The End Is The End

After 379 days in Canada we will be arriving back in England on Friday morning. We are still trying to get our heads round it, for everything we have been thinking of for the past 20 months is coming to an end. This last blog is intended to be a bit of a summary of our year, our thoughts on Canada, the highlights and lowlights of the trip...so please bear with us. Writing the post is a great way for us to end too, allowing us to indulge in the memories of a wonderful year.

So, where to start? Let's kick off with...

Snowboarding
I (James) managed to get in a total of 52 ski days whilst we've been here, with Philippa clocking in with around 25. We've both improved massively, and have been to some excellent resorts round British Columbia and Alberta. Our favourite resort has to be the place where we spent the 04/05 season - Silver Star. Although being tiny compared to the supersized resorts of the Alps, it was a great place for Philippa to learn, and one which was so welcoming. Definitely worth a visit if you come to Canada. Other great days included a day riding the trees at Big White, and the wonderful views from Sunshine Village near Banff. The bad times? When James landed a jump badly and landed on his head, smashing his goggles (I went and bought a helmet that day), and when Philippa fell flat on her back putting her out for a month.

Hiking and Camping
Here's a few facts about our days in the mountains....

Distance hiked: 284 kilometres or 176 miles
Height gained: 15,040 metres or 49, 343 feet or (but probably more)
Number of nights camping: 10 (Philippa), 14 (James)
Number of peaks climbed: 8
Number of mountain passes climbed: 4

The summer in Canmore was just great. Wednesday and Thursday were our regular days off, and we spent nearly all of those in the mountains. Despite the summer being fairly wet (Canmore had its wettest June ever), we didn't seem to spend much time with the Gore Tex on, which was lucky. For Philippa, the highlight was King Creek Ridge in Kananaskis Country with our friends Dawn and Andy - a horrendously steep climb up, a nice meander along a grassy ridge, a nice descent alongside a river, and then a huge canyon at the end. For James, it was Skoki, the backcountry east of Lake Louise. Stunning weather, no people, good company, and possibly the finest view of the summer (Skoki Lakes).

As Jamie (James' boss in Canmore) said, "You didn't do everything but you had a good go." That sums up our summer perfectly.

The Wildlife
Canada has some amazing wildlife, some elusive and some not so. Here's what we've seen...

Grizzly bear - 3
Black bear - 9
Moose - 2
Elk - lots
Deer - lots
Cougar - 1
Coyote - several
Mountain goat - 1
Bighorn sheep - lots
Hoary marmot - lots
Pika - lots
Otter - 3
Snowshoe hare - 1 (being killed by the cougar)
Bald eagle - at least 22
Great grey owl - 1
Mink - 1
Porcupine - 1
Red squirrel - dozens
Chipmunk - lots
Great blue heron - numerous
Red tailed hawk - 1
Hairy woodpecker - 1
Columbian ground squirrel - dozens
Pack rat - 1 (in the cave)

The Thank You's
Throughout our stay, we've been welcomed and looked after by so many people. First and foremost, thank you to:

Adam and Kate of Vancouver - they put us up when we arrived, they put us up when we came back in November, they put us up when we came back again. They also helped us when we were stressing about things, and have been our agony aunt and uncle. Thanks a million, we'll be back to hang around at some point in the future.

Ross and Michelle of Canmore - we spent 10 nights in your cosy apartment. Hopefully we kept you entertained, and now you know how cauliflower tastes when steamed. Have a great meal at the Quarry, and we hope you'll be over for some Stanage climbing and Peak District caving very soon.

Pat, Mary Ann, Evan and Rylan of Lumby, BC - it was great to stay with a proper Canadian family, and one which is so much fun. The burgers were sumptuous, the beer great, and it was the best bog reading book ever. Thank you so much. James will wear the Lumby t-shirt with pride.

