Advertisement
Published: June 30th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Well, I suppose it is a bare bear bum, but I’ll get to that in a bit and then it should all make sense!
Leaving Vancouver behind, I headed up to Whistler, around 2½ hours away on the bus. It’s a lovely drive once you get out of the city and you get on to the ‘Sea to Sky highway’. Whistler is a nice own - it’s a lot bigger than I expected, with a permanent population of around 10,000. Whistler Village is a resort town; it’s very organised with visitors in mind, which is great, considering that’s what makes up most of the local economy. If you’re staying in the village, you’re never far away from anything you need, and from all the activities, and there are options for those who don’t want to stay right in the village - something for everyone. I was staying in the village at the bottom of the mountain, quite near to the lifts; I had a lovely little studio with a full kitchen; my only trouble was that it took me a little while to find my bed! It was one of those beds that folds down from the wall - it
was masquerading very well as another cupboard behind the couch! Thankfully I worked it out before I phoned for help!!
There’s lots to do in Whistler all year round. There’s skiing and snowboarding in the winter. There’s also glacier skiing for around 6 weeks over the summer. There are lots of biking and hiking trails both on the mountain peaks and around the valley and lakes, offering something for everyone. The great thing about most of the mountain trails is that you take the gondola or chairlift to the peak, and then start your hike from there. That maybe sounds a bit like cheating, but both Whistler and Blackcomb are around twice the height of Ben Nevis, so a little bit of a help on the way up is allowed!
I spent a day hiking around Lost Lake which was lovely, but not too strenuous for the most part, and another day between Blackcomb and Whistler Peaks. I took the Whistler Village Gondola up the mountain and also the Peak 2 Peak gondola which connects the Whistler and Blackcomb peaks. I did some walking around on a trail on Blackcomb, but, as it’s still early summer, there’s still
a lot of snow on the main trails, and so, they’re all still closed, but hopefully will be opening up soon.
Now, as all the signs around the village keep telling you, ‘Whistler is Bear Country’; black bear country, and everyone needs to be ‘bear smart’ just in case you encounter any whilst you’re out on the hills, on the valley floor, or even, in the village (they have been seen rummaging around bins in the village before they installed all of the bear proof bins). On the day I went up the peaks, there were signs out saying it was a good day to possibly spot some, so I was very excited. On my way up, I thought I spotted a couple, but then I convinced myself it wasn’t bears, but now I’m thinking maybe it was. On my way back down, I had just resigned myself to the fact I probably wasn’t going to see any, when I spotted 2 black shapes on the slope below me, near to some bushes. I was very excited and my camera was jumping out of my hands, and then trees obscured my view, but then, through a dirty, moving gondola
car window, I managed to get a very quick snap of one them as it walked towards a patch of bushes. It’s a terrible picture, and I've just seen how it looks now it’s been compressed for upload here, but there is a bear in there, I promise, you just have to zoom in a lot!
The bear smart rules tell you what you should do if you happen to come across a black bear whilst you’re out and about. They are quite shy, and don’t really want to cross your path, so the main advice is, if you see one, leave it alone! They like their own personal space, and aren’t very keen on it being invaded - I can understand that! One thing that they suggest you do while you’re out walking is to sing, just so that if there are any bears in the area, they know that you are there, and then they can avoid you. I was out on the trails around Lost Lake the other day, and thought perhaps I should sing out, but then thought better of it, as my singing would probably clear all bears from a tri-county area! I guess
that the way I stomp about in my boots, any bear would hear me coming, long before I was close enough for them to hear me singing! There are lots of rules about bear proof containers while you’re camping and RVing, and instructions about stringing things up in the air between trees, a certain height off the ground - I don’t think I’ll be camping here!
In the summer, Whistler is full of mountain bikers; serious mountain bikers. You can’t walk through the main street without seeing loads of guys dressed in what looks to me like the top half of the suits the Klingons in Star Trek wear, generally caked in mud from head to toe, and looking like they’ve just had the best time. The chairlifts and gondolas can all take bikes, so you don’t even have to ride up the mountain to start! It looks like fun; maybe I’ll try it sometime!
The photo of the stone man is an ‘Inukshuk’. It is an Inuit symbol, and there are many of them around here as it has also been adopted as one of the symbols of the 2010 Winter Olympics. (Whistler is a sister city
to Vancouver, hosting some of the downhill ski events). The Inukshuk is used by the Inuit for various things. It can mark an important place: for example, where food and other supplies have been stored; if one arm is longer than the other, then it is pointing in the direction of safe travel for the rest of the tribe to follow; it is also used as a symbol of friendship when several Inukshuk are built in a circle, touching hands.
That’s the end of my Canadian story; after this I’m on the bus over the border into USA, headed to Seattle for a couple of days.
Love to everyone
Claire
Advertisement
Tot: 0.104s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0506s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb