September 7^th, 2001

This morning welcomes us with deep temperatures, frost covers tents and lawn. We have a quick breakfast and rush to Williams Lake, where we bring the van to Canadian Tire to let exchange one of the U-joints of the driving shaft. In addition we spend the van a new distributor cap.

As we get started again around noon we keep following the road towards Lilloet. Lilloet is a small town which has a German bakery where we buy fresh bread, plum pie, poppy seed cake, fresh brezzels and German chocolate for about $27 ;-))

After we are filled up we set our camp at a nice campground at the Seon water reservoir. To stay here is for free, paid by B.C. Hydro. In the afternoon and evening we clean up the van, do some repairs on our gear and bikes, take care of our blisters, call home and take pictures of the starry sky (where none of them turned out good :-((

September 8^th, 2001

In the morning visit that bakery another time an spend another $25. Back on the campground we can watch 5 mountain goats climbing high above us along the steep mountain slope. Before we leave the place we go for a stroll to see salmon spawning places and the waterfall out of "Rambo", but we can't find those places.

Around noon we follow the road through an amazing mountain scenery and reach Whistler in the early afternoon. Whistler is THE tourist place to go (it seems ;-)). Here are just too many people. Exactly on Sunday we come here, when all the fancy people from Vancouver are here :-((

These pictures were taken some days later and don't show haw crazily packed the town was. The village itself is made up really nice and does show a lot of European influence in style. But, no wonder, whole Whistler wasn't there until the 80s, when someone bought 2 mountains and began offer ski trips. We fill up our food supplies and head on southbound, where we get to the Garibaldi National Park 30 km outside of Whistler.

here we plan to stay for three nights and so we start packing our stuff on the crowded parking lot.

Shortly later we are on our way up and hope, that not all of the people want to stay overnight. During the 2 hours it takes us to get to the Taylor Meadows campground (7,5 km, 800 m in elevation) we meet many people on their way down. Some of them really wear sneakers or even fancy sandals. Just before we reach the campground we have our first look on Black Tusk, our aim for tomorrow.

By the time we get to the campground dusk has already started, there is just enough time to set up our tents and prepare supper (sunset 7:41pm). After eating we head for our sleeping bags as - without sun - it is getting cool quickly.

September 9^th, 2001

Around 8:30am we get up and have a delicious breakfast. Equipped with daypacks we start walking towards the Black Tusk. Another 800 meter in elevation have to be covered- We have fantastic sunshine and the mountain slopes look like from a model railway ;-))

After 2 hours we take our lunch break just below the black basaltic cinder cone. From here a narrow chimney leads up to the summit on 2315 meters. This part is rather demanding and technically difficult. A lot of people climb it in sneakers or worse shows and most of them just don't care about rocks they loosen while stepping up. It's no wonder so many accidents happen up here.

As we are finish with lunch we go for those last meters as well. The view from the top is just eye-popping, we stand there in silence and enjoy ;-))

Some time later we have seen enough and head back towards the camp. The steep fields of rubble we climbed up here are a lot of fun to rush down. In about 1,5 hours we are back and - as we have nothing else to do - take a shower, read a bit, enjoy the sunshine.

In the evening we have some more delicious food for supper and not much later we crawl into our sleeping bags again. A youth group of about 40 people just arrived and so we find any sleep until some hours later ;-))

September 10^th, 2001

The sun shines as we have breakfast this morning. We pack our gear and hike on to Garibaldi Lake which we have seen from the Black Tusk yesterday already. Here we set camp and relax in the sun.

A bit later we sit a the lake shore a have lunch. The view from here is just gorgeous, the green, silt-laden water reflect the shape of the Sphinx glacier.

Some time later we decide to go for a little hike in the afternoon and so we climb up some remaining snow fields to the Panorama Ridge, which is honours its name.

On our way back we slide down the snow fields and have a lot of fun. As we get back to the camp the sit down and prepare our last supper up here. The sun illuminates Sphinx glacier as we sit and eat, watching the unreal scene.