We also have to thank a lot of other people, without whom this year simply wouldn't have been as good:

David Harley, Sabine Petit, Jamie and Sharon Cuthill - thanks for giving me (James) a job! You all know how much I enjoyed working for Valhalla, both in Vernon and Canmore. You were all great to work for, and thanks so much. (Especially Jamie and Sharon, as you hadn't even met me and still gave me a job).

Tim and Kevin - thanks for giving me (Philippa) a job! All bosses should be like you two. It's the best job I ever had and the most fun place I've ever worked. I will miss being surrounded by chocolate and fudge.

Ashley and Riley Jade - thank you Ashley for having the baby before we left Canada (but only just!). You were the best colleague ever and I will miss you lots.

Cathy and Lyle, thanks for all the lifts up the hill in Canmore, after all, who wants to cycle home after a hard day at work (eating chocolate!). Also, thank you Cathy for your lovely home-cooked meals, especially the apple crisp!

So that's it...
Our trip is done. As you can tell, we've had an amazing time, and one that will never be forgotten. We both hope you've found this blog of interest, it certainly was fun doing it. Thanks for reading it too.

See you all at some point over the next few weeks, this is James and Philippa, blogging off....for the last time.

The End Is Nigh....

Five days to go. On Friday morning we'll be arriving back in gloomy Manchester.

We both have mixed feelings at the moment, looking forward to seeing family and friends but leaving Canada (and more specifically Alberta and BC) is going to be very hard. We have a few things to sort out before we leave - like how to condense all our gear into bags of a manageable size - but other than that we're just trying to take in last few days and reflect on what has been an outstanding year.

Since our last post, we have been to Sun Peaks resort near Kamloops. It's a really nice ski resort, cool but without the attitude, and if Philippa hadn't been struck with a stomach bug we'd have enjoyed it far more. After that it was the short drive down to Vernon, where we stayed at Silver Star on a ski for free deal. We're now in the hospitible company of my old colleague Evan and his family, who are putting us up in their luxurious abode (and thank you to them). On Monday we head to Vancouver to see out our final few days in Canada.

We'll be doing a final blog on Thursday morning, so have a look back after then. You never know, you night even get a mention............

Until then, here's a few pictures from our time at Silver Star this past few days.

Philippa takes in the view














And again (she spent more time 'snowlazing' than snowboarding)















Enjoying the sun

Pictures at last...

Well, we promised some pictures of our trip so far. Here they are!

Hudson's Bay Mountain, Smithers, NW British Columbia















Falls at Moricetown, close to Smithers
















Totem poles at Ksan, The Hazeltons, NW BC.















The Skeena River, between Terrace and Prince Rupert















We stumbled across a little porcupine whilst on a hike in Prince Rupert.
















Nisga’a Memorial Lava Bed Park, north of Terrace, BC.















The lava solidified around tree trunks, which burnt in the process leaving these tubes in the lava















Bear Glacier, in NW BC near to the Alaska border. Absolutely stunning.




















Entering Hyder, Alaska. A very strange place, in an amazing location.















This photo sums up Hyder!















We did take some more pictures of our time in Jasper, but unfortunately lost our camera somewhere on the Icefields Parkway. A real shame.

Anyway, that's all from us for now. We are back in Canmore at the moment, visiting friends and snowboarding. Philippa has progressed lots on her snowboarding, now doing turns on blue runs.

From here we head west through the Rockies and the Selkirks to Revelstoke. Look out for a new post sometime next week.

Cheers for now

James and Philippa

Back In Banff

Just a quick one...we hope to get some pictures on here this week.

In Banff now, after a great drive down the Icefields Parkway yesterday.

James and Philippa

Jasper, Alberta

Hello

We are now around 2700 kilometres into our journey round BC and Alberta. Since our last post, we travelled up to the US border at Hyder (the southern tip or Alaska) which was pretty amazing. Hyder, and adjacent Stewart (Canada) were very interesting...both towns are like they are straight out of the 1930's, such is the 'architecture'. The journey was great, with glaciers galore and, if we didn't double count, we saw 21 bald eagles within a 20 km stretch of highway.

