Yukon Ho!

Jun 7, 2006: Not out of the van yet

Woke up at 9am and packed the tent gear into the van.
We drove down the highway a few minutes, parked in a lot near a boardwalk hike through the rainforest, passed on the ridiculous $7 per person parking fee and got our fill of nature for FREE! Take that Tofino Parks Commission!
We drove the 20km into Ucluelet to find coffee and breakfast at a place called Blueberries Cafe. It was nice and tiny and friendly but they used those dainty little teacups for their coffee. Sorry but unless you’re going to leave the coffee decanter on the table with the breakfaster, you’re going to need to provide full-on mugs.
Anywhoooo, fuelled, we began the drive to Seyward to park the van in its summer resting place -the driveway of Graham’s friend’s sister, Lorraine. On the way we stopped at the Coombs Country Market in Coombs -a mini frontier town where the roofs (rooves?) are all covered in grass and the main market has goats up top to maintain the grass roof. Honestly. There’s a little house up there for them to hide out in when it rains and the rest of the time they graze on the massive slopey roof. The market had a ton of fresh awesome food so we bought gelato and samosas, then kicked ourselves for being Tofino suckers because Coombs had cowboy hats for $10 instead of the $30 we paid. They also had a giant selection of cloth-covered notebooks for $3 each instead of the $16 I paid in Tofino. Curse you Tofino!
We spent a bit of time in Campbell River -scamming free internet at the visitor’s centre, soldering computer bits together to create a super-computer, and buying dinner with my Mom’s going-away McDonald’s coupons (thanks Mom!)- before heading to a nearby campground for the night, with plans to get up early and drive the last hour to Seyward in the morning.
During those few hours of intense compu-work we found out that the whole Dawson City Music Festival lineup will be released on Friday, and we booked a night at the Pioneer Hostel in Prince Rupert so we have a plce to stay when we roll off the 16-hour ferry at midnight. Bonus -Pioneer Hostel has a shuttle that picks its guests up at the ferry terminal as soon as they arrive.

Jun 6, 2006: We’re almost ready to go pro…

We got up around 9am and drove back into town for breakfast at a place called Tuff Beans. It was overpriced but so is everything in Tofino.
Around 11am we drove back to Pacific Sands and surfed for a couple more hours. My sister came down from her villa and took some pictures that made us look pro, and I cut my hand on the fin of my board so hopefully it scars and when people ask where I got the scar I can say “Ahhhhhhhh surfing. Yep, that’s right -I surf.” I won’t mention the part where I ran from the water with my bleeding hand held high over my head so as not to bleed in the water and attract the bloodthirsty sharks.
We showered all the saltwater off ourselves in Cor’s villa and said our final good-byes to her and Kent, then drove back to the surf shop to return our gear and score a free sticker. After that we shopped around the downtown a bit because Sean needed another quick-dry shirt and pair of shorts and we both got suckered into buying cowboy hats. I’ve always made fun of cowboy hats but they seem very functional -the straw weave allows your head to breathe, the wide brim covers your face, neck and ears, and the bolero-chin-strap thing means you can wear it on a bike without losing it. They’re the ideal headgear!
We had planned to bike into Ucluelet in the afternoon but by the time we finished shopping it was dinnertime. Instead of eating a sensible dinner we opted to stuff ourselves full of leftover wedding candy (sour keys, peanut M&M’s and licorice), then park in the Green Point lot to drink a bottle of wine and do some computer mapping before bed.

