Tag Archives: travel

Lost Lake

Lost Lake is a within walking distance of the center of Whistler. The trail from the town takes you along the river. Once you get to the lake you can take a walk around the perimeter. There is a beach area that is at one end of the lake that was a popular spot that day. (You can park there if you don’t feel like a walk from the town.) While the temperatures were not that high, a couple of people were even making use of the clear skies to do some sunbathing!

We too an alternate route around one side of the lake. A trail was named the Upper Panorama Trail so we took it. I think we were justified in assuming that this route would give us an elevated view of the lake. I’m not sure if there were spots that you could see the lake if you went off the trail but, from the trail itself, we were deep in the trees the entire time. There was no view of the lake from up there. It was a good walk though and an opportunity to walk off some of the bakery goods we had been sampling!

Deception Falls

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We almost missed Deception Falls. I had put it in to the GPS when we headed across US2 over the Cascades but the GPS had picked up on the place I marked and decided an alternate road would get us close. It did but on the wrong side of the road and that had a benefit we hadn’t anticipated which will be the subject of a separate post. However, we had missed the falls and we continued on our way east.

When we made the return trip, as we got closer to the spot I had marked, we realized it was coming up and started to debate whether to stop or whether we were happy to continue home. We debated for a while over this but, as we got closer, the sign came up for Deception Falls and, since we were there already, why not just stop. Thank goodness we did. The falls are really cool and they are right next to the road. The level of effort is virtually zero for a great result.

The falls run under a bridge which you can cross but, aside from looking upstream and down from the bridge, it is worth looking through your feet. The surface of the bridge is metal grate which allows you to watch the water tumbling beneath your feet. On the other side, you can walk along a path that runs up alongside the flowing water. You are so close to the water, you feel like you are almost in it.

Steps take you up to nearer the top of the falls where you can watch the water crashing down over the rocks. All of this is just a few steps from the parking lot. It is very impressive (and rather popular) so definitely worth the time. We came away wondering how easily we could have bypassed this location and what we would have missed if we had done so.

Whistler

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I have put together some posts of things we saw during our Whistler trip but not much of the town itself. It is a nice place to hang out. Like a lot of these winter sports resort towns, the center is predominantly restaurants/bars or places to buy clothing/sport gear. However, it isn’t a bad place despite that. The streets are laid out so nothing is too straight which means you feel like you are wandering around an old place, even if it is all relatively recently built.

There are water features and bridges, open spaces, sculptures and other forms of art. No shortage of people, too, even in the shoulder season when we were there. We found so great places to eat and some less inspiring ones. We actually went to a chain place one evening and it proved to be better than some of the supposedly nicer spots. Our favorite by far, though, was a bakery that had every conceivable thing you could want. They even had a cheese sandwich for toasting that looked like it would feed a family of four. We tried many of their treats but that one was left untouched, despite me giving it some serious consideration.

Unnamed Waterfall

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I took a wrong turning as we went over Stevens Pass and, instead of going where I had intended, we took a back road which was probably once the main road across the mountains. It twisted through the woods, never getting too far from the current highway, but being far more enclosed and far narrower. Fortunately, not much traffic was coming the other way, so it was easy enough to navigate. We crossed a small bridge which was over some falls. I can’t be sure but, judging by the map, the water seemed to be called Martin Creek so maybe the falls are of the same name?

Green Lake

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Just outside the center of Whistler is Green Lake. We took a trip out there because I was interested in seeing the floatplane base there. It was also a cool place to have a stroll. There is a golf course alongside the lake which was designed by Jack Nicklaus. Alongside the course are some large houses which I suspect are not too cheap. The lake itself had a nice beach area where the river was running in to it. A bunch of people had come here with their dogs and the dogs seemed happy getting in the water.

The color of the water was a bit odd and so the name is not hard to understand. I actually thought it looked more cloudy than green but I doubt anyone cares to much about the distinction. I thought there might be a difference in color where the river was flowing into the lake but I couldn’t see it. Maybe an aerial view would show a difference where the water was flowing in but I wasn’t flying that day.

Index Road Bridge

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I mentioned the bridge in Index in a previous post and I thought it deserved its own post. The bridge is relatively new having been built in the late 1990s. The road to the town in on one side of the river and the town is on the other so the bridge is pretty important! There is a rail bridge too, but the road is the way for most people since the trains don’t stop anymore.

It is an arch structure. The roadbed is suspended from the arch by a selection of cables. These come down in pairs from the arch and into the bed of the bridge. The structure is steel and, whether it was assembled on site or elsewhere, you can clearly see how the sections were assembled with the bolts through plates at each of the joints.

The arch shape is attractive and the symmetry of the bridge when viewed from the end is also very nice. Because the area is not too busy, they have not cluttered things up with too much fencing to segregate the pedestrians from the traffic so the whole thing has a simple look to it. A nice job by some engineers!

Storm Brian Means Time to Windsurf

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My trip to the Island was in the middle of Storm Brian. It was lashing some parts of the country and the western end of the Island was apparently getting some serious wind but the east side was enjoying a bit of shelter. That didn’t mean there wasn’t still some strong wind and a decent amount of wave action. What better time for someone to go windsurfing? Actually, several people were windsurfing. One of them was close to where I was standing on the shore and, as he went out, he was running against the waves but with the wind behind him. I was hoping for some big jumps off the waves but, while there were jumps, they were not too big. He was certainly braver than I would have been though!

Lost Lake PassivHaus

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On one of our hikes while in Whistler, we came across the Lost Lake PassivHaus. This building was the home of the Austrian Olympic Team during the Winter Games. After the games were over, it was converted for new uses. The interesting thing about the house is that it is designed to have minimal requirements for energy with no heating and cooling. It is aimed at using 90% less energy than a normal building courtesy of building techniques and materials. It sits at the entry to some trails so a lot of people get to see it. I am curious as to how many people stop to read its details.

Red Funnel’s Finest

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If you want to get to the mainland from the Cowes area, Red Funnel are your main option. They have two services to Southampton. The car ferry operates from East Cowes while a fast catamaran provides a passenger only service from West Cowes. Both types of ferry came by while I was on the seafront. The car ferry headed out while the cat waited outside the harbor. I guess the strong winds meant they were looking for a bit more space. Once the ferry was gone, the cat came in to the harbor.

Pemberton Community Barn

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A short drive north of Whistler brings you to a town called Pemberton. It is a little town and right in the center is a public barn structure. It is a modern structure and it has been built to provide a venue for the community to use. It has open sides so anyone can walk in from any direction. An event was being set up while we were there. It looked like it might have been a wedding. The wooden structure is very attractive and it appears that it gets a lot of use. What a great focus for the community.