Locomotive Mountain

LOCOMOTIVE MOUNTAIN / SEMAPHORE LAKES - AUGUST 16-17, 2008

This was our first hike into the Semaphore Lakes area and the static storm on the summit of Locomotive Mountain was an unexpected unique and scary experience!

We left Vancouver late and didn't get started hiking until 7pm but the hike to Semaphore Lakes is short and we had camp set-up shortly after 8pm, just in time to catch a beautiful sunset.The next morning started clear and sunny. We started our hike/climb up Locomotive Mountain just before 9am.
The upper basin holds several crystal clear lakes.
Bad weather started to blow over during our ascent of the steep snowfield below the summit-ridge crest.
It took us 2 hours to reach the summit where the views were spectacular.
The sky suddenly darkened and our hair stood on end!

I raised my hand in the air to motion to Christy "let's get out of here!" and my fingers were instantly tingling and popping with static electricity! Needless to say we got off of the summit right away! Strong wind and an icy rain began to pummel the summit ridge.

We met six other guys on their way up to the summit. Their ice axes had already started humming loudly! We warned them that it got worse on the summit and that lightning was a good possibility and then we continued our rapid descent.

But the lightning never manifested and maybe 30 minutes from the summit the weather changed again dramatically - blue sky and sunshine returned... so we had some fun!

We took a little rest at one of the lakes in the upper basin.
And then lazily wandered our way back down to our camp, before heading home.
Another outstanding weekend in the mountains... with a little lesson learned: Nature is beautiful and powerful and deserves respect.

Cypress Peak

AUGUST 4, 2008 - CYPRESS PEAK

A gorgeous BC Day so Christy and I headed up to Cypress Peak for our first time. It turned out to be an incredible hike/scramble. The road to the trailhead is the same road that we snowshoed up on our way to Brew Hut in March, but this time it wasn't covered in deep snow!

The trail crossed Roe Creek and immediately started a steep climb towards Cypress Peak.
The basin below the peak was filled with a glacier and a lot of snow, so we avoided the glacier and plodded up the snow, gaining the summit ridge on the north end.
The walk along the summit ridge was spectacular!

The "crux" of the route involved a little hands-on scrambling but nothing too serious.
The incredible views towards Garibaldi, Tricouni and the Tantalus beyond had me wanting to fly off the summit!
Christy contemplating the view with Mount Fee on the left.
A brilliant day in the mountains!

New York City

NEW YORK CITY - July 28 to August 2, 2008

After a brief unscheduled stopover in Chicago...

...and a very relaxing visit with the Stesky clan up in the Thousand Islands Park and Brockville, we were off for our second visit to the Big Apple - but this time we drove into the city. With Christy behind the wheel and me as the navigator we cruised over the George Washington Bridge into upper Manhattan and were greeted by the iconic buildings of New York City.

The Empire State Building

The Flatiron Building

Times Square

The Chrysler Building

Grand Central StationAnd many other cool looking unnamed buildings

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.

We walked and rowed through Central Park.

This kid was dancing up a storm to a drummer in Central Park.We visited the huge and incredible Metropolitan Museum of Art.

We did the "Flight of the Conchords" walking tour through the Lower East Side.

Bret and Gemaine's apartment

Dave's Pawn Shop

Murray's New Zealand Embassy

We took an afternoon subway trip out to Coney Island.

We managed to get tickets to go see Dave Letterman (guests were Luke Wilson and Mindy Kaling from The Office).

And we finished off our day with a foot massage in Chinatown!

Good times!

Sasquatch Festival at the Gorge

May 26, 2008 - Sasquatch Festival at The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington State.

We arrived just before noon on Day 3 of the Festival before the bulk of the crowds gathered later in the afternoon...

We scooped a spot on the grassy slopes with an amazing view of the Columbia River Gorge.
No line-up to use the Honey Buckets was a rare thing to see during the day!
In the heat of the mid-afternoon sun, The Hives incredible, high-energy performance ranked as my #3 performance on Day 3 of Sasquatch.

#1 performance of the day was of course Bret and Jemaine of "Flight of the Conchords"- The crowd laughed and sang along to all of their songs, but their 45-minute set was far too short!

The Flaming Lips Sasquatch grand finale (#2 on my list of performances) was entertainingly over-the-top, highlights included: a giant UFO landing on the stage carrying the band members, the lead singer crowd surfing inside a giant translucent ball, dancing teletubbies, dancing naked people, and enough confetti and fireworks to make Times Square jealous... it was a sensory overload but a lot of fun! Check out the video of Flight of the Conchords!

Brew Hut snowshoe trip

March 15-16, 2008

For this year's annual winter overnight backcountry trip we chose Brew Hut, which is located in the mountains on the west side of Highway 99 just about halfway between Squamish and Whistler.

So after breakfast at the Squamish McD's, Jeff, Geri, Scott, Cindy, Pat, Christy and I headed up Saturday morning... thinking that we might be able to drive up the Roe Creek Forest Service Road all the way to the trailhead. But two stuck vehicles later, we discovered that the road was only passable to snowmobiles, snowshoes and skis so we unstuck Jeff and Geri's Toureg and had to abandon Pat's truck which was impossibly stuck in deep snow, hoping that we would be able to get it out the next day. This added about 7 km and 500m elevation to our hike but we thought we were starting early enough to make it to the cabin before sunset. We might have underestimated the trek...

Trekking up the ridge to the hut.
A bright half-moon and a clear sky full of stars made the night-hiking magical!
8 hours later, we arrived at Brew Hut about an hour after sunset.
Good morning in Brew Hut.

The next day involved a lot of sliding back down (we brought crazy-carpets!) and what took 8 hours up only took 3 hours down... and with a little help from some friendly snowmobilers, we got Pat's truck unstuck and made it home safe and sound. Good times. :)