Amy

June 5, 2006: More Tofino

All the fam left Monday morning and there was a huge tearful good-bye that went from about 8-10am.
Sean and I had the villa to ourselves for an hour before check-out so we nerded out on the laptop for a while before we packed up and drove down the highway to Green Point Campground. We booked a couple nights there and immediately emptied the entire van into their parking lot so we could re-pack and separate the bike gear from the “leaving behind” gear.
When we finally finished there we drove back into Tofino and rented surfboards and wetsuits from a grizzled dude named Ralph at the Long Beach Surf Shop. Ralph strapped the boards to the roof racks of the van, waxing lament over the lack of new girls in Tofino during the winter, but loving how lovely it was once summer rolled around and wild and unknown women came in by the VW vanload. He also asked where we were surfing and gave us some tips about which beaches were best at which time of day before he bid us farewell and happy surfing and went back to razzing his staff. Since my sister had scammed us a parking pass for Pacific Sands and you have to pay to park in every lot on Tofino, we parked at the resort and surfed at Cox Bay. After a couple hours there we were starving so we drove back into Tofino and got huge awesome sandwiches at Breaker’s Cafe.
By that time we were kind of wiped out (sooooo much vacation all at once!) so we drove back to the campsite and walked down to the beach with a backpack full of beer. That lasted about an hour and a half and then we started to get cold so we hiked back up to the tent and went to bed before the sun had even set.

Amy

June 4, 2006: Slow down you’re not on the mainland

We lazed around the villa in the morning, drinking coffee and mentally preparing me for the surf lesson my cousin had booked the day before.
My cousin Kelly, brother Mike, sister Cor and her husband Kent, my sister-in-law Jen and Cor’s godmother Cindy had a 1pm lesson with a Billabong school called Surf Sister.
I was a little out of my mind because as much as I wanted to surf, I had always sworn the only place I would ever do it was Lake Superior where the water was fresh and shark-free. My sister told me we’d be fine since we’d only be in waist-deep for the lesson but clearly she has never seen Jaws. If she had, she would have know nthat most shark attacks happen ten feet out in three feet of water.
Anywhoooo the lesson started with some verbal hooo-ha, moved to the beach where we practiced pop-up’s, and then into the water where, amazingly, no one was eaten. It was a ton of fun. Tiring, but soooooo fun, and almost everyone stood on their boards. Cor was most awesomely successful, riding one wave all the way in to shore.
I got pretty obsessed with Surf Sister when the lesson was over so Cindy and I drove back into Tofino to buy me a hoodie at their store.
By the time dinner rolled around all the surfers were starving. It turns out you don’t have to be any good to work up an appetite surfing. Just trying not to get completely pounded by the water is enough.
During dinner (again in Cor and Kent’s villa) we hooked the various digital cameras up to the TV and checked out the pictures from the week-end, then my whole family hiked out to Sunset Point -to freeze our asses off and watch the sun set.
Amy

June 3, 2006: Wedding day

Oh Pacific Sands…in the words of Chris Roberts -”a little luxury before you get real unluxurious”

I had to be over at my sister’s villa by 10am for maid-of-honourly guidance and support while she had her hair done, and then so we could lace each other’s dresses up…though my Mom showed up and took over the lacing of Cor’s dress -which was awesome. It was a strapless white satin dress with small black beads and flowers embroidered across the top and then down the back around the lace-up back.
The ceremony took place on the beach and only lasted about 20 minutes. No pews, no churchiness, just a chilled-out officiant, mid-ceremony jokes and lots of tears on behalf of the parents. Afterwards there were somequick pictures on the rocks at the shore and we all headed into Cor and Kent’s villa to pig out on a massive catered lunch courtesy of Breakers Cafe in Tofino.
Once everyone finished eating and my Dad finished speeching it up sob-style (just kidding -he was only mildly choked up and it was an excellent speech), everyone was free to do their own thing until later that night.
Sean and I rode our bikes into Tofino and sat on the bench by the Pacific Terminus of the Trans-Canada Highway when we were suckered into this conversation by an old guy named Turtle. Turtle was probably 60 and had three stories, all of which he told about six times.
Number 1 -He used to own an ice cream cart but Tofino took it away because he didn’t have a license for it. Till then he was going to run for mayor, and probably would have won since he’s so well-liked in that town.
Number 2 -He used to have the most beautiful beard ever and we would never ever believe how beautiful his beard was.
Number 3 -A couple years ago he had a laughing curfew slapped on him by the town of Tofino and now there’s no laughing for Turtle between 11pm and 11am.
This last story we were kind of skeptical of until we heard him laugh and an acquaintance of his (a 20-something girl) came along and corroborated the story. We probably sat with the two of them on that bench for an hour, getting blown away by the bizarro-ness of the situation, before we rode back to the resort and had an awesome BBQ with my Aunts, Uncles and cousins.
After dinner there was an hour or so of dessert, drinks and some more speeches and poems back at Cor’s villa. This was followed by a fire at the resort fire pit, where the Kenny’s ran out every other fire-enjoying guest at the resort within 20 minutes.
Amy

PS -To those of you who are only reading for the adventurepacked-ness of this log, sorry about the babying out here but this is my kick-ass niece Bridget Anonda.

