SurfingSeattle

This morning, we woke up at 6am, packed up our tents, and left the Lake Angeles trailhead parking area by 7AM.  We drove to the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center, where we stopped for a few minutes to enjoy the view. From there, we drove down a nearby road to the Obstruction Point Trailhead where we would begin the day’s hike.

The plan for the day’s hike would be to descend from Obstruction Point to Grand Lake and Moose Lake before ascending to Grand Pass.  From Grand Pass, we would descend back to the junction near Grand Lake where we would take a different trail back to Obstruction Point Trailhead.  The entire route would be about 25 KM or 15 miles. The most difficult part of the trail was the near the end when we would be ascending steep switchbacks for about 45 minutes, before following the ridge back to the trailhead for the last 30 minutes of the hike.

After completing the trail, we drove straight to a Mexican Restaurant (Fiesta Jalisco) and each enjoyed huge Mexican dishes and beers.  Personally I ordered a Mexican Fiesta Burrito with a Manny’s Pale Beer. The meal was enormous and a fitting celebration for the challenging hike we had just completed.

Throughout the hike and evening, I mostly spoke to Tyler and Sarah.  Here is some additional interesting information/notes:

• Tyler is very interested in religions mostly for the same reasons that I am.  He finds it interesting how different groups of people with contradictory beliefs are all fully  convinced that their beliefs are the only true beliefs, and that everyone else (who is just as convinced as they are about their beliefs) is completely wrong.
• He previously worked for plumbing company which were of a penastocal? faith, which is a type of Christianity.  They forced his team at the company to give 10% of their income to a church and pray on a regular basis
• He spent some time living with his Mormon cousins.  Like me, he also agrees that Mormons appear to be a picture-perfect group of people.  He was officially baptized by the Mormon church and was converted to Mormonism because missionaries promised him that if he did, they would provide him with inside secrets and proof that their religion is true.  However, he never received the promised proof, never believed in the religion (“not even for one day”) and is not involved with the church any longer.  He does however believe Mormon girls have something special about them and are cute/innocent and have good values.  As of now, he is an atheist but is still fascinated by religion, people’s relationship with religion, and the psychology of people’s belief in religion.
• Tyler’s a pretty good guy; A mormon-like guy, without the irrational belief (I see that as a good thing).  He has been in two serious relationships (5 years and 7 years), which is pretty unique considering he’s only 28 years old.  He mentioned that being in serious relationships lets him share his experiences and enjoy life more.  Also, one of the best feelings he’s ever experienced is knowing that a girl loves him; something which I haven’t experienced but can completely understand.

Sara is also an awesome girl with a great/playful/easygoing personality.  She speaks in a cute/funny Irish accent and with Irish slang.  Here is some additional interesting information about her:

• She graduated university in Ireland with a degree in sports medicine.  Shortly after finishing school, she moved to Victoria after conducting some research online. She arranged to work at Ocean Island Hostel in Victoria for 3/4 days per week from 9AM-2PM in exchange for free housing in the hostel.  While living at the hostel for eight months, she developed an extremely close friendship with four other people living inside her room (Room 21A aka the Fish Room).  They developed such a strong bond that each of them now have a tattoo of a fish, forever reminding each of them about the time they shared together
• She now has her own apartment and is working as a gardener.  She plans on going back to school to study horticulture, a field she’s very passionate about and enjoys.  Her parents haven’t visited her yet, but she has visited Ireland a few times for Christmas since she’s been here.  She plans to attain Permanent Canadian Residency and make Canada her permanent home
• She mentioned that she has a muslim (“Muse-lim”) friend from Libya who now lives in Canada.  At first, her friend’s parents were very upset about him moving to Canada, but they have since come around and are supportive of their son’s decision.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning, I left the AirBnB at around 7:30AM and walked to the bus stop across the street from Mayfair Mall.  At around 8:45AM, I arrived at the Black Ball Ferry terminal and purchased a ferry ticket to Port Washington.  At about 9:30AM, Tyler texted me that he and Michel weren’t able to obtain a spot for the vehicle on the 10:30AM ferry, and that the next opportunity we would have was to obtain a walk-on spot on the 3pm ferry.

