This entire area of southwestern British Columbia has been traditional Squamish Nation land for thousands of years . BC does a way better job than most in acknowledging the reality, with signs in Squamish language and lot of respect of customs and legends. For instance, riding the 1-year-old Sea-To-Sky gondola brings you to a lookout over a massive rock face called The Chief. Awesome scenery of glaciers and sea inlets, solid but creative structures. The 500' suspension bridge arcs over a 500' drop but it's a walk in the park. The wooden bridge-to-nowhere lets you feel an eagle-eye view of Howe Sound. Magnificent!
That gondola was purpose-built built to carry sight-seeing tourists, while up the highway the gondolas at famed Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Resorts were built to carry skiers and bikers. At the Olympics in 2010 I drove to this spot dozens of times, a place known for year-round skiing. Now the peaks are bare and everyone knows man-made climate change is the culprit. The lifts have been adapted to carry mountain bikes, and hundreds of kamikaze riders risk face-plants all the way down. On the highway nearby, formerly eternal ice-capped mountains now also show bare gravel and green. Very sad, very ominous.
The next morning back in Vancouver, police lights flashed and drivers cursed at 5a.m. outside our window. A huge cycling event, The Gran Fondo, closed main streets and bridges. Five or six thousand trim cyclists raced the same route we took yesterday --- to Squamish and Whistler! Uphill! 79 miles on a skinny bike in the late summer heat and sun. The pictures are blurry because even the camera hadn't woken up yet...
But since the day had started early, an uncrowded time to drive over to Kitsilano and a foggy view from the south. Past the U of BC and down 200 steep steps to Wreck Beach, Canada's first and most notorious nude ("clothing optional") beach. By afternoon the sands will be cheek-to-cheek (not pretty!) with sunbathers and vendors. The "notorious" part is that some of them vend beer-in-a-bag, or dried green weeds.
We made sure we obeyed this sign and skipped easily uphill. After the Grouse Grind mountain climb 3 days ago we were Squamish, not squeamish.
That gondola was purpose-built built to carry sight-seeing tourists, while up the highway the gondolas at famed Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Resorts were built to carry skiers and bikers. At the Olympics in 2010 I drove to this spot dozens of times, a place known for year-round skiing. Now the peaks are bare and everyone knows man-made climate change is the culprit. The lifts have been adapted to carry mountain bikes, and hundreds of kamikaze riders risk face-plants all the way down. On the highway nearby, formerly eternal ice-capped mountains now also show bare gravel and green. Very sad, very ominous.
But since the day had started early, an uncrowded time to drive over to Kitsilano and a foggy view from the south. Past the U of BC and down 200 steep steps to Wreck Beach, Canada's first and most notorious nude ("clothing optional") beach. By afternoon the sands will be cheek-to-cheek (not pretty!) with sunbathers and vendors. The "notorious" part is that some of them vend beer-in-a-bag, or dried green weeds.
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