July 16, 2009

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Day 46. 12,929Km
Here it is about 12 hours after I left Victoria and I can't even tell you exactly what time it was. I caught the 11.00 ferry with about ten minutes to spare so it must have been close to ten. I called my parents and was talking to my mom while waiting in line but had to hang up when boarding. For some reason they want you to pay attention when driving on and off the ferry. I stayed outside and took a bunch of pictures while the captain steered his ship through the islands like a slalom course. Once we were in more open waters I got some lunch and called mom back. I wanted to find out about there trip to Europe but soon lost the connection. I was going to try again this evening but realized it was 23:00 there by the time I thought of it.
Driving up the coast of BC on highway 99 provides some nice views but they are working on widening it all the way to Whistler for the Olympics. Some areas are done and some they are still blasting rock. I got to the campground around 15.30 and although they were already full they put three of us in an extra parking lot. No services but a place to sleep for the night. I suppose now that we are in prime vacation time I should be calling ahead.
Once I got unhooked and set up I took the bike into town. There are mazes of streets running up into the hills that you cannot see from the highway and some pretty nice places on them too. If you had an extra million or two you could have one heck of a nice winter vacation home. I found a 20Km or so loop around Alta Lake and at one point stopped for a picture. As I was getting off the bike to grab my camera I noticed a black bear about 30 feet away eating berries. I hesitated a minute but it did'nt even look my way so I took my pictures of the mountains and the bear and sat watching for a bit longer. Shortly before it left I pulled out my cell phone and took two minutes of video. Very cool experience.
The town is also expanding in anticipation of the 2012 games. There are more chalets being built, a new chair lift on one of the mountains, new hydro lines being run and what I believe to be a new water main along the highway. A friend on mine's sister has been coming here for a month for the past few years and now I see why.

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Photos

small ferry
this is like the ones I took to Denman and Hornby islands