For the next few hours, we stopped by Starbucks, stopped by the Empress Hotel to say hello to Julie, one of Michel’s and Tyler’s Meetup friends. Earlier in the morning, they had been gushing about how cool, enthusiastic, down-to-earth and (overly) talkative she was. After stopping by the Empress Hotel, Tyler and I walked over to Starbucks and began talking more in depth about what each of us do for work.

Tyler is 28 years old and became passionate about investing when he realized that $10,000 that he saved up, could provide with him $400/year of passive income, which in turn could cover some of his living expenses.  If he could save up enough money, he knew he could live comfortably through his passive income without needing to work at all.  At that point, he was hooked and eventually came to own 2-3 residential properties.  He has a very conservative approach to investing,  by which he has acquired homes at or near market value with 20% down payments, locks in a low interest rate, and uses the property’s cash flow and income from his plumbing job in order to pay down the mortgage as quickly as possible.  This approach is very conservative (and therefore admirable) because he is not focused on buying as many homes as he possibly could, but rather buying a home at a time and focusing on paying down mortgages quickly, thereby greatly reducing the risk he’s taking on.  The one concern I have with his strategy is that he is buying homes at or near market value. Considering his expertise in plumbing, he has a huge advantage when it comes to renovating homes and is well positioned to enter investments with significant instant equity by acquiring distressed homes at a low price and possibly even adding more value through renovating. Regardless of that overlooked profit potential, at 28 years old he probably has a net worth of a few hundred thousand dollars and is well on his way to becoming a millionaire before turning 40 if he continues on his current, conservative path.

In addition to real estate investing, Tyler also speculates in the stock market through day trading.  His approach is very interesting.  He feels like he has a very good understanding of oil stocks (especially a stock called “baytechs”), and his strategy is to acquire a few thousand shares of “Baytechs” at a time and sells them when the stock moves up a very small amount ($.10 or $.20).  Through this approach, he makes approximately $2,000-$3,000/month.  He also buys conservative dividend-paying stocks, acquires stocks during bear markets (brexit, crashing oil prices), and hedges his stock picks, for example by acquiring both stocks which would benefit from higher interest rates (banks) and stocks which would suffer from higher interest rates (oil companies which have high amounts of borrowing).

At 1:30PM, we met back up with Michel at the line of vehicles, processed our paperwork, and boarded the ferry.  The ferry ride was scenic but the boat was also swaying a lot and led to me feeling a bit noxious.

When we arrived in Port Angeles, we drove to the entrance of Olympic National Park, scoped out a camping site, and ate dinner at a waterfront restaurant.

At around 9:30pm, Kanai, Sarah and Whee arrived in Port Angeles and we met them at Safeway to do some shopping.  There are major language barriers with the three girls, especially Sarah who humorously asked us in Safeway twice: “What are _______ ________?” None of us had any idea what she was saying but apparently she was saying “What are yousins (you guys) buying?”

Below is some additional information about the people on this trip:

• Sarah is originally from Ireland and has been living in Victoria for 2.5 years.  She is a “Landscooper” (landscaper) and reminds me a lot of a Sara I dated a while back.  They look alike, they both have the same body type, they have the same playful/shy/wild/adventurous  personality, and they both have been living somewhere new for almost exactly 2.5 years.
• Kanai is a Japanese freshman university student who has been studying abroad for 4.5 months at Uvic.  She is adorable/sweet and will be headed back to Japan in 2 weeks
• Whei is a ~40 year old Asian woman who has attended quite a few events with Michel and is relatively quiet and reserved.  I’m sure we’ll we hear much more from her as the trip progresses.
• Michel is the organizer of the trip and retired from the Canadian Army two weeks ago after 25 years of service.  He has hiked and backpacked many trails on Vancouver Island and is very experienced. He enjoys hosting people on Couchsurfing and organizing Meetup groups.  He seems to enjoy spending time with women in their 20s and 30s, whether it’s a potentially romantic relationship or just a friendship. 