June 2, 2006: To the island!

We got up at 7:30am so we could leave when Chris and Myle left for work.
Both of us woke up with massive headaches (even though we only had a few drinks the night beore) and starving stomachs so went to the first open breakfast place we could find, which ended up being White Spot. Breakfast was expensive and average-tasting but it was fast and there was a bizarre middle-aged trio of loud-mouths spewing ethnic stereotypes and getting pissed that the three slices of toast they’d ordered weren’t coming fast enough, so that was entertaining.
By then it was 9:30 and all the outdoor stores were about to open so we drove to West Broadway where they’re all rammed around MEC and got a few last-minute supplies. Unfortunately no one in the whole of bear-ridden BC seemed to carry food caches. Fortunately the guy at MEC checked the nation-wide in-store inventory and told us the Victoria location might have one. We called them up and they said they did so we made for the ferry terminal where we caught the 1pm boat over to the island.
The ride was ok -no whale sightings and the only coffee was Starbucks, but I did get to catch up on all the celebrity gossip I missed in the last week. Brit is sooooo going to boot K-Fed to the curb soon.
It took about an hour to get to MEC, where we bought the cache and browsed the store for some supersweet secret merchandise they may have been hiding on the west coast and not sending to the Toronto location but it was all pretty much the same stuff.
With the help of Boston we rocked out all the way to Tofino and cruised around looking for Pacific Sands Beach Resort where my family was supposed to have set up camp in some sweet-ass villas earlier in the day.
When we arrived at 9:30pm, they were well into the booze and the BBQ-ing and there was no way we were going to catch up (plus we were dead tired) so we went to sleep in the luxurious beds at Pacific Sands.

Amy

June 1, 2006: Vancouver

We woke up early so we could be on the road by nine and, hopefully, in Vancouver early.
As we were packing some guy in a plaid shirt and jeans drove up in a red pick-up and told me a night’s camping was $17 and we could pay him. It seemed kind if sketchy since he was…you know -a guy in jeans and a hoser shirt driving and unmarked truck and wearing a Value Village-esque trucker hat with a random parks patch on it. We finished packing up and considered just taking off but we ended up cruising by Ranger MacKenzie and asking if there was some sort of night deposit box with receipts, which there was, but it said camping was only $10, which is what we paid. I’m pretty sure he kept the cash since he put the envelope directly into his pocket instead of the deposit box.
Anywhoooo, the closest town to the campground was Chrsitina Lake -a very cool little cottage-y place. The bakery we stopped at didn;t have any coffee but they these excellent things called…I don’t even know what. There was a pepperette and homemade salsa in each one, and then that was wrapped in fresh-cooked bread and sprinkled with cheese.
Delicious.
Coffee we got at the general store.
An hour down the road in Greenwood we stopped for more coffee at an awesome cappucino place on a sweet strip of shops, including a wicked saloon that was for rent.
Another couple hours down the highway was Osooyoos -a bizarre New Mexico-type town built on Canada’s warmest lake. It doesn’t even feel like you’re in Canada. Driving through Osooyoos is like driving through Nevada or something. It’s like everyone got together at the beginning of building the town and decided “right, it’s pretty dry here so let’s go with that desert theme -HARDCORE.” The old buildings, the new buildings, every building in Osooyoos is stucco, painted in either sandy or sherbet shades, the roofs are covered with clay shingles and their peaks are all scalloped western-style. Even the Tim Horton’s design was re-tooled to fit the town’s motif. It’s wild, wild west in your face and don’t you forget it!
We stopped for gas in Princeton and tried to get pizza at the pizzeria next door to the Esso station but they only had one slice left. And all they made was pepperoni. But they did direct us to Pizza Party across the street, which was closed until 4pm, so we ended up paying $17 for two salads and one small Blizzard at Dairy Queen. It also started raining while we were there. Princeton funken blows.
The rain continued when we stopped near Abbotsford for Tim Horton’s. There was a Panago in that city but of course we had no money left to spend because Dairy Queen raped us all on salads and ice cream.
Half an hour later we were in Vancouver where we were reunited with sweet sweet bumper-to-bumper ruch hour. Thank GOD. I was getting tired of zooming around the gorgeous mountains. We finally got to Dave’s new apartment around 6pm, dropped him off, picked some stuff up at MEC, met  Chris and Myle, hung out at their place for a while, then went to this wicked little pub called The King’s Head. We stayed there till about 12:30am when they closed, then walked down to the beach and wandered around for a while, looking at the waterfront.
Amy

