It really is amazing how you can change your scenery out here in just a few hours. This morning at 10:00 we took the gondola up Whistler Mountain for a look around. The best parts: seeing a bear (a small brown) below the gondola about halfway up; taking lots of pictures of a marmot as he sunned himself at the top of the mountain; the open-air chairlift up to the peak of the mountain and the views from up there. It didn’t take long, but the views were as good (if less intimate) as anything we saw around Yoho.

We came back down the chairlift & gondola and jumped in the car. In spite of all the construction on the highway down to Vancouver we made pretty good time, and after a bit of complication (stupid Olympics construction) we found the car rental drop-off and walked the bags down to the hotel. We’re staying at the Opus, which is undeniably pretentious and poncy, but it’s also very comfortable and in an awesome neighbourhood. I’ve never spent time in Yaletown before (in fact, I just realized today that I haven’t been to Vancouver since 2001!) but it’s a cool neighbourhood. We found another brew pub right around the corner…same place, basically, as the place we frequented in Whistler. It happens to be right next to the chocolate place that I wanted to check out. We did a little shopping, ate a little gelato, walked down by the marina, explored our surroundings, showered & lounged in our room a bit…sweet. Hard to believe that 6 hours ago we were at 7,000 feet taking pictures of giant rodents.

Opus actually charges $15/day for internet access (apparently they’re taking lessons from Rogers) so I won’t bother posting this until tomorrow. Let’s just assume that we had a great night at the afore-mentioned brew pub.

[tags]whistler, vancouver, open hotel, yaletown[/tags]

That picture has nothing to do with what we did today. That’s a picture of Takkakaw Falls, back in Yoho National Park. Today nothing we did was terribly picture-worthy; we just drank in the sun all day.

Well, okay, that’s not entirely true. We went for a quick nature walk this morning out to Lost Lake and back, and then we started drinking. Couple of beer here, then back to the room, then couple of beer there, then back to the room, then out for more beer. It was such a beautiful day…it made for a perfect vacation day.

[tags]takkakaw falls, whistler, whistler brewhouse[/tags]

‘Twas a long and winding road, my friends. We started out from Kamloops this morning after a superginormous breakfast, happily waving goodbye to our ugly Four Points hotel room. We drove west through the desert-like sage and scrub, through Cache Creek (dubbed “the armpit of the world” by a recent acquaintance) and southwest on highway 99. It was a long, boring drive along the Fraser river canyon; both of us felt nauseous by the time we reached Lillooet.

We switched drivers, and as it turned out, I had all the fun. Highway 99 from Lillooet to Pemberton (38 km from Whistler) is crazy…drive up a mountain, drive down a mountain, repeat. Lots of tight turns and short straightaways and 15% grades and runaway lanes. My friend M² was right…it was like a video game. Good times. Anyway, we arrived at Whistler early in the afternoon and checked in.

Our hotel is nice, and our room is niiiiiiiice. Lots of space, very new, very comfortable, and a pretty view over the village (see above). The village itself is, as our hike book says, “a wee bit homogeneous and precious” and overrun by skateboard-toting teenagers with Burton tattooed to their foreheads, but pleasant enough. We had a bit of a stroll around and stopped for a beer (or three) at the Brewhouse, also at the suggestion of M², before coming back to the room to veg and plan for tomorrow. Looks like hiking isn’t in the cards; maybe a little mountain biking. We shall see.

[tags]whistler, pan pacific whistler village centre, whistler brewhouse[/tags]

We just arrived at the Pan Pacific Whistler Village Centre. All we wanted after a long day of twisty, turn-y driving was a decent, functional room…but wow. This is a suite, and it is (sorry) sweet. Kitchen, two TVs, balcony overlooking the village, sofa, divan…I kind of didn’t expect this based on how little I paid. Hooray for off-season!

I’ll blog more about the drive later. Right now we’re gonna unpack, de-compress and maybe explore the village a little.

[tags]whistler, pan pacific[/tags]

Hey kids. We’ve finally returned to the land of cell phone signals and internet connections.

O’Hara gave us a proper send-off; last night, after dinner, the sun finally broke through the clouds and painted the mountains for us one last time. We stayed out on the porch until nearly 10:00, just staring. It was hard to tear ourselves away.

