it is – One literally leaves from town and ends up in this somewhat wild (albeit inhabited location). Many of the locals are supposedly somewhat weird (reclusive?), and many of them have outrageously huge houses. On the way back we…
Pebble Creek Hot Springs: and Mushroom Picking Too
On the way in we stopped to admire the devastation of the Capricorn Creek drainage by a huge slide (2nd biggest in recorded Canadian history) a few months ago. The section of road through the slide debris consists of a deep a trench cut through these mounds of mud and broken trees. We spent hours and hours of sitting in…
Tomyhoi Peak: and Yellow Aster Butte too!
Some things are different in the US. The cars are bigger, the people are fatter, and the trails are much wider. We still had fresh memories of our eight day traverse on Vancouver Island where we seldom saw a trail, people, or any sign of humans at all. So we actually enjoyed the wide trails and excellent signage – no…
Dickson Peak: Yet Another Stormy Labour Day Weekend!
Over the long weekend we headed to Dickson Peak with our friends Jan and Warrick Whitehead. We were looking for a destination with some solitude, and we certainly found it. The lengthy drive, around four hours from Vancouver, the long bumpy logging road (the Hurley) and the fact that this peak is not well known, must deter people. At the…
Broken Group Islands: First Multi-day Kayaking Trip
A four day trip to the Broken Group Islands on Vancouver Island. Some highlights: – We were a group of 10 on a trip organized by Lisa, mostly since her parents were visiting. We met the evening before at a campground in the fishing camp at China Creek. This was the start of the huge Sockeye Salmon run. Maya and…
Elk-Westmin Traverse: Serendipity Strikes Twice in Strathcona
I love those funny coincidences that make so much sense and yet are so surprising. On the first day of this eight day trip, while hiking up the Elk River Trail, we met a group that had turned around from a similar route to the one we had planned. They spoke of huge amounts of snow and a narrow gully…
Lytton to Lillooet: A Loop Along the Mighty Fraser River
The plan was to cycle from Lytton to Lillooet along a gravel road running up the west side of the Fraser from Lytton to Lillooet, and return via highway #12 on the east side, in two days. We had meant to leave early, but were tired and the days are long, so in the end only left Vancouver at 9am.…
Ring-Callaghan Traverse: Clawing the Thin Ice
I love frozen lakes. The thin ice covering them is like a call to arms. I feel drawn to the ice, to test it, walk on it, throw sticks and rocks at it, and am always surprised to see them bounce off the ice instead of making a splash in the water. Maybe this has something to do with growing…