May 31, 2006: Banff to Castlegar

Woke up a little late because it was exciting to be in beds and to be able to make our own breakfast and coffee.
Since we didn’t have too far to drive on Wednesday We van’d over to Sulpher Mountain around 10am and decided to climb it. An hour and 20 minutes later we were feeling pretty hardcore at the top because the hike took us 40 minutes less than the minimum expected climb time according to signs at the trail entrance.
We bonded with a few old ladies who were on the prowl for young guys and this marathon-running-dog-walker, then tried to get a free ride down on the cable cars (which you used to be able to do) but I guess they changed the rules so we had to pay for the ride down…well for two rides down anyway. We snuck Dave past the ticket wicket and straight onto the car.
After that we were pretty hungry but we were also pretty against paying Banff prices for food ($3 for a Pepsi) so we drove to Golden where…it was depressing. That’s all I have to say about Golden. A lof of people live in trailers and spend all afternoon in the slowest Tim Horton’s ever.
Revelstoke was way sweeter -it had a few brick roads downtown, there were a lot of cool houses, a river ran right alongside it and the whole place was just sunny and awesome and nice-looking.
After that we drove to Shelter Bay and caught the free ferry over to Nakusp where we snuck down to Halfway Hot Springs -this spring that’s hidden away at the bottom of this river valley that you can only get to by driving 10km down a pothole-covered gravel logging road. We parked the van at a little pullover point and hiked down this massive mossy hill with no trails. It took about an age or two to realize we were in the wrong spot, so we went back and forth and up and down all over the hill for a while longer before we finally found what we were looking for.
Right beside the freezing cold river there’s an awesome clearing where loggers and hippies joined forces to build a free camping area. There are firepits everywhere, there’s an outhouse and a little lean-to shack with a tarp and a bench, and then there are a couple hot spring tubs. One is a manmade wooden one lined with a clear tarp and full of spring water that’s piped in from a crevice a couple feet away. The other one is right in the riverbed and is full of cold river water and boiling spring water that comes out of the rocks. We sat in the riverbed one for about an hour and planned where on the banks we’re going to build our log cabins when we get rich.
We ended up downtown Nakusp around 930pm where our dinner choices were Chinese food at a Chinese restaurant, or pre-packaged sandwiches at the Food Mart convenience store. Because we are mad-resourceful came up with a third option, which was to buy overpriced bread, cheese and meat from Food Mart, so as to make our own sandwiches, which we did on the curb by the van where we ended up chatting with half of Nakusp.
Back on the road, after 4 dozen heart attacks over 6 dozen near-deer hitting’s, we were at Nancy Green Campgrounds near Castlegar.
Amy

