Cruising – Vancouver Canada to Seward Alaska on the inside passage

 

May 20-27th

Mum wanted to do a cruise up to Alaska and as it costs the same for one person as it does for 2 I jumped on board.  A nice way for us to spend more time together, plus of all the places to cruise I’ve heard this is one of the best in the world as most of the ports are only accessible by plane or ship.   Our ship the celebrity millennium was huge and as expected mostly filled with the older generation but as always I make the best of the situation by having fun regardless.

We left Vancouver in clear blue skies with the sun shining, narrowly passing under the lions gate bridge and finally out to sea.  Our first day was a sea day so we just relaxed and looked around the huge ship, enjoying the luxury of spas (or whirlpools as known in USA).

  Our first port of call was Ketchikan, cloudy skies but no rain I went on a 3 hour kayaking trip.  As they only offered 2 person kayaks and of course I was on my own, I got teamed up with the only other single person an Indian father here with his 2 grown adult children. He had never kayaked before but was happy to learn, so I sat in the back to steer and attempted to teach him at least the basics.  He got tired pretty quickly but it meant I got a good workout paddling us both around.  We spotted eagles and seals, quite an easy kayak trip but still fun.  Thanks Andrew, Sarah and Ethan for my birthday present :-)  I was lucky I met 2 lovely girls Gemma and Charlie traveling together who were my age, so I was able to hang out with them a bit which was a nice change.

The next day we called into Icy Straight Point where we did our own thing for the day.  We hiked through a lovely forest area then walked into the small laidback town.  We were so lucky to see 2 big Eagles sitting proudly in a tree, the closest we had been to this giant bird yet.  A great chance for some photography.  Spotting whales on board the ship too, happily cruising their way along.

  Juneau was another port, a really lovely place.  Mum and I caught a shuttle bus to the Mendenhall Glacier.  It was so spectacular surrounded by mountains and big chunks of ice floating along.  I longed to be out kayaking amongst it but alas hadn’t found anywhere to organise it through last minute.  Still mum and I went on a short hike to a lovely waterfall and got as close as we could without having my mountaineering gear.

At Skagway I went rock climbing, my first outdoor session for the season who’d have thought it would be in Alaska!  There were only 6 in our group but as it was all top roping I was able to jump on the hardest routes, nice sticky rock with views of the mountains around with a 70m rappel to finish.  My arms have not been training and well lets just say I felt them the next day :-)

Our final fun day on board was spent out to sea, but with an early cold start.  We were all allowed out on the helicopter pad to watch as our ship ploughed through the icy chunks towards the Hubbard Glacier.  Most cruise ships don’t come through here but we were lucky even more so with absolutely clear fine weather.  So despite having to jog on the spot and do star jumps to keep warm it was worth every second.  We could clearly see Mt St Elias and also Mt Logan (Canada’s highest mountain)

Our Ship the icebreaker - plowing towards the glacier

Hubbard Glacier

Though I ate far too much this week, the food was great, I managed to do many laps of the ship on the outdoor running track.  We had a couple of formal nights so I got myself all dressed up and had a cocktail to celebrate.  The time spent with mum has been special, and memories to last us both a lifetime.  

 

 

Off the sea, having gained my sea legs, its road tripping next as I get to drive on the right side of the road 230miles or 4.5 hours to Denali National Park, hoping to see beautiful Mt McKinley.........

Vancouver local hikes – a never-ending discovery of natural beauty

11^th-20^th May 2011

Since returning from Utah I’ve been out and about meeting new people and doing the things that I love.  I managed to hike up the BCMC twice which takes us to the top of the Grouse  Mountain and the grizzly bears have just come out of hibernation.  Also the albino wolves were a highlight as well.

I joined a group called Wanderrung and answered a call out for Panorama ridge in the Garibaldi area.  I had been up here in September last year with my friend Greg but camping overnight by the lake, but as it’s a late spring with lots of fresh snow to do it up and back in one day (32km plus altitude gain) is a big task.  We drove to the car park and left at midnight, just the 3 of us I had not met either of the other 2 before.  It quickly became apparent that the organiser was a very fast hiker who didn’t care if he left you behind and the other lady was a very very inexperienced hiker who was way out of her depth. Lots of lesson learned, we didn't make it to the top this time and I will always find out the experience level of people attending before setting out on a difficult hike again.  Still a good day out just not as anticipated.

 While living in Whistler I had read and heard about Elfin lakes a beautiful winter and summer hiking destination and on a Saturday I was able to join a meet up group to snowshoe out to 2 huts, on a slightly overcast day but with very little rain its an easy to follow track with the beauty of the surrounding mountains either side, happy smiles and a great group of guys. Yup I was the only girl but not afraid of rain or snow it was great to get out in the snow and mountains. My 4^th time on snow shoes, it would be a great first place for me to try out ski touring next year when I invest in my new setup.

My final hike before leaving Vancouver with mum was out to the Chief in Squamish.  I had hiked the chief about 3 or so years ago with friends Michelle and Ben but just to peak one and in yucky weather.  Today was a blue bird day and a group of 10 of us hiked peaks 1 and 2 enjoying the fun little via ferrata setup between the 2 peaks.  The views around were gorgeous and lying in the sun eating lunch on the top of a mountain is pretty special.  A good group of people who mostly hike during the week due to their occupations.

via ferrata chief peak 1 to 2

Mum arrives to Vancouver

7^th-19^th May 2011

After getting back from my East Canada and Utah travels, I have mum’s visit to look forward to.  Our first mothers day together in more years than I can remember, it was mum’s suggestion we hire some bikes and ride around Stanley Park (not bad for someone in her 60’s who thinks she hasn’t cycled a bike in over 20 years).  A nice touch was they were giving out free roses to all the mothers in the park.  