After leaving Safeway, we drove directly to the campsite near the Lake Angeles Trailhead and camped near the parking lot for the night.  I knew about the area we camped at from my previous trip to Olympic NP with Omer, Chloe, and Theresa, and this campsite ended up being a great help because the campground “Heart O’ the Hills” was had no available sites.  Also, the six of us saved a total of $80 by camping at the Lake Angeles trailhead rather than at one of the developed campgrounds.

This morning I woke up at 6am, packed up , and walked into town.  I stopped by Embe Bakery at the edge of town and ate breakfast consisting of a smoke salmon/cream cheese croissant and a spinach /feta croissant.  From the front of Embe Bakery, I hitchhiked to Cranberry Road, the main road leading up to Mt Maxwell Park.  From the start of Cranberry Road, I hitchhiked half-way up the road to Mt Maxwell until being dropped off at a neighborhood farm stand  at the start of Mt Maxwell Road.  From there, I walked the remaining four miles until the summit of Mt Maxwell.  About two miles before the summit, I turned onto a hiking trail #6, which paralleled the main road until the summit of Mt Maxwell.  Along trail #6, there are beautiful views of the water/islands  below and of the harbor below.  Stop Mt Maxwell, I met Holly, a middle-aged woman native to Vancouver Island.  She mentioned that she was camping at Ruckle Park Campground and would be more than happy to give me a ride there from the Seymour Parking lot where she was parked.  After hiking down to Seymour, we drove to Fulford Harbor because Holly needed to buy ice. We went into a general store and I paid for the ice and also bought two homemade cookies for myself.

Here is some additional information about Holly:

• Born and raised on Vancouver island.  She was a “ward” child meaning that she had no family to take care of her
• She has a son and daughter and three grandchildren all under the age of 7.  She cares immensely about her grandparents and would do everything in her power to ensure they have a comfortable, living childhood
• She has been a vegetarian for 10 years and eats very healthy
• For work, She looks after two separate elderly people who she really cares about 
• She doesn’t feel comfortable in busy areas or around large numbers of people.  She feels much more comfortable hiking and camping in the mountains and in nature

We then headed to the Ruckle Park Campground and I left my full backpack in her tent while hiking the Ruckle Park Coastal Trail with a day pack.  The coastal trail hugs the coastline for about 6km, continuously ascending and descending rugged trails.  The trail is mostly shaded with the cover of tall, leafy trees and greenery, and passes many quiet beach coves which are semicircle indentations into the coastline.

At the end of the trail at Yeo Point, I once again met Holly who had also arrived at Yeo Point through a different hiking trail. We took a break at Yeo Point, and I continued on a side trail past Yeo point for another 15 minutes.  Then, I backtracked the entire coastal trail until Ruckle Park Campground, where I arrived at 4:45pm.  I then began walking the 12km route to Fulford Harbor to catch either the 5:50pm or 7:50pm ferry back to Victoria. After a couple km of hiking ,

 

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This morning, I woke up at 6AM, hoping to leave the house by 7AM to catch the 9AM ferry to SaltSpring Island.  Salt Spring Island is a 70 square/mile island with a population of about 13,000 people, about a 30 minute ferry ride off the coast of Vancouver Island.  The island has become a tourist destination and a quiet place for locals to live.  On the island, there is a large community of artists, farmers/breweries/boutique food manufacturing, and restaurateurs.

Upon arriving at Fulford Harbor, there was a bus waiting to transport some of the ferry passengers to Ganges.  The last stop of the bus ride was in front of the visitors center in Gagnes.  I stopped in the visitor center and inquired for their suggested hikes, scenic areas, and local businesses. 

First, I walked a block away to a gallery showcasing art and products created by Saltspring Island artists.  There were sculptures, paintings, photographs, lavender-based hygiene products, natural deodorants, etc.

Afterwards, I went on a walk through Gagnes Village and along the waterfront.  The downtown was small and consisted mostly of restaurants, art galleries, a supermarket, and a hardware store. I walked thruugh a few art galleries and after about 15 minutes of wandering, I was ready to hitchhike to Mt Erskine. After a few minutes of waiting on Rainbow road, I hitchhiked up to the trailhead with a Montreal-based marine biologist who was visiting his hometown of Saltspring Island for a few weeks.  

