Explore it!

A week ago I woke up in the morning and realized that it’s been 14 months since I moved to Vancouver from Toronto last year. For a moment I stared into the ceiling remembering what I have done to learn about Vancouver, British Columbia the West Coast overall.

I pleasant smile appeared on my face. Good memories of road trips, hikes and discovery of West Coast with friends came back to me. I felt satisfied.

Over the last year, at least partially I was able to capture the natural beauty of British Columbia; its calm mood; its great adventurous outdoors; its mountains with snow peaks and the oceans full of sea life as sea stars visible right from Horseshoe Bay’s pier; harbor seals and sea lions; Orca whales, Humpback whales and Grey whales swimming in the waters of Vancouver Island – all of them within the driving distance from the city where I spent over a year of my life!

British Columbia made a significant impact on my life's outlook. I am passionate about nature. BC allowed me to explore it. I learned a lot. I learned about myself.

I would like to encourage everyone of you to go out there and explore the place you live in, whether it is West or East Coast, Northern Territories or US. And for those living in BC, I would like to encourage to discover the Beautiful British Columbia, the Best Place on Earth (as BC license plates shamelessly point it out to the rest of the world).

Skookumchuk Hot Springs

Skookumchuck - Saint Agnes' Well (Hot Springs) is something I really want to visit in the near future. I've heard the temperature can be regulated to very hot, meaning this place will be worth going even during a light snowfall, as long as the car would be able to take 45 km of logging roads.

The location for the hot springs is East South of Pemberton. It's a close to 3 hours trip via Sea to Sky highway, which is still under construction for 2010 Olympics. I expect it will take at least 9 hours to enjoy the road trip fully, or overnight trip with BBQ, beer and bear spray.

Another hot springs option in the area is Meager Hot springs. That's the one we wanted to reach in March with Alex K. during our cross-country ski trip. The latest BC Forestry Ministry's report from September 12 states that the road to the springs is closed at 37'th km. Even if you pass that point, and cross the first bridge, the second bridge was washed away. There are no plans to rebuild it yet.

There is still hope, as I've heard there are more smaller hot pools past 40'th km, but since I've learned about Skookumchuk's Well, Meager hot springs have been pushed down as a secondary task.

[BC hotsprings]

A four-day trip to California

Wickedest road trip combining good company, new visited places, both natural and urban, three states along the West Coast, 2400+year-old Red Wood tree, Pacific Ocean, National Parks, Stanford, conference, and finally San Francisco. Oh yeah, did I forget two speeding tickets? I blame it all on super nice and powerful Alex's Mazda Speed 3, code 'grey'.

summary:
2 days on the road -
.5 day in Stanford
1.5 days in San Francisco

details to follow