Does a bear shit in the woods?
Saturday was a beautiful sunny morning, apparently very rare in Vancouver this time of year. I took this opportunity to head down town to catch the Sea Bus over to the north shore so that I could take the 236 bus to the base of Grouse Mountain. I had been told by Conor (the crazy Irishman) and Rea (my Canadian dancing friend) that when in Vancouver, you must conquer the Grouse Grind. I found out why they call it "Mother Nature's Stairmaster". I took a few photos, but they turned out blurry because I was puffing and panting so much. They don't even come close to displaying how steep the hike actually is. After 61 minutes and 2.9Kms of hiking, my vertical ascent had gained 853 meters. I really wanted to beat the 1 hour mark, but I stopped to take some photos of a friendly squirrel.
The view from the top was breath taking.
I used to think that the above question was rhetorical. Well I'll have you know that a bear does not shit in the woods! There are two orphan Grizzly Bears at the top. Apparently, these two are special because they are the first Grizzly Bears that have been successfully raised in captivity without their mothers. I met a few guys from Perth who are living and working in Vancouver and had a good chat with them. We went over to have a look at the bears and they were pretty inactive. We went up a bit further to see a few white wolves that also live atop the mountain. When we came back down, one of the bears decided to go for a walk. He strolled down and around a little pond in the enclosure, right down in front of about 20 eager on lookers. He then proceeded to take two careful steps backwards towards the pond and dropped the kids off at the pool, if you know what I mean. It was so funny.
There were some amazing wood carvings around as well.
(Josh, Me, Rich)
We decided that we had had enough exercise for one day and took the cable car down the mountain. It was $30 for a return trip, but only $5 for the trip down. An incentive to urge people away from falling head first down the Grind.
I had dinner with Rich and Josh at a Mongolian restaurant in Davies St. $10 all you can eat. Great meal. You choose your meats, veges and sauces and hand them to this guy...
who cooks it up for you. Quite entertaining to watch.
Big day, so I had an early night.
I went for a walk on Sunday morning to find some fruit. The scurvy was taking hold so I thought it was time for a dose of vitamins. When I returned to the hostel, I asked at the front desk whether Ben and Bron had checked in yet. The girl said "Are you Justin from 401? They were just here looking for you." I went up to their room and there they were.
They were a bit hungry, so I took them down to Davies St for some Mongolian. Yum. We wondered around town a bit and got a coffee at a Blenz cafe. There are about 50 Star Bucks cafes in the down town area but we thought we'd be different and try their competitor. They have free wireless internet in their shops which is handy because Ben's laptop has a wireless card. From Ben's room, we can get a signal from the shop across the road. I am sitting in the lounge in the backpacker's though, as they have free cable internet which is lightening quick.
We sorted out our SIN (tax file number) yesterday and tried to get a Canadian drivers license. Unfortunately they won't just give us one as we had hoped. We have to sit a written test and then do a practical test. I still have trouble looking left at intersections so I'm not sure how well I'd go behind the weel. I think If I am going to do the test, I will do it somewhere a little less busy than downtown Vancouver.
Not doing much today. Bus to Whistler tomorrow morning at 8am. Housing interview at 2:30pm. Job interview on Thursday at 9:30am. Everyone at this hostel seems to be heading up to Whistler. It's a bit of a worry. Fingers crossed.
Saturday was a beautiful sunny morning, apparently very rare in Vancouver this time of year. I took this opportunity to head down town to catch the Sea Bus over to the north shore so that I could take the 236 bus to the base of Grouse Mountain. I had been told by Conor (the crazy Irishman) and Rea (my Canadian dancing friend) that when in Vancouver, you must conquer the Grouse Grind. I found out why they call it "Mother Nature's Stairmaster". I took a few photos, but they turned out blurry because I was puffing and panting so much. They don't even come close to displaying how steep the hike actually is. After 61 minutes and 2.9Kms of hiking, my vertical ascent had gained 853 meters. I really wanted to beat the 1 hour mark, but I stopped to take some photos of a friendly squirrel.
The view from the top was breath taking.
I used to think that the above question was rhetorical. Well I'll have you know that a bear does not shit in the woods! There are two orphan Grizzly Bears at the top. Apparently, these two are special because they are the first Grizzly Bears that have been successfully raised in captivity without their mothers. I met a few guys from Perth who are living and working in Vancouver and had a good chat with them. We went over to have a look at the bears and they were pretty inactive. We went up a bit further to see a few white wolves that also live atop the mountain. When we came back down, one of the bears decided to go for a walk. He strolled down and around a little pond in the enclosure, right down in front of about 20 eager on lookers. He then proceeded to take two careful steps backwards towards the pond and dropped the kids off at the pool, if you know what I mean. It was so funny.
There were some amazing wood carvings around as well.
(Josh, Me, Rich)
We decided that we had had enough exercise for one day and took the cable car down the mountain. It was $30 for a return trip, but only $5 for the trip down. An incentive to urge people away from falling head first down the Grind.
I had dinner with Rich and Josh at a Mongolian restaurant in Davies St. $10 all you can eat. Great meal. You choose your meats, veges and sauces and hand them to this guy...
who cooks it up for you. Quite entertaining to watch.
Big day, so I had an early night.
I went for a walk on Sunday morning to find some fruit. The scurvy was taking hold so I thought it was time for a dose of vitamins. When I returned to the hostel, I asked at the front desk whether Ben and Bron had checked in yet. The girl said "Are you Justin from 401? They were just here looking for you." I went up to their room and there they were.
They were a bit hungry, so I took them down to Davies St for some Mongolian. Yum. We wondered around town a bit and got a coffee at a Blenz cafe. There are about 50 Star Bucks cafes in the down town area but we thought we'd be different and try their competitor. They have free wireless internet in their shops which is handy because Ben's laptop has a wireless card. From Ben's room, we can get a signal from the shop across the road. I am sitting in the lounge in the backpacker's though, as they have free cable internet which is lightening quick.
We sorted out our SIN (tax file number) yesterday and tried to get a Canadian drivers license. Unfortunately they won't just give us one as we had hoped. We have to sit a written test and then do a practical test. I still have trouble looking left at intersections so I'm not sure how well I'd go behind the weel. I think If I am going to do the test, I will do it somewhere a little less busy than downtown Vancouver.
Not doing much today. Bus to Whistler tomorrow morning at 8am. Housing interview at 2:30pm. Job interview on Thursday at 9:30am. Everyone at this hostel seems to be heading up to Whistler. It's a bit of a worry. Fingers crossed.
posted by Teddy at
11:28 am
1 Comments:
Interesting hand positions there by The Davies. Looks like Ben in particular is having a nice dream....
Simon.
By
Sci-Man, at 5:21 pm
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