The hike up to Mt Erksine was about 30-45 minutes each way and there some parts of the trail that were very steep. The view from the top of Mt Erskine was similar to the view from most of the hikes on the Island:  water channels weaving through and along and tree-covered islands/coastline. 

On the way down from the trailhead, I was picked up by a contractor who was heading down to town.  As soon as I arrived in town, I ate a burrito at a food truck named El Loco Taco, which was probably one of the best burritos I’ve had.  At this point, I noticed that I had left my red hoodie jacket on a tree branch on the way up the Mt Erskine Trail and had forgotten to retrieve it on the way down. I was on the wall about whether to hitchhike all the way up to the trail (and back) to retrieve the jacket.

At this point, I decided that between retrieving my jacket, visiting St Mary’s Lake, and spending more time in town, I thought it would be more convenient to spend the night at a campground near town.  I walked through Mouat Park until arriving at Garden Faire Campground, which is located at the edge of the park.  I reserved campsite #4, which includes a large, graded pad overlooking the entire campground.

From there, I walked to Rainbow Road and hitchhiked back up Mt Erskine to try and retrieve my jacket, but unfortunately the jacket wasn’t there anymore.  The entire 2 hour detour to retrieve the jacket ended up for no reason.  On the way back from Mt Erkshire, I hitchhiked with someone from New Zealand who was living in Vancouver.  He owns a second home on Saltspring Island, which he occasionally visits with his wife and 11-year old son.  

Once I arrived back in town, I walked what seemed like a couple hours to St Mary’s Lake, the largest lake on Saltspring Island.  The lake was ideal for swimming but I wasn’t really up for swimming, so I just spent 15 minutes there and hitchhiked back to town with a father and daughter in a van.  The father was born and raised on the island and “never” leaves the island, unless he’s heading to a smaller nearby island for recreation.  

Once I arrived back in town, I ordered a delicious meal at a Thai restaurant and ate the meal while sitting on the grass in the waterfront park.  The park was filled with quiet a few  free-spirited hippies who were laying on the grass, cooking meals on the picnic benches, and one that was just drinking beer.  I wonder what leads people to live the free-spirited hippie lifestyle.  I should introduce myself to some free-spirited hippies, and pick their brains to understand their views on life and reasons they live the way they do.

After eating dinner, I walked a few steps into an oceanfront neighborhood pub.  I ordered a beer, used my computer/WIFI, and listened to the live band for 30-45 minutes.  Then, I headed back to Garden Faire campground to spend the night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last night was a very long night.  After sleeping at 11PM in the hostel, I woke up numerous time throughout the night.  At 1AM, I woke up and got out of bed for a full hour feeling like I was going to throw up.  At 2AM, the feeling of nausea settled down a bit and I was able to sleep until about 6:30AM.  At 6:30AM, I began packing up all my things, and left the hostel at 7AM to spend 3-4 hours working at Starbucks.

At 11AM, I returned to the hostel to pick up my backpack, and boarded the bus #50 to 6 mile road in order to meet Michel to hike the three peaks specified in the Meetup event.  At 12:30PM, I checked the Meetup page and noticed that at 4AM he had posted a comment on the Meetup event page notifying me that the event would not be taking place.  I was upset at the late cancellation, but it’s just part of being flexible and not expecting everything to always end up perfect.

Now that I was in the area, I decided to have lunch at Six Mile Pub, which I now know is the oldest pub in British Columbia.  The pub was a very nice atmosphere, and I ordered a vegetarian wrap and poutine, which were both delicious.

From Six Mile Club, I boarded a bus to the AirBNB I would be staying at tonight.  After dropping off my things and taking a shower, I boarded another bus to Mount Douglas Park and hiked up to the peak.  Mt Douglas Park contains many trails which mostly lead to the observation deck and viewing area at the peak.  The view from the peak has 360 degree views of the entire city of Victoria in all directions.

