Wed, Sept 26 – Squamish – Vancouver

In the morning, quick shower (many cob webs on the wooden ceiling) and off to our last full camper day. There is a lot of construction work on Highway 99 as the winter games 2010 approach. The Sea to Sky Highway will be expanded to feature three to four lanes. A massive project as the engineers have to blast off part of the mountain and/or create a road where there is nothing but cliffs. Kudos! Once the work will be finished Hwy 99 should be even more enjoyable to ride, much safer but certainly not less spectacular. By then, federal and provincial governments will have spent about 600 million Canadian Dollars for these improvements.
Our first stop on the road was only a couple of kilometers further south at Porteau Cove Provincial Park RV site. This was our first option to overnight but we read that there would be a lot of noise due to roadside constructions (the campground is basically off the highway and the railway). We cannot tell whether it had been very noisy because roadside construction seemed to have reached another level and it didn’t look like they were still blasting off part of the mountains. A quaint little site overlooking Howe Sound.
Our first destination before entering Vancouver was Cypress Mountain Provincial Park. We wanted to go for a hike and also see how the construction for the Winter Olympics proceeded. The drive up was said to be spectacular for its wonderful views of Vancouver and its surroundings. Unfortunately, we drove into fog but on top of Cypress at the parking lot it cleared. We decided to be easy on us and followed Yew Lake Loop (also wheelchair accessible), a loop of about 2 km that partly leads through old growth forest. We also hiked part of the Baden Powell trail to the first viewpoint but lost the signs and found our own way back to the parking lot. Seeing the construction work, left us with mixed feelings as did Sea to Sky Highway. Another impact on the environment, yet understanding for growth and expansion...
Next stop was Vancouver’s Grouse Mountain. The gondola was built by a Swiss company and can carry up to 100 persons to the top of the mountain within 8 minutes. Very smooth ride, yet no view during the ride up. Again it blew off once we arrived on the mountain. The ticket (27,- CAD p.p.) includes a rather loud Lumberjack show (fills you in all the details of the logging industry and forestry) – don’t think chainsaws, it was loud due to the female presenter and amplifier), the Theatre in the Sky (a movie on nature) and the Grizzly Bear Habitat. The two grizzly bears are orphans (one found in the Bella Coola area in 2001, the other near Kamloops, forgot which year it was, think it was one or two later). Very impressive animals and we are happy to have seen our „wild“ bear long distance. That reminds me of our animal count and numbers in general: this brings up our bear views to 5; we are about 400 km above our mileage limit and took over 2000 pictures so far. We broke two glasses and one window. Fueled up around 450 litres of Diesel (that’s only a guess). While writing this, I have to increase the number of glasses to 3...
Our last sightseeing stop for the day was Capilano Suspension Bridge and Treetop Adventure. The suspension bridge spans the Capilano River for about 140 metres (they say two Boeings 747 could pass the canyon flying wingtip to wingtip), is 70 meters deep and leads to an old growth forest with displays and explanations as well as several suspension bridges set up between the trees. It did not top Whistler and the Ziptrek Tour but if one is on a business trip with no time to go anyplace else, the treetop adventure provides a great overview on what to expect in BC forests.
Final destination today was Capilano RV Park. Took us about 3 hours to get packed and clean out a bit. You definitely hear that you are back in the big city – amplified by the plastic garbage bag covered window.