 Playing tourist guide with mum, we spent a day at Capilano suspension bridge (unfortunately its so touristy and hyped up definitely not worth the cost if anyone is thinking of going when they visit but good to know for future reference). I also showed her Deep Cove a beautiful cove area close to where I used to live, where I had previously spent a 2 night kayaking adventure and famous for its honey glazed doughnuts yum yum!

Mum headed to Vancouver Island on her own and then we both spent a long weekend in Whistler.  Unfortunately the weather hasn’t bee so kind for her first week here, it pretty much rained most of the time in Whistler but I still got her to the top of the gondola for some photos and views of the mountains and her mothers day present was a day at the Scandinavian Spa, a time for her to relax and unwind on her so far busy holiday.  I got one day of skiing in but with the alpine closed, it raining and low visibility it was more just training and practise and to remind myself I can still ski! Ha ha

Our next big adventure together is heading on board the celebrity millennium cruise ship cruising the inside passage from Vancouver to Seaward Alaska.   It is an absolutely massive ship as they say in the movie Australia I’m boarding a “big bloody metal ship” ha ha! Stay tuned for the highlights from what I’ve been told is a fantastic and beautiful trip.

WWOOFing What an experience

24th April - 4th May 2011

I spent 9 fantastic days on a Ranch/vineyard in Monticello Utah.  What is WWOOFing I hear you ask, it stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms, well check out this link for information on the WWOOFing farm i stayed at
http://www.montezumacanyonranch.com
The place is completely off the grid which means they rely on solar power and a back up generator, a great experience thinking about limiting shower times, limited washing (and should be no using the drier) and just thinking about how much you have the lights on and electricity in a big house. As we drove in we found his neighbors have their houses built into the rock effectively in caves it was an awesome sight to see, most of them also off the grid.

There were 7 of us (Renee, Carissa, Joey, Lee, Rose, Greg and I) plus Danny the host (a 24 year old film major from Santa Barbara come vineyard and ranch owner) all but one there on their first WWOOFing experience. The first few days I learned about and planted tress to prevent erosion as this is in a canyon erosion is a serious threat, pruned the orchard tress and general maintenance and clean up duties for the ranch.

Driving the Mule - I got to and yes i was on the right side of the road :-)

By night we all ate and drank (well except me as I was unable to drink the free beer PVR think me and wheat = don't mix)  As you can imagine cooking for 8 is a fun and interesting task with many yummy choices including Racklette (self melting cheese on baked potatoes), home made pizzas, enchiladas, home baked brownies, chocolate chip cookies and home made granola to mention a few.  Everyone was really good about pitching in with either the cooking or cleaning up and as Danny's pantry is enormous and full of food there was an endless supply to keep us going.

The vines were already set up for the season so we didn't get as much hands on there as I'd hoped (and the harvest season is in September a place and time to return to), the next task was to get the WWOOFers cabin built.  It was at the stage of just the wood foundations in place since last season, Greg and Joey worked on the electrics and once that was ready we all went over and insulated and then dry walled the place.  I learned loads (expanded my knowledge on insulation after having done it with Lee in our van and yes it is a super itchy job I wouldn't want as a career) did lots of drilling, measuring, cutting and above all team work and hard work to get it progressed well.  I would love to come back and sleep in it one day, though I've nicknamed it the crooked WWOOFers house (it will sleep 8 WWOOFers once complete) note to self I'd love to help build a small house or cabin with someone one day and know now how important it is to get the foundations completely straight as this impacted on every step after this.

After "work" we would relax, and then party. Danny let everyone shoot his guns at the clay targets (I watched but didn't partake just a personal issue I have after thoughts of my Dad and his guns etc etc).  I would run almost every morning with Greg and increased my fitness and then yoga to help loosen the muscles after a hard day of labour.  We get the weekends off and Renaes friends were all camping near Moab so we all headed there and made a tent city, enjoying a fun night keeping warm by the fire, lots of drinks and food and new friends.  Again the wind in the dirt of a canyon was horrible, everyone and everything was completely covered in red dust you couldn't even open your mouth without getting a dirt mouth full ha ha!

Greg had found a mountain he wanted to climb before I arrived and we could see it the whole approach to Monticello it was Mount Peale and looked beautiful. http://www.summitpost.org/mt-peale/150468
We couldn't find much information for winter ascents and the avalanche advisory board for the area had closed (thanks so much for that lack of help)!

Early Saturday morning (4am) we drove to the approach road to find it became impassable, though he had snow chains was reluctant to use them when the tracks had run out as we were the only 4wd out there.  Effectively this impassable road ended our chance of summiting as it rises quite a way and we would have had to add this time as extra hiking time and a massive amount of elevation gain to our already expected long day. Perhaps if we'd camped there over night we'd have had a chance. Not to worry we drove a nice scenic drive then found a snow shoe trail out to a lake and just explored, coming across lots of very fresh bear footprints, "Hello Bear" we called to hopefully keep it away. Then we headed to Moab to meet the rest of the crew.

The day before I left Danny gave us a tour of the vineyard and the cave in which he hopes to keep expanding to store the wine he is making plus lots of big plans and ideas he has as a creative young guy. Currently as the grapes are only 3 years old they are sold and made into wine else where but he does make his own for family and friends, including using a hand powered crusher for the grapes.  The whole vineyard/ranch has a magical feeling about it, yes we work hard while we are at work but with a great bunch of people, the opportunity to learn new manual labour skills and being situated in a deep canyon in Utah it was an experience I'll never forget.  Thanks to Danny for allowing me to contribute as a last minute WWOOFer and I'll love to return again one day :-)

Back to Vancouver as mum arrives in just 3 days