 

From Mount Douglas, I boarded another bus to Uptown Shopping Mall, where I would be meeting Michel and the rest of the group for a pre-trip meeting for the Olympic National Park Hurricane Ridge Trip.  Here are my initial thoughts about the upcoming Meetup trip this weekend:

• It’s nice that Tyler/Kyle (don’t remember exactly) and Sarah are younger in age and probably more relatable
• On one hand, I would probably be able to complete the trip much cheaper (by not needing to pay for car ferries, campsites, etc.).  But then again, I might have needed to pay more for campsites so it might have evened out.  Also, it would be nice to have some company on the day trip
• Maybe I should extend the trip for a few more days and just take a ferry back to Victoria on my own on Monday or Tuesday
• It’s a bit frustrating that we’ll be overlapping about 10KM on the Lake Angeles Trail, which I just did a few weeks ago with Omer, Theresa, and Chloe

The Pre-trip meeting was in a starbucks at the Uptown Shopping Center.  Uptown shopping center is a 1.3 million SF mixed-use development built in 2010 on the site of an outdated shopping center.  The project is mixed-use retail, office, and residential.  Here are some interesting thoughts about the shopping center:

• Developers did an above-average job making the shopping experience a pleasant and entertaining one.  Plenty of restaurants, walkways, landscaping, beautiful facades, etc.
• The retail portion of the small is an odd-size, making it not quite a shopping mall and not quite a shopping center.  It’s sort of stuck awkwardly in between.  The project might have been much more successful if it was larger and contained a greater variety of stores.
• This is the first shopping mall I’ve seen where Wal-Mart was the originally-intended anchor of the shopping mall.  The Wal-Mart Supercenter is at least 100,000 SF and seems to be mostly similar to their prototype store interiors

After the pre-trip meeting, I boarded the bus to the AirBNB for a relaxing night in.

 

 

This morning, I heard Joseph calling my name at 6AM.  I woke up, left the tent, and quickly packed up everything.  We walked to McDonalds where we spent about an hour eating breakfast, drinking coffee, and charging our electronics.  At about 8AM, we parted ways and I walked back up to Thetis Lake Park to complete the same route as the Meetup Hike that was scheduled for the upcoming Saturday morning.  I’m happy that I didn’t end up wasting a Saturday or Sunday with the Thetis Lake Hike.  It would have been a disappointing weekend hike, but ended up being a great weekday morning hike.

The hike was about 5 miles long, and included hiking up to Seymour Hill and completing a loop around Lower and Upper Thetis Lakes.  There were many casual walkers, families, and dog-hikers throughout the entire trail.  Interestingly, this trail is used as a training hike for advanced swimmers who swim for several kilometers around the lake.

 

 

After hiking at Thetis Lake, I walked back to the Highway and boarded the 50 bus to Downtown Victoria.  I then dropped of my pack at the HI-Hostel in Victoria, before starting to walk along the scenic marine route.  I passed Inner Harbour, the Legislative building, the departure point of the Black Ball Ferry Line (to Port Angeles, WA), Fisherman’s Wharf, Ogden Breakwater, and Beacon Hill Park.

 

 

 

 

 

The most interesting part of the day was learning about Terry Fox.  Terry was a high-school and college athlete who was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 19.  Because of his cancer, his leg had to be amputated.  He eventually recovered from cancer, but felt like he had a responsibility and purpose to give hope to all the cancer patients who had lost hope and were in despair.  He first set a goal to run one marathon, which he completed.  Afterwards, he set a goal to run the entire length of Canada, by running 26 miles each day.  He was well on his way to completing the run, when at 3,339 miles into the run, he asked to be taken to the hospital.  His cancer had spread to his lungs, and he passed away shortly thereafter.  He is a Canadian National Hero and money continues to be raised in his name until today.

The Story of Terry Fox is inspirational and encourages us to take on challenges, set the bar high, and remove the limitations that we sent ourselves.  When very few other people in his position thought they could make a difference, Terry made an enormous difference through strong-willed determination, passion, and meaning.

