Ducking out the back way

Our visit to Whistler ended today, and it was a bit complicated because no one told us about the Vancouver to Whistler bike race today, or what that might mean for people who wanted to got the other direction! Mountain and ocean views are wonderful, but traffic jams suck. So a new plan was devised, exit Whistler to the north, via Pemberton! The drive east up over the mountains was wonderfully scenic, except for the Yellow Arrow bus leading the way. The route is typical of low volume mountain roads, lots of tight turns, up and down, twisting and turning, from the pass following the Duffy Lake road down to the Fraser River valley, then more or less south, twisting and turning along river vallley route. It was very scenic and a fun drive, except for a bit of car sickness from one who doesn't take well to the previous mountain road features. This was not a route for people in a hurry, and it took a couple of hours longer than the regular route being used by the bike race, but driving in the rural Canadian mountains was much better than sitting in a traffic jam. Why waste a couple of hours watching people pedal uphill?  Oh, the day before our bicycle ride was taken on standard person-powered machines so nothing interesting to report on e-bicycles, other than standard bikes will never get TPP to give up his BikeE. Drat. Border crossing took 45 mins. with the usual snotty border agent attitude treating his bosses, citizens of the USA, badly. Grilled a salmon for din-dins.

Dear Flat-landers

Hello, flat-landers. TPP here in British Columbia, Whistler to be exact. The weather has taken a turn to the sunny side, and right now it's hard to say how much sunshine, clear air, alpine hiking, and mountains a man (or woman) can take. It has been quite awhile since the Phactors were hiking in a high alpine zone, and then it was the Swiss Alps. There are a lot of handsome views, including this one, but they do get so mountainous. Unfortunately this time of year the alpine flora is done flowering but fall color is in fine form. Still some of the scenery is just great. You just can't see something like this in the upper midwest except maybe the the NW most corner of Lincolnland (joking). Sooner or later, our return to the maize and soybean desert will have to occur, but at this point, even though resorty things are now closing down until the snow begins to fall, our departure will not be rushed. The F1 reports that the home area has cooled off and some rain has provided relief to our late summer drought. Maybe it will be safe to return, but not until all the Whiskey Jack (nickname of gray jays) beer is gone. 

Whistler sunshine

Labor day here in the Great White North was pretty much what you would expect in a touristy area at the end of the summer; it was packed with humanity from many different countries. So Tuesday has dawned with considerably fewer people around, and almost no kids (schools reopened!). There is a low overcast and some Whistler sunshine dripping down. The maple trees are showing the first stages of fall. A walk among the arbor-vitae and Douglas firs revealed spring and summer leftovers: Goodyera orchids, pipsisiwa, single-flowered Clintonia, twisted stalk, and some huge Amanita muscari mushrooms. At any rate with high temperatures in the 90s at home, this is wonderful relief. That's all the mountain you can see from our bedroom today; it's snowing way up on top.

Toto, I don't think we're in Lincolnland any more.

Uh oh! Something suggests that this isn't Lincolnland any more!  What are the clues?  Well, there's spruce and arbor vitae trees every where. There's mountains and unless TPP is mistaken, that's snow up there! Dang! If the F1 reads this, the temperature right now is probably 30 F lower than in Lincolnland. OK, another sip of that cocktail has helped clear TPP's analytical skills. The trusty blogging laptop further suggests that not only is this not the upper midwest, but it's a lot further west and a lot higher in altitude. Actually some friends have abducted us to a place north of the border and landed us in a humble place called Whistler, British Columbia. So more to come as the Phactors discover this what this particular place has to offer this time of year. So far there's a lot of spandex and nylon, so how the Phactors will fit in remains quite unknown. Oh, TPP has been informed that this is something called a vacation, and this comes without any explanation of its relevance to a retired academic.