Soon after it gets dark and cold, since a few days there was non without freezing temperatures and frost in the morning.

September 11^th, 2001

We only have a quick breakfast in the morning and after 2 hours we are back at our van. On our way back to Whistler we stop at a phone booth from were Bine wants to call Rob and Susanne in Vancouver about here flight to Toronto. While Sabine is a the phone, Peter, Simon and I go for a swim in the nearby river.

As Sabine comes back she is pretty upset and tells us about the terror attacks in the U.S.. We are shaken and can't believe that that really happened. We get into the van an switch on CBC, and try to call our friends and family to let them know, we're all right. Sabine's flight is cancelled of course and so we drive back to Whistler where we watch the CNN news. The mood is depressing and everything seems to be somehow unreal, as if time has stopped. Like remotely controlled we do some necessary stuff like laundry or groceries. In the evening we drive back to the Brandywine campground were we sit in the van an listen to the radio until deep in the night. In the middle of the night - I am asleep already - I wake up from a nearing train. The noise gets louder and louder and as it passes the campground it is as if it would rush directly through our tent. I feel I am all in, but fall asleep later.

September 12^th, 2001

In the early morning ours we drive back to Whistler again and drop off Bine at the bus station. The inner-Canadian flights are supposed to be back to normal today and Bine still wants to fly to Ontario to visit Rob.

Simon, Peter and I pack our daypacks and get onto our mountain bikes to bike to Rainbow Lake. After 25 km of streets and gravel roads we get to the Rainbow Trail, which was recommended to us by the tourist information in Whistler.

At first the single trail is really nice, but bets muddy soon. Just a little later it is not bankable anymore at all. Fist we thinks it is just a little part, where we have to carry our bikes but the trail gets worse. Even if recommend just for hiking the trail should be marked a tough and strenuous. With a bike on your back it's just a pain in the a... The landscape is really great, but we can only curse the tourist information. After 15 km (!) we finally get to Rainbow Lake, where we have our lunch break.

After we feel fit enough to bike on we look forward to the downhill on the other side of the saddle. But we just can't. Another 5 km we have to carry our bikes. To bike here would be definitely bad for both - us and nature.

Here biking should be forbidden! Finally we can use our bikes and have at least a bit of fun. As we are almost down in the valley, we pass a sign that strictly makes clear that biking is prohibited on this trail. GREAT!!! We are angry and plan to pay another visit to the tourist information the next day. After 60 km we get into Whistler in the late afternoon and meet Bine (the flight was cancelled again for today). Tired we set our camp at the Brandywine Falls again and fall into our sleeping bags.

September 13^th, 2001

Simon brings Bine to the bus station again, today the airporter is operating again. Afterwards we drive to the tourist info and make them promise to take care of that stupid problem. After some more laundry and e-mails we head south on a beautiful coast highway.

We stop shortly at the Shannon Falls and go on towards Vancouver. In Burnaby we do groceries and I drop off my 24 film rolls. With wine and delicious cheese we go to Elisabeth, a friend of Simons family, who invites us to stay in her house for some days.

September 14^th, 2001

After a short breakfast we walk to the next bus stop. By bus and Skyline train we get to Gastown and take a walk across the downtown peninsula of Vancouver. By elevator we get onto the Harbour Center tower from where we have a great view on the ocean of little houses all around.

On our way along the shopping mile we stop at Ho-Ho's, a great and cheap Chinese fast food restaurant, which was recommend by Vroni (Thanks!). Nearby at the English Bay we take a break and relax.

Before we head back all of us buy a huge cone of ice cream. In the early evening we get onto the Harbour Tower again and watch a fantastic sunset.

September 15^th, 2001

In the morning we store our bikes at Elisabeth's place and go downtown once more. We shop at the MEC and organize two big cartons to wrap up Simons and Peters bike for their flight back. Around noon we have another lunch at Ho-Ho's and visit the Stanley Park afterwards.

With the view on the skyline of Vancouver we say good-bye to the city and head towards Tsawassen, where we want to catch the ferry to Vancouver Island...