I then worked at Starbucks for 4-5 hours, catching up on work and blogs.  At 11PM I slept, but ended up waking up in the middle of the night for a couple of hours feeling nauseous.  Not feeling too well in the middle of the night served as a reminder for me not to make decisions while I’m not feeling my best.  For example, if you would’ve asked me last night, I might have considered taking a flight home within the next week, something that today just sounds ridiculous.

This morning, I slept in until 8AM, woke up, and walked over to the other AirBNB home to do laundry.  At 11 AM, I left the AirBNB with my full backpack to attend the Vancouver Pride Parade in Downtown.

Attending the pride event was a great and somewhat emotional experience.  For me, the event was a celebration of the triumph human rights over religious prejudice and closed mindedness.  I was celebrating and showing my support as the question “Should religion be able to be used as a valid reason for discriminating against others?” was answered with a resounding “No!”

I walked over from the Waterfront skytrain station to the corner of Denman Street and Robson Street.  As soon as I arrived, the first floats and groups were just starting to pass by the intersection.  There were floats and marching groups from various organizations and companies including Starbucks, Safeway, The Liberal Party (political),  Trojan, school districts, and many local businesses.  Also, the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, marched in the parade this year as he has been  doing for the last few years.  The words I would use to describe the experience of the event was promiscuity, joy, self-confidence, and self-expression.

 

After spending a couple of hours at the pride parade, I began making the journey to Victoria.  The journey to Victoria included taking the skytrain from Burrard to waterfront, transferring to the Canada Skytrain line, Exiting the sky train at Bridgeport, taking a bus from Bridgeport to the Vancouver Ferry Terminal, boarding the 90-minute ferry from Vancouver to Vancouver Island, and finally boarding a bus from the Vancouver Island ferry terminal to Downtown Victoria.  Within a few seconds of getting off the bus, I was approached by a fellow backpacker named Joseph Unterschute (https://www.facebook.com/joseph.unterschute).  He immediately approached me and we realized that both of us were looking for somewhere to sleep that night, and just decided to try to find somewhere together.  Here is some information about Joseph:

• He is a Native American eskimo, and his family/community is located in the Yukon (remote area in Northwest Canada)
• He is 28 years old, has 5 siblings, and has an eskimo mother and non-eskimo father
• At the age of 19, he left the Yukon in the winter on a night when it was -63 degrees
• For the past few months, he has been picking cherries in British Columbia. He just finished picking cherries today and just arrived in Victoria

His initial suggestion based on some advice he received was to spend the night in “tent city”, an area used by homeless people to pitch tents and sleep for the night.  Thankfully, I stopped by the visitor center near Inner Harbor and asked the lady working there what her thoughts were about staying in Tent City.  The look of disgust on her face said it all.  Instead she suggested that we board a bus to Thetis Lake and stay at the campground there.

From there, I met a Meetup group in front of a parliament building to hear the symphony and watch the fireworks.  Some people I met included the following:

• Rogie: Persian mechanical engineering student
• Steve:  Piano teacher from Seattle spending a month studying in British Columbia
• Miyu:  18-year old asian student spending 6 months studying at UVic

The area around the inner harbour was very crowded with people listening to the symphony.  The symphony was floating on a performance stage on the water.  The best seats in the house were people sitting in kayaks in the harbor just a few feet away from the symphony.  At night, the outline of the legislature building lit up and the symphony performance ended with fireworks.

After the event, Steve, Joseph, and I began making our way to the bus stop which was headed to Thetis Park.  We stopped on the way for a few slices of low quality, delicious pizza.  Then, we waited at the bus stop for the 50 bus, which arrived at about 11:30PM.  The bus dropped us off near the entrance of Thetis Lake.  We found a nice, quiet spot right outside the park, which made a perfect free campsite for the night.

