Not that there’s anything wrong with that! It’s just, if I go to a different country I expect to be surrounded by those people and that culture. I was not expecting to go to Vancouver and feel like I was in Asia. But hey – what do I know!?
Let’s Get On With It
I’m not gonna sugar coat it – my 2 week stay in Vancouver was disappointing. Admittedly a lot of that was not Vancouver’s fault. This was easily the least amount of activity I’ve had at any destination thus far. Part of this is due to the fact that I was feeling a bit run down and tired when I got there. I felt like I needed to catch up on some rest and so I intentionally didn’t do much. That’s not really why it was disappointing.
The first week was sunny and hot for Vancouver (low 90s). For the first time in over a month I was staying in a place all to myself, which I was excited about. Unfortunately, I stayed in a condo that had no A/C and was 80 degrees inside during the day and only a slightly cooler 77 at night. That was rough. Needless to say, I did not sleep well that first week.
The first weekend was my first attempt to head out and go exploring. As nice and hot as it was all week, by the weekend the temperatures fell into the high 60’s and it rained. Despite the cooler outside temps, the condo was still 75 degrees! (I was utterly bewildered and irritated by this)
My whole intention behind wanting to come to Vancouver was to mountain bike – at Whistler. Vancouver and the surrounding British Columbia area has some of the best mountain biking on the planet. Since it was cool and a little rainy, I did not get to mountain bike the first weekend. So I took the Sky Train into the city to explore.
Stanley Park
Stanley Park is a 1,000 acre public park that borders the downtown of Vancouver and is almost entirely surrounded by the waters of Vancouver Harbor and English Bay. I walk from the waterfront train station.
Where There’s Smoke…
The second week was more of the same, I really felt like I needed to relax some more. The weather wasn’t quite as hot but it was high 70s. The condo was still excessively warm, no rain in the weekend forecast but another problem appeared.
Visibility in the mountains was extremely limited due to smoke. Much of British Columbia, and the western United States for the matter, is on fire! There are over 500 wildfires in British Columbia alone. This is causing some real issues with air quality and visibility all across Canada.
It didn’t make a ton of sense to drive the almost 2 hours to Whistler to go mountain biking. There wouldn’t be anything to see anyways. I did however decide to forge ahead and go mountain biking on the much closer North Shore of Vancouver – at Mt. Fromme. Visibility here was a bit better and most of the trails are tucked into the mountain without a lot of views anyways.
Mt. Fromme
It felt good to get back on my bike. I had to look up when I was on my bike last. All the way back in Bend, Oregon. Wow – that feels like a long time ago. As much as it felt good to be on my bike, I did not feel comfortable on it. By that I mean, not very confident. Mountain biking is a lot like another sport I play – golf. In the sense that if you don’t play consistently you quickly lose feel for it. Mt. Fromme trails are almost all downhill. You must “earn your turns” as they say. All that means is that there are no gondola or shuttle rides. There is only 1 way up to the various trailheads – by climbing up a winding, steep gravel mountain road. It does make you appreciate the downhills that much more. After 3 grinding climbs up the mountain I was pretty cooked.What’s Next
I’ve since left Vancouver and drove almost 9 hours east across the Trans-Canada Highway to spend 2 weeks in the Canadian Rockies. Visibility and air quality have been compromised here too due to the smoke. I was planning to do some hiking this week, and then more extensive hiking and camping next week. The extended forecast calls for cooler temps and rain much of next week. This is not good news obviously. It may help to clear the smoke, but does not make for fun hiking and camping. So that’s what I’m potentially facing the next 2 weeks. Nice weather this week but hazardous air quality and limited visibility, then colder temps and rain while I’m camping next week. I’m already here and not giving up all hope just yet, but it isn’t looking good. I will give it a few days before deciding if I need to pull the plug on this stop. Man….this Canada leg of the trip is really just not working out as I had hoped. I’m trying my best to stay upbeat about it as much of this stuff is simply out of my control. My next planned stop in a couple weeks is also having some similar wildfire and air quality issues. I might have to dig deep to come up with an alternative plan for next week. Then play the following weeks by ear. Not ideal, but that’s why it’s good to have flexibility.