And it's just awesome. We arrived Vancouver late in the day, set up camp.... I went for a swim, then into the first jacuzzi I'd come across thus far. Under the stars, bubbling away. Fantastic.
Next day set off into Vancouver. Group thing is good, but you've got to get away from it at some point so I try and just get off by myself in these city stops. So picked up a few maps and set out to walk the city. Lunch on the beach...er...rocky not so sandy beach. But the views were still incredible.
Sat on the rocks. Although still the pacific I still wanted to see the real ocean. Out of the bay. But that wasn't to come til past Seattle!
Went into Stanley Park and that's when the day really began. Wasn't that chuffed with downtown Vancouver. Dirt ridden, and just no different to any other city! Later it turned out, when I tried to get into the public library, that the public sector workers are on strike!! So not only has the library been closed for 90 days, the street cleaners havn't been cleaned for that long either!
Thankfully, just as I was beginning to think there was nothing to Vancouver I met this women.
Ok well she looked a bit like this. And she said "have you been up Grouse mountain yet!" I said, "no". She said "have you got a car". I said "no but I can run"! And she pointed to these mountains in the background of this picture I took when I was talking to her:
And so started the best day of my travels so far. Without a clue where to go I walked back across Lions Gate Bridge (the bridge on the picture above) back to the camp site, loaded up the hydration pack, donned the sneakers (oops, keep English, trainers) and followed what looked to be a road that led up that way. 3 miles later, and a few hundred metres of ascent I got up to what were gondolas to the top of this Grouse Mountain place. Had no money with me, and certianly wouldn't take an easy route to the top so asked a guy if there was a hike. Expecting a 20 minute route to the top I followed his directions and began a cheeky fell run up there. Fairly knackered after 20 minutes, and it seemed to be getting steeper and steeper. Then the 1/4 way gone sign appeared. A 1/4. I started to realise this was slightly more hardcore than I was expecting. To cut a long story short, the rest was pretty much unrunnable. And if Adam Stirk is reading this. I mean actually unrunnable so no comments RE any possible softcoreness!! It took just over an hour to get up there, and to my dismay I realised I'd left my camera in the tent after I had switched bags!!! ARRGGHH!! Gutted, I pretty much rekoned I just had to save this one for pure memories.
The views were phenomenal, I later realised this was actually over 1350m (4000+ ft). I.e. higher than the highest peak in Great Britain (Ben Nevis) and I'd ran up it from sea (Pacific Ocean) level. With a litre of water....
It was worth it though, free trip to the highest mountain in Vancouver, and up there was a grizzley bear eco-habitat so was able to see two play fighting like dogs from just 15 ft (behind an electric fence!!). Birds of prey up there too, and paragliding, which if I'd known about it earlier would definitely have done....shame but sure it'll be an option in NZ.
How did I get down? 10 minutes worth of banter with the guy on the gondolas at the top and a complimentary ride down. Belters. Also, while in the gondola, met a couple who I asked: "is that a northern accent you've got there"...yeh we're from South Shields. It's a small world!!
So from the bottom, 3 miles back to the camp site. What a day. From a dirt ridden city to one the most beautiful views I've seen (bar Neisst Point in Skye!!). I've nicked a picture from the web just to give an idea of what it was like (arrgh really shouldn't have forgotten my camera!) though it would be pretty difficult to capture it in all it's majestic beautifulness!ac
3 comments:
Mate, climbing walls are unrunnable, otherwise nothing else is unrunnable. And you blatently missed the best bit, running down!!!
Good to see you are having a great time.
mate. There was a warning sign for the downhill. Only in an emergency. Have you ever seen a warning sign for a downhill before, such that people don't actually do it! I never saw one going up, who was brave enough to hack the descent!
A warning sign, ahhh, what an invitation!
We'll pop up to Scotland when you get back and do some proper running.
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