This morning it was one last breakfast before taking the bus down the hill, and heading west into the BC interior. The drive was beautiful, but Yoho spoils a nature-lover, so we almost felt numb to the beauty we were driving through. We stopped to eat lunch — another delicious one prepared by the folks at the lodge before we left — at the rather disappointing Rogers Pass, then stopped again just outside of Revelstoke to drive up the mountain to a few lookouts, but then just booted it for Kamloops. The country changes a lot in those ~400 km…from mountains to hills to huge lakes to arid farmland just before Kamloops.

Our room…well, it’s a Four Points. Functional, but it’s not pretty or particularly scenic. Hard to adjust down after what we’ve enjoyed for the past four days. But it has a comfy bed and a big fridge and a decent restaurant downstairs and an internet connection, so it’ll do for tonight. Tomorrow we’ll drive to Whistler; how we’ll get there is still up in the air. Stay tuned.

I’ve published the blog posts that I wrote up in the past four days, so you can read all about the trip so far.

[tags]lake o’hara, revelstoke, kamloops[/tags]

One thing I have learned about the Rockies: the weather will switch from sun to rain at a moment’s notice, and will often overlap. Take today: it rained on and off several times, but each time the beginning or the end of the rain would be accompanied by brought sunshine. In any case, we didn’t let it lull us into a false sense of security; we opted out of any hikes, just taking a couple of walks (where we saw a nice alpine meadow and some gophers…I think) and sticking close to the cabin. Anyway, Nellie’s knees wouldn’t have allowed for much activity even had it been sunny.

Soon we’ll eat dinner and pack and have a glass of wine on the front porch, and after that we’ll go. I’ll leave here disappointed that we didn’t do everything we wanted to do…trail conditions kept us from seeing Lake MacArthur or the Opabin Plateau, while weather and injuries kept us from plan B today. Coming up to Lake O’Hara wasn’t a bad experience; far from it. The cabin was nice, the view was spectacular, we got to re-do the hike to Oesa, we had good food and good wine, and most importantly, we got to spend two days together in what’s rightly called the jewel of the Rockies. Nothing about that is bad. It just could have been brilliant.

So: onward. By this time tomorrow we should be in Kamloops, the halfway point of our trip. I guess if you’re reading this, it’ll mean that we’ve already reached Kamloops and the bountiful internet connections therein.

[tags]lake o’hara, opabin plateau, lake macarthur, kamloops[/tags]

21 months ago Nellie and I took a bus up to a spot in Yoho called Lake O’Hara, where we then hiked up to another lake called Oesa. It was one of the most incredible places we’d ever been to, almost like a natural cathedral. There was no one else around, the water was perfect…it was perfect. We took a few pictures, but decided to take a video to capture most of the cirque. We then hiked back down and took a bus back to the disappointing world before we realized that the video didn’t work. The camera was new, we were still figuring it out…we were not very pleased with ourselves. We resolved to go back and try again.

Way back in November we booked two nights at Lake O’Hara Lodge so that we wouldn’t have to worry about bus times when deciding which hikes to do. We also booked a lakeside cabin so we’d have a nice view…and man, do we ever. I think we actually got the best view of any lakeside cabin…no trees in front of our porch and we stare straight out at the lake and up at the Oesa cirque. Amazing.

I’m happy to say that today we made it back to Oesa, though it was quite a different experience. First, there were a LOT of people on the trail…not like last time when we only encountered a few other hikers, and none on our entire journey up. We were also much less lucky with the weather this time; our first time up we got sunny and +15 instead of the -1 and flurries that was forecast. Today the forecast was rain and rain it did. We were just coming back down when it started, and we got well and truly soaked. Luckily the sun came out immediately after (during, to be completely accurate) and we were dry by the time we got back down. We also saw more animals this time: a marmot to go along with the chipmunks, mice and pikas (which we saw last time). We had a better lunch this time (the lodge packs a trail lunch for you…some yummy wraps and veggies and an apple and nuts and a cookie!) which we sat and ate at Oesa. Finally, the biggest difference: we couldn’t see the beautiful blue water of the lake; it’s still frozen over. On the plus side, the snow cap was much bigger; we could see little snow slides happening way above us.

