“What are you going to do there?”, I was asked about a trip I was planning to a mountain resort town. Well, to me, a successful trip to explore new places is all about walking, gawking and eating and I’ve been enjoying just that in spades this summer. The last item on that prescriptive list is there in reference to the fact that there very few good restaurants where we live, so travel is where to indulge that one.
Summer for me is road trip season – a time to expand the perimeter in small doses and to experience how varied and fabulous this part of the world is. I say small doses because I’ve found that I usually just don’t like to leave home for that long in summer, with the high maintenance garden requiring oversight and action, and so much day tripping to enjoy within an hour’s drive in all directions. When we do leave we find places to explore around coastal British Columbia within a few hours drive or ferry away for a 4 night maximum stay and the options are varied and amazing.
WHISTLER
The first road trip of the summer season was at Summer Solstice, my favourite day of the year. Now from the beach where we live we look across the Strait of Georgia to the mainland coast mountain range. I’ve been staring at it for 7 years now, always wanting to go have a close up and personal look. So this time in search of a complete change of scenery, we took the ferry to the mainland and headed north into the mountains to the resort town of Whistler. It’s known of course as a winter resort, where the 2010 Olympics were held but you will never see me there in that winter snow. No way. But in summer it’s not at all quiet as it has developed into a huge mountain bike destination. There’s lots to do, great hikes, outstanding mountain scenery to gawk at, and, because it’s a tourist town, over 200 restaurants of all kinds, a similar number of shops and all kinds of people to gawk at as well after a day of all those views. I particularly liked watching the mountain bikers with their own unique sense of style and attitude.
Highlight of the trip was a Summer Solstice float plane 4-hour sightseeing flight where we flew on top of those huge mountains, in between them through the valleys and over rivers and lakes of emerald and deep blue, eventually landing on one of those secluded mountain lakes. Right beside the place we landed our pilot found an extensive cache of camping equipment beside the lake that someone had likely had delivered up there for some hikers somewhere to rendezvous with. Its contents were torn apart and scattered all over the beach and in the surrounding brush; clearly a bear had found it in the meantime.
The flight was wonderful but I did, however, also want to walk around on the top of those mountains so we took the big gondola up the Whistler mountain to where it ends at the Roundhouse. To go further up to get to the summit we then took a chair lift up to the top, later walked the 3km trail down. They make hanging out on the top of the world easy.
The Mountain Warriors
QUADRA ISLAND
In great contrast, a few weeks later we went back to Quadra Island (1 1/2 hour drive plus a short ferry ride) to a cottage I love with its view towards the coast mountains of the mainland and where we can kayak past seals and see kingfishers and herons and turkey vultures, as well as the ubiquitous eagles, ravens and crows doing their crazy thing chasing each other. I love this island. This is the 3rd year we’ve been to this particular place and I’m booking now for next year. (Tales of past trips to Quadra here: Feeling the Land)
One reason I’m so fond of Quadra is that it is a large island but only a part of it, in the south, is populated so there are big uninhabited areas of forests, lakes, creeks and mountains (well, after Whistler let’s call them big hills). Some keen trail hiking locals have created a trail map book that I’ve been working my way through, and it will take many many more summer visits to get to them all, if ever. After walking on top of the world, here there was a different kind of hiking, this time taking trails through deep forests of tall trees and fern-covered banks, along cliff ridges to find lakes where there are no people at all.
In between all this traveling and scenery gazing back home in Qualicum Beach we’ve had lots of visitors this spring and summer, including #2 Son Mike who was here for close to a month. It’s been busy. But the past week or so everything has slowed down to a crawl, along with the still, heat of mid-summer, and it’s been quiet as I enjoy the scenery around my own home, living outside, watching hummingbirds and bees and puttering. I’m enjoying every quiet moment as I gather my strength because… that quiet is all about to change.
I’m overcoming my reluctance to travel in summer and soon I’ll be traveling Back East, as they say, to Ontario to go visiting some friends and family on a “How can I miss you if you won’t go away” solo trip for a couple of weeks or so. Lots of planes, lots of driving, lots of new geography and lots of visiting. And no doubt lots more walking, gawking and eating.
Stoked.