This morning I woke up at 6AM, and left the house at 6:30AM to meet with Vincent, Leah, and Kuno at the VCC-Clark Station.  After meeting at 7:30AM, we drove over to the church parking lot to meet with the entire Meetup group of 20 people heading to Garibaldi Lake for a day hike.  Here is some additional information about the carpooling group:

• Leah is an 18 year old, Portuguese/Kuwaiti girl who moved to Vancouver by herself at the age of 13.  She is currently studying business at University and is working at a supermarket.
• Kuno is about 29 years old and is on the sales side of investment management funds. He has lived in India, London, and now Vancouver and has worked at many big banks. He just moved to Vancouver a couple months ago and loves it very much
• Vincent is a 23 year old Native-Canadian from the central/east coast of Canada.  He is working in a sales job and is planning to go back to school as soon as he can pay off some debt.  He’s a nice guy, with a “Josh Hiekali” type taste in music of upbeat songs ranging from a few months old to 20 years old.

At about 10AM, we began hiking the Garibaldi Lake trail.  There are cars parked down the road for a couple of Kilometers from the trailhead.  The trail was also extremely busy, making it difficult for people to pass each other on the trail.  The trail is about 18KM and ascends about 2,400 feet past several lakes, before arriving at Garibaldi Lake.  About three quarters of the way up to Garibaldi Lake there is a spot called Barrier Point  , where Lava from nearby volcanoes has created a water dam/barrier which is currently holding back Barrier Lake and Lesser Garibaldi Lake.  This dam broke about 150 years ago, and there is concern that it’s only a matter of time before the natural dam breaks and leads to another huge flood.  For that reason, the town of Garibaldi, was abandoned around 1981, the residents were relocated, and plans for a ski resort and other developments were abandoned.

Here is a 2010 article regarding the instability of Barrier Point

Here is an article which explains detailed information about Garibaldi Lake

 

 

After continuing past Barrier Point, we were 2/3rds of the way to Garibaldi Lake.  Right above the Barrier, was Barrier Lake. Another Kilometer up the trail was Lesser Garibaldi Lake, and soon after we finally reached Garibaldi Lake.  Garibaldi Lake was beautiful, especially for the following reasons:

• Glacier/snow backdrop at the far end of the lake
• Tall mountains surrounding most of the lake
• Irregular shape of the lake provides for excellent views from numerous directions
• Numerous lava islands on the lake

I was surprised that the lake wasn’t the same turquoise color as Joffre Lakes, but I guess that has to do with less of the water being from glaciers and more of the water being from snowmelt and other non-glacial sources.  Upon reaching the lake, we walked along the shores and onto some of the islands for a couple hours, before descending the trail to the trailhead.

Throughout the day, numerous hikers commented on my hat in a playful way.  On the car ride to Garibaldi, I jokingly introduced the floppy hat to Vincent, Leah, and Kuno who all thought is as hilarious.  Also, people in the Meetup group, mentioned things like “that looks like an interesting hat” and “that looks useful.”  I answered their comments with something like “Yup, it’s really useful, but it looks ridiculous.” Which usually made them comfortable enough to let out their laughter and acknowledge that it did look ridiculous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After completing the hike, we went to a restaurant in Squamish, where I had a delicious Salmon Burger.  When I was dropped off near Burrard Station, it was already 9PM and the lines for the busses to English Bay were hundreds of people long.  I decided to just head over to the AirBNB which ended up being a good decision.  By the time I showered and slept, it was midnight and I was drained by the long day.

This morning, I woke up at 8AM, after sleeping 7-8 hours. I think that waking up in a room with 3 other guys who were also sleeping, definitely influenced me to sleep longer than I would have otherwise. At about 8:45AM, I was waiting at the bus stop and chatting with two girls in their mid-20s, who were traveling together.  One was from Arizona and the other was a UCLA-alumni living in Orange County.  After a few minutes of chatting, the Moroccan guy from yesterday also arrived at the bus stop and we continued chatting until the bus arrived.

At 9:30AM, I dropped off my backpack at Jay’s Station in whistler village. With the purchase of a $60 peak-to-peak ticket, Jay’s Station offers to watch backpacks for free. I bought the lift ticket, and immediately headed to the chairlift to head up to Whistler Peak. the trip up to Whistler Peak required boarding two chair lifts. As soon as I arrived at Whistler Peak, I began hiking the High Note Trail. The High Note Trail is a beautiful 5.8 mile trail which passses by many streams, Alpine Lakes, and beautiful scenery. The trail seemed to be very popular with both trailrunners and day hikers.