May 30, 2006: Pembina River to Banff

Woke up early and found a bakery/cafe near the park that sold supercheap everything, including two fresh pizza buns for $1.30 and the most massive head-sized apple fritters ever. Again, everyone in the place out-aged us by a few decades but at least they were all nice this time.
An hour later we stopped for more coffee and gas, then continued on to Jasper.
Turns out there’s an $18 per car fee to drive into Jasper National Park, which might not have been such a huge deal if the hag working at the gate hadn’t been such a heinous bitch. Because we are understanding Ontarians (and Aussie and Brit) though we paid it without complaint and headed into the park where we immediately saw three mountain goats.
In Jasper we walked around the village, watched it hail for a while, bought some bear spray and bear bells, and got a quick lesson in bear-ology from old John who was working at one of the outdoor stores. We also learned all about his friend Lee -bikingest guy in all of Alberta. There’s not a trail Lee hasn’t ridden -not a forest that Lee hasn’t made his own trail through. Lee even rode his bike smack into the side of a grizzly and lived to tell the tale! As Lee was fumbling for his bear spray that bear took clean off into the woods, whimpering like a cub so let that be a lesson to you. Good ‘ol Lee. I think we’ll all miss him now that we’re in Banff.
Anywhooooo the HI Jasper where we dropped Campbell was awesome because it had three hostel dogs, one of which was a very chilled-out husky with blue eyes and soft ears who let us maul him for a while.
En route to Banff we took some pictures at Athabasca Pass where Mr. Rogers (aka Sean) offered to take some photos for two old guys who were taking turns taking pictures of each other in front of mountains. We also took some shots of a mountain goat PARTY that was happening near the Columbia Icefields.
In Lake Louise we spent about five minutes taking pictures of the lake and laughing at this hilarious bird that was hopping around, as well as at this intense hiker who was using not one, but two titanium walking sticks to traverse the flat, flat ground around in front of the lake.
We got to Banff around 730pm and went straight to Safeway for some food, and the LCBO for some beer. Tuesday was the one night We got to leave the tent in the van because Dave’s friend Colleen was nice enough to let all three of us stink her place up for the night. The night’s activities included the cooking of sausages and vegetables, the opening of chips and beer, the planning of Wednesday’s route and the general avoidance of Banff’s college-town party scene.
Amy

PS -It’s duck hunting season and the feathers are flyin’! Go Oilers Go!

May 29, 2006: Foam Lake to Edmonton Alberta (or home in Halifax?)

Woke up, packed, rolled out in record time, and drove up the highway to the Triple T Family Restaurant where everyone out-aged us by at least five decades. The food was good but the waitress was the kind of child-hating witch-posing-as-spinster-school-marm you only find in kid’s books. She stood on my toe for a good 10 seconds while serving us coffee, looked me straight in the eye to apologize for it, and then continued to stand on my toe while she finished pouring coffee. Foam Lake is, by the way, the Best City IN The World.according to highway highway signs. Maybe someone should tell Triple T to raise the bar a bit cause they’ve clearly been letting things slip since those signs went up.
Next stop -Saskatoon.
On the way we stopped at a weigh station to figure out how much we’re hauling and the grand total was 2550kg. Fatties.
In Saskatoon we stopped at Tim Horton’s, then drove a couple hours to another Tim Horton’s in the Battlefords.
Best thing about that area was, as Sean said, that Jesus is alive and he lives next to Fabricland (see picture below).
We crossed into Alberta around 5pm and we thought they had the most piss-poor of all the provincial markers but you can judge for yourself.
About an hour from Edmonton we saw two moose running through a huge flat field looking prancey and hilarious so we pulled over and added a couple moose shots to our wildlife photo collection.
We also ran into handfuls of FOOL drivers ramming and bamming around the highway in Escalades and other ridiculous SUV-type vehicles. This, combined with the high redneck population, all the cows, the Jesus-freak signage and the guns & ammo stores, led Sean to the conclusion that Alberta is the Texas of Canada.
We made it to Edmonton around 8pm and made for the West Edmonton Mall so we could eat hit up their food court for something other than subs or bagels or Tim Horton’s fare (except Dave who got a sub again because all he eats are bagels and subs, bagels and subs, bagels, bagels, bagels. He says them make him feel like a king?). We looked around a bit, saw some live flamingos standing around in a glass box (weird), got blown away by the insanity of the Mall, then climbed back in the van and drove to Pembina River Provincial Park in Entwhistle. It was after 10pm when we pulled into the site and it was still daylight out so we set up easily and had the last of the beer in honour of Campbell’s last night on the tour.

Amy