That was grouse - and we both had Brazilians

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Geo: 49.2605, -123.114

So now that I have your attention - we finished a grouse day (at Grouse Mountain and The Capilano Suspension Bridge) with the best drinks of the trip....a Brazilian - a white rum with kiwi fruit, lime and soda.

This was a very late start for us with a 10 am pickup in the foyer by the appropriately named "Gray Line." It seems as if there was an overflow on the official Rocky Mountaineer Bus and fourteen of the passengers were moved to a local bus tour company. This turned out to be a bonus because we had such a small number and we had a very knowledgeable First Nations guide (Jeff) who did provide an indigenous perspective to the day. There were lots of stories and lots of lessons about Mother Earth and caring for our fragile environment.

The first stop over point was the salmon hatchery...this made us laugh when we left because we only saw an " empty" facility and Jeff explained what would happen if we were here a month later when the salmon were "running." For our visit in May, we had to use our imaginations a little but we got the general idea.......so, in summary.....

...the river has been changed so much since 1870, the salmon were under threat...so the Canadian Government supported a series of hatcheries accessed by the salmon in a man created river run ...as the salmon enter the fresh water at maturity their body begins to change, they stop eating and the male's snout changes to a hook and he grows a hump on his back (does this sound familiar?). When they reach the top of the run and the hatchery, the females have their bellies slit open to harvest the eggs and the males are killed to extract the white milt. Fertilisation of the eggs takes place in the gravel beds of the hatchery.The fry are reared and eventually released into the Capilano and the carcasses are used to create fertilisers and dog and cat food.

No happy ending for the salmon either in the wild or in the hatchery! This story always end with dead salmon.

So that "Indigenous and yes it's true" version of things kept the bus travellers quite for a little while why they processed the harsh reality of nature! Thinking salmon is off the menu for a few days.....but if you are in the sale market - wild salmon, ocean fresh, sockeye is the best. And Jeff reassured everyone that this was making a huge difference to the repopulation of salmon and was part of the "cyclical cycle of Mother Earth."

Next stop was the Capilano Suspension Bridge a mere 20 minutes from Downtown Vancouver. This was a fabulous adventure with the swaying canyon views and breathtaking lookouts on the Cliffwalk, The Bridge, in The Treetop Adventure and across Raptor's Ridge.

The Cliffwalk is a series of bridges and stairs that takes you across the face of the cliff so that you are suspended out from the ridge line across the Capilano River Canyon. It took almost an act of courage to let go of the railing but in reality holding on made no difference whatsoever. You were literally "out on a ledge" with glass floors to enable you to look into the depths below. It was "rock solid" and we joked that it was an engineering triumph that we would NOT have trusted in China!

With a new found relaxed attitude we headed to the suspension bridge. This bridge is 137 metres long and swings 70 metres above the canyon floor. And I mean swing! It bounces, it wobbles, it sways in fact it is difficult to stay balanced without resorting to grabbing onto the rails. Mac of course prided himself on a "no hands" approach but I was strictly hand over hand in making my way across.

Once across the bridge it was time to climb up into the canopy of this temperate rainforest and traverse the suspension bridges from treehouse to treehouse in the living forest learning about the flora and fauna of the region. And for a final heart stopping view from dizzying heights it is out onto the last series of ledges on Raptor's Ridge so that you can have one last view of the canyon before the scramble back across the Capilano.

A fabulous experience and so beautifully presented and supported by guides and shows along the way. If we had realised it was only 20 minutes away we would have visited under our own steam - that way we could have spent a whole day there rather than a few hours.

The last part of the day was to climb further towards the north and Grouse Mountain. This is a ski resort in winter and an adventure playground in summer.

We were delivered to the base and then had to board North America's largest aerial tramway system to be ferried in the Skyride 1 100 metres in just 8 minutes to the top of Grouse Mountain. We took a second ride on the Red Chair to access the Eye of the Wind turbine and got our first glimpse of the grizzly bears from the chair on the way back. Time to be part of the audience for the Lumberjack Show (very funny crowd pleaser featuring axe throwing, chainsaw carving, tree climbing and log rolling) and the Birds in Motion Demonstration (so clever to see and learn about the eagles and osprey in flight) and joined the crowd trying to spot Grinder and Coola in the grizzly enclosure. Mac hunted the bears down and we watched them as they occasionally stirred from sleep.

It was a hectic day - and we are not quite in tune with "group" stuff yet and we chaffed a little at having to cut adventures short.

Found The Cactus Club on the way home and settled in for another wonderful dining experience. And due to bad planning (and a severe shortage of group tourist time) we had skipped both breakfast and lunch so dinner was "it". The highlight was the discovery of a new cocktail today - The Brazillian - a kiwi fruit infused white rum concoction ..... one was not enough.

So thanks to all who recommended Grouse Mountain and the Suspension Bridge as they certainly lived up to expectations. Day 1 of The Rocky Mountaineer completed. Time to pack ready for a 5.45 am luggage pickup and a 6.30 departure. They can't be serious!

Thursday
Temperature: 23
Pedometer: 8 583
Bear Sightings = 2

Total Bear Sightings = 4

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