It was then back to Smithers, where the snow had melted so we couldn't snowboard, so we bombed it over to Prince George. After a night there, we aimed for McBride 200 kms east, but when we got there it was such a dump we decided to give it a miss and continued on to Jasper, in the Canadian Rockies, where we are now. The snow is thick and the weather freezing (-16 to be precise), but we're having fun - it's hard not to when the snow covered mountains look so beautiful. Driving on snow and ice is interesting but fun, mainly because the all weather tyres grip pretty well.

We've done 2 days of snowboarding up at Marmot Basin - Philippa is amazed she can still snowboard (and do it quite well too!). So that's been fun. Today the sun shone all day, and we had a lovely short hike to 5 Lakes Valley, where we saw 3 otters sunbathing on a frozen lake.

Our plans now are to head to Canmore next week (back 'home') for a few days, then over to Revelstoke, and then Sun Peaks ski resort for 4 nights and 3 days of boarding. So lots to look forward to before we fly home.

No moose yet, but still 3 weeks to go. Anyway, that's it - our washing is about done.

Cheers

James and Philippa

Terrace, North West BC

Hello everyone

Hope you are all well. As you can see from the title, we have now reached Terrace after leaving Vancouver last Wednesday. Today we head to Prince Rupert, where we are going to stay for a few days and hopefully go nowhere near our lovely Chevrolet Malibu (after 900 miles of driving we're a bit fed up of it).

So, the trip so far.....

After a great time in Vancouver, we eventually left around midday on Wednesday 16th November. The journey up Howe Sound to Whistler was lovely - the road hangs to the side of the mountains until Squamish, and then goes through the mountains up to Whistler. We carried on to a small town called Lillooet where we stayed the night.

The first part of Thursday was great - a scenic drive high above the Fraser River. But after that, it was sheer boredom for 2 days. The journey from Williams Lake to Prince George is dull dull dull, nothing but rolling hills covered in trees. Every so often you come across a dull lake. Whoopee.

Fortunately, the journey much improved after Prince George, when we picked up the Yellowhead Highway and headed west on the 500 mile journey to Prince George. Smithers was the nicest part, a lovely mountain town dominated by the glacier covered Hudson's Bay Mountain. We stopped here for two nights in a nice motel, and got out the car and did a couple of short hikes. We enjoyed our time there, and hope to snowboard at Ski Smithers when we return that way in a week or so's time. Please all pray to the snow gods.

Then yesterday we drove from Smithers to Terrace, again a lovely drive through the mountains.

Sorry this is all so boring without the usual photographs, but unfortunately we haven't the facilities to put some on here. We may find somewhere in Prince Rupert however, so watch this space.

A distinct lack of moose so far too..they are the coolest animal ever. Lots of time though.

Our internet time is up. More from us in a few days.

James and Philippa

Laziness

For the last ten days we have been living a life of luxury in Vancouver. Staying with our good friends Kate and Adam, we have done precisely nothing all week. It has been really good just to relax after our hectic summer though, and we have enjoyed doing a bit of shopping, wandering, sleeping, shopping, wandering etc etc.

We finally left Canmore on 5 November, flying across from Calgary that afternoon. It was a real tug of the heart strings to leave - we had such a fantastic time 5 months there. Being a bit of a statastic freak, I worked out how far we hiked this summer, and how high. It works out at around 280kms of distance, with 50,000 feet of ascent. Not bad.

When we arrived in Vancouver on the Saturday night, it was very strange; after the peace and quiet of Canmore, both of us felt a little bewildered by all the noise, traffic, and people. We soon got used to it....and last night went to see Depeche Mode live at GM Place in Vancouver. It was excellent, a great show, and a nice wedding present to each other.

Anyway, we've had a nice time here in Vancouver, and our massive thanks to Adam and Kate for putting us up and being such great hosts. We now head off on our travels for 3 weeks, before returning to Vancouver to sort out our visa's (I'll spare the moan about that).

More from us from somwhere in the depths of British Columbia.