The hike itself was spectacular, just like last time. The view of Lake O’Hara and the lodge, the towering mountains all around, the glaciers hanging off ledges, the lakes and streams and waterfalls…it’s about as rewarding a 4-hour hike as I can imagine. Of course, it wouldn’t take that long normally, but Nellie’s knees were really bothering her by the time we turned for home so it was slow going. I also found, when we got back to the cabin after the traditional post-hike carrot cake, that my neck is massively sunburned. Take those two things, add in the weather forecast (more rain) and the fact that the next trail we really want to do – Lake MacArthur – is still too snowy in parts, and I think the plan for tomorrow has been altered to just be a simple hike around Lake O’Hara itself, maybe some canoing, and possibly some sitting on the porch and reading while we stare at one of the most spectacular views ever. I don’t think that would suck so bad.

We had dinner at the lodge tonight…pretty damn good. Tasty salad, parsnip soup, a vegetable & goat cheese brochette (?) and a rhubarb mousse for dessert, along with some very tasty microbrews and a nice bottle of BC Riesling. It occurred to us that we were WAY under the average age – most people at the lodge seem to be retirees – but the entire staff is very young, and our wine steward (who’s from New Glasgow and went to SMU!) liked us. After dinner we decided to take another walk around O’Hara and get some shots with the different light. We got some really nice ones, including one of an arctic hare near the cabins. We came back and relaxed on the front porch with a book and a sip of wine…it’s now 10:13 and we just retired from the porch…it’s still light outside!

It kills me that I can’t blog or upload pictures right now. Y’all would die of jealousy if you could see this view. Night!

[tags]lake o’hara, lake oesa[/tags]

It was sunny and 27 yesterday when we arrived, so I guess we couldn’t expect the great weather to hold up. Today we got our first taste of Rockies rain. It was raining when we woke up, in fact, and we thought we might be stuck indoors for the whole day, but we got up and prepared just in case. We waited it out while we re-packed for Lake O’Hara and by 9:30 the rain had stopped. We finished prepping and jumped in the car.

We drove back up the same road as yesterday, to the Takkekaw Falls parking lot, which acts as the trailhead to the Iceline trail, which our hike books says is pretty awesome. It was also much longer and more difficult than any other hike we’ve done, so we were curious about how we’d handle it. We ended up doing A LOT of switchbacks up the side of the mountains along a narrow trail, which was quite often covered with snow or running water. We got above the tree line and scrambled along rocky slopes to get even higher. We were aiming for a highpoint about 6.4km up the trail (about 700 metres higher than the valley floor) and missed slightly, but actually got (we think) an even better vantage point just a little north.

It was well worth the trip up. Not just at the top, but the whole way…we were looking out at the Yoho valley, and could see the thunderous falls directly across from us. Actually, at the highpoint, we were higher than the falls’ “launch” so we had a great view of the whole thing. We jumped streams and looked down ravines. We were high enough that we could feel the cold air rolling off the Emerald glacier just above us. A chipmunk befriended us while we sat and ate our sandwiches, but I fear we soured the relationship when we wouldn’t give him food. It was a truly spectacular venue.

We turned to head back down. About fifteen minutes after we did, some drizzle started. Then a shower. Then heavier showers. Then hail. Then showers again, then hail again, then back to heavy showers. Around the time it turned to hail we’d made it back to the trees, but they didn’t help much…not much canopy up there. Despite the downhill switchbacks being the hardest sections on Nellie’s knees, she handled it like a trooper. It took us a while to descend those 700m, so by the time we got to the valley floor we were pretty wet…good thing we brought shells with us to keep off most of the rain. In the last few minutes of the walk, just as we passed the falls, the sun came out and welcomed us back to the car. We drove home, wiped.

Two hot baths and some chocolate & wine later, we drove over to the nearby town of Field for dinner at Truffle Pigs. We’d eaten there on our last visit, and it was fantastic. I wasn’t as blown away this time, though it was still VERY good, and not at all what you’d expect in a town as small as Field, which really just looks like a train depot that washed up on the banks of the river. Spicy spring rolls and pasta and salmon and apple pie with ice cream and beer (Propeller from Halifax!) hit the spot. We even stopped at Cherchez la Vache (across the street in Truffle Pigs’ former location) to buy some treats. It was they who put together the wonderful gift basket we found in our cabin yesterday.

And now we’re home again. I think we would both be happy to go to bed early, except it doesn’t get dark here until 10:30, so I shall finish packing and then read before passing out.

Next up: two days at Lake O’Hara! The bad news is we’re already tired; the good news is that today was a harder hike than the next two days of hiking combined. Here’s hoping the weather holds up!

[tags]takkekaw falls, yoho valley, iceline trail, truffle pigs, lake o’hara[/tags]