After completing the High Note Trail at Roundhouse Lodge, I boarded the Peak-to-Peak gondola which connects Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain. The Peak-to-Peak ride was incredibly scenic, especially because of the clear, unobstructed view throughout the trip. at the midpoint of the Peak-to-Peak ride, the gondola is being pulled along the rope hundreds (maybe even thousands) of feet above the land below. The gondola was somehow designed so that supporting columns/pillars aren’t necessary for a large portion of the route between the two mountains. The gondola simply moves along the sagging, unsupported rope for a significant portion of the route.

 

 

 

Once I arrived at Blackcomb Mountain, I hiked the Nature Trail, OverLord trail, Black Trail, and LakeSide Trail.  The scenery was amazing and the combination of solitude and awe was special.  At 5:45pm, I completed the hike and arrived at the Blackcomb chair lifts.  The two Australian men at the chair lifts were visibly upset about me being late.  I was surprised to find out that the chairlifts  on Blackcomb mountain were scheduled to close at 5:30pm.  I apologized and descended the two chairlifts to the base of Blackcomb Mountain. As I descended each of the chairlifts, I overheard that I was the last person of the day to descend on the chair lifts.

After picking up my pack from Jay’s station I stopped by a pizza shop and Starbucks, before boarding the 8pm bus back to Vancouver.

This morning, I woke up at 6:30am, packed up my fully -loaded backpack, and began making my way to Burrard station for the 8am bus departure to Whistler.

I arrived at Burrard Station at exactly 8am, a few minutes before the bus departed.  About two hours later, the bus dropped us off at th entrance to Whistler Village.  Upon arriving, I walked over to the visitor center to ask for some recommendations for day hikes in the area.  Because it was already 10:30am, so decided to delay hiking on Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain until tomorrow, when I would be able to start hiking early in the morning and make them most out of the $60/day lift ticket.

Instead, based on the recommendation of the visitor center, I boarded a bus to Olympic Village, about 20 minutes away from Whistler Village where the HI-Hostel I would be staying at was also located.  She recommended a couple of hikes within walking distance of the hostel, which she assured me would be very scenic.

I arrived at the hostel at about 12pm, left my bag in storage, and left the hostel to begin the hike at around 12:30pm.  The hike began right off the road, and followeda fast-moving, powerful river for a couple of miles until Logger’s lake.  Logger’s Lake is located inside the crater of a volcano, whch is probably why the lake was fully surrounded by a higher ground.  Once I arrived at the lake, I merged onto the Crater Rim Trail, which circled the entire lake through the mountains and higher ground around the lake.  After competing the Crater Rim Trail, I retraced my steps on the Riverside Trail and walked back to the hostel.

Once at the hostel, I checked-in and showered, and got ready to spend the evening in Whistler Village.  While waiting at the bus stop, I started a conversation with a young middle-eastern guy who was also staying at the hostel.  He was born and raised in Morocco, but has been living in France for the past eight years.  He is currently finishing up a one month Roadtrip that he started on the eastern part of Canada. We had a nice conversation about our travels, and exchanged contact informative before parting ways in Whistler Village, where he would be hiking for a few hours on a nearby trail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upon arriving in Whistler Village, I walked through the Village and eventually decided to eat at the Warehouse Restaurant where all of the food items are only $4.95.  I ordered a veggie burger, fries, and beer for about $13 including tax and tip.  After eating, I continued walking through the village and came across a live concert in a large-grassy area in the village.  The music at the concert was a hippie/love/free-spirited type of music, likely catering to the Wanderlust Yoga crowd, which are visiting Whistler this weekend for the Wanderlust event.

After sitting and watching the concert for about an hour, the Moroccan guy on the bus called me, and came to meet me at the concert.  From there, we went out to eat at the $4.95 Warehouse Restaurant where I ordered another meal.

After eating, we headed over to Garfunkel Bar/Club where there was a skateboarding competition/event happening in the bar that night.  We stayed for about an hour, watching the skateboarders warming up and casually skateboarding on the wooden floors of the bar.  At about 11:30pm, we left the bar and boarded a bus back to the hostel.