Rosie and The Operator are doing a bit of exploring outside Whistler and will introduce you to the early morning frozen, Lake Joffre, show you the bald eagles basking in the sun riverside in Squamish and let you laugh as we try our hand at the very Canadian sport of axe throwing. Along the way we have stopped and beheld beautiful vistas and photographed amazing reflective lakes. How perfect is Canada? Unbelievably so!
Its early November in Whistler, we awake to bright blue skies, blindingly bright, low sunshine and very cool morning temperatures of -3c that are warming up to about a 6c around midday.
The whole village is talking about the pending ski season which opens on the 25th of November. No one seems to be worried about the lack of the white stuff at the moment…it pretty much falls like clockwork they say, we will definitely open on the 25th they all nod sagely as Rosie peers up at the green mountain with only a light icing sugar dusting on the top.
The beautiful colours of autumn have slowly succumbed to the cold and a couple of short lived storms have blown through and denuded the trees colourful cloaks. Where there was once a riot of mixed colour is now just bare tree branches against a bright blue sky. Oh, the difference a couple of weeks make.
The road we travel to Lake Joffre is surrounded by stunning mountain ranges that surround you on all sides. It is truly spectacular and so hard to get a good photo as the view is huge and epic and well…frustratingly, like most of Canada, just doesn’t fit in Rosie’s camera!
An hour out of Whistler with a gradual, ear popping climb we arrived at the trail head to the Joffre Lakes, which are actually three glacier fed lakes on the mountainside originally named the Lower, Middle and Upper Joffre Lakes. Well, Rosie nailed the Lower Lake trek, it was a doddle, a two minute walk and there we were lakeside with the morning sun blaring in our faces right where Rosie was looking to take her first pic of the day! Drat! The lake surface itself was quite reflective as there was a thin layer of ice covering it and the air temp at this higher altitude was -9!
Rosie and The Operator trekked on, white icy breath pluming from our mouths. The track was nice and easy to walk and the more Rosie walked the more she thawed out, Middle Lake, here we come!
Then about 1.5kms in….the lovely track disappeared and it was replaced with a precarious goat track of boulders, tree roots and washed out clay. At the same time the gradient increased by about 30 degrees and it stretched on steeply inclining for as far as the eye could see.
Rosie threw the towel in and slowly wandered back to the car whilst The Operator forged on to the middle lake undeterred. Without Rosie to worry about he stepped up a gear and raced to his goal…side stepping strange little hairy, hampster like animals that were everywhere and parts of the track that were just covered in treacherous solid ice. That’s solid ice on a steep incline…it was fun he said…especially having to wait, and watch a young Japanese couple in their Sunday best negotiate the path up whilst he was coming down.
Of course The Operator achieved his goal, here is his photo of the beautifully stunning middle lake with the bright bright sun a little higher over head and a hint of that beautiful blue glacier water underneath the frozen surface ice.
The morning fog had lifted across the fields and lakes on our drive back towards Whistler and the views were just as epic in reverse.
We stopped at a random lake that Rosie does not even know the name of….trying not to sound too blasie its just another picture perfect photo stop in a long stream of them in this country. The beauty coupled with the silence, stillness and freshness is quite euphoric and uplifting.
Our next trip outside Whistler was back towards Vanccouver along the Sea to Sky Highway, We were off to Brackenridge to nosy around the banks of the Squamish River and hopefully see some American Bald Eagles.
1300 bald eagles winter here on this riverbank, every year, because it does not freeze and has a ready supply of salmon and fish. There were plenty of strollers riverside this morning and plenty of long, long snouted cameras poised, pointing across the river towards the trees and riverbanks hoping to catch a shot of these mighty birds. It wasn’t hard to spot them, their white heads made them a bit of a target and the treeline was full of regally perched birds watching us watching them.
Now and then a lone bird would fly off or fly in and all the cameras moved in unison to capture these birds on the wing, and a mighty one it is with a wingspan averaging 2.3 meters and their body weight up to 6 kg, they are big birds! But to Rosie, they looked frustratingly tiny from so far away and her iPhone camera as they flew low across the river was soooooooo not up to the task of capturing these majestic birds.
Rosie, shamed The Operator by walking up to one of the intrepid photographers with the biggest lens Rosie had ever seen and asking to have a look at the photos he had taken. He was not humble, he scrolled through and showed me all of his amazing pictures and they were incredible! Then, to make The Operator cringe further Rosie asked if she could take a photograph of the screen of his camera as she didn’t have a good photo to take home….OK, my photo below of a photo on a camera screen is rubbish….but there is a mighty eagle there.
We had a spot of lunch riverside and enjoyed the cool, still morning as it turned into the afternoon. The eagles were fun to watch and a couple even came down to the riverside to frolic in the water and then spread their wings to dry in the winter sun whilst they stood beak to beak. Rosie didnt even try to take a lame photo, but she should have gone back to her new friend…he would have taken some good ones. A couple of seals joined in the party, frolicking in the river and it was a truly magical lunch stop.
Followed, by an equally fun stop at Walmart on the way home…it has to be done, we had fun trying on the Christmas jumpers and jerseys but alas, this is a Canadian Walmart, everyone in this country is way too normal and there were sadly no Walmart crazy’s in this town….wait till we hit America, Rosie will be back.
Rosie has been getting emails for the last few months from a man in Whistler called James…ok, let me rephrase that. Whilst in New Zealand Rosie has stumbled on a guy in Whistler called James and has subscribed to his website. He sends me, direct to my inbox, weekly emails on Whistler with the best insider tips on where to go and what to see and do whilst staying here. It is a treasure trove of local information which has been very useful for what to see and do in and around the town and on the mountain. If you are planning to visit Whistler, hook up with James, his local knowledge is gold.
James is also an owner of Forged Axe and this is where I subscribed to his emails from. Forged Axe is a super cool venue where you go to, well, as the name says, throw axes. Having felt she knew James personally through our regular one way correspondence, Rosie had to visit, throw some steel and meet James. Well, like all modern business owners, he had the day off when we swung by, but, Rosie and The Operator had a great time being taught how to throw axes and Rosie even sunk a few into the target now and then. The Operator got his lumberjack on from the first throw and was just as impressive as always in competitive sports and Rosie was just happy she came away with all her fingers in tack. Give it a go, it is super fun!
Rosie even posed with the business house axe throwing trophy to talk up her skills, you know, as you do.
Whilst in Whistler, Rosie celebrated another birthday and was super lucky to have The Operator arrive back two days before the date so he could celebrate it with me at the best Whistler restaurants all on their discounted Fall/Autumn rates! It was a great night out and the perfect way to wrap up Rosie’s time in Whistler, Canada.
As Rosie cannot say enough, if you are planning a trip to Vancouver, Whistler is only a one and a half hour drive, or bus trip, up one of the most beautiful highways in the world and you will be blown away by what this small village and big mountain has to offer, fit it into your itinerary, you will not be disappointed!
Tomorrow we fly from Vancouver to Portland and do a small but scenic roadie from Portland, through Oregon wine country to a silvery lake with the volcano of Mt St Helens looming over it and finish in the Emerald City of Seattle. A city high up on Rosie’s bucket list that is finally being ticked off. We cannot wait, bye bye Whistler, it was great, but time to move on.
