14th June: Squamish to Pemberton
Odometer: 89 km, Start: 9am, Finish: 3.30pm, Avg: 17.5 km/h,
Weather: Sunny am, cloudy pm, Temp: 12-18°C
Bear count: 2, Mosquito Bites: 1, Hills walked: 0
Road Conditions: 1-2m shoulder on #99. Good surface to Whistler, but deteriorates after with a lot of cracking and tar-patching. Fine on wide tyres, though. Traffic reasonably light.
After checking with a local motorcyclist, I discovered there’s no services on the road until Whistler, so I had a large pancake complete with apples, melon, maple syrup and sugar at a cafe near my camp site. The pancake was huge and just a little bit bigger than my stomach. Then I repeated yesterday’s trick of starting up a great big hill.
Today was mostly about climbing up to Whistler, the skiing village that co-hosted the recent Winter Olympic Games. I managed to climb 900m in 55km in a series of 7-8% rises and disheartening smaller falls.
I visited a dramatic waterfall called Brandywine Falls at about half way. The viewing platform had a 200m vertical drop just beyond the guard-rail which gave me vertigo. Luckily, my camera has anti-shake!
I had a walk around Whistler Village and took in some calories. A large monarch butterfly flittered around the small rock terrace where I was eating my lunches. I got quite a few pictures close up, following it around from flower to flower.
After lunch I had an easy descent down to my overnight stop in Pemberton.
4 comments:
Butterflies, much 'smaller' than bears, love the waterfalls.
Glad you've figured out camping and cooking :-) Photos look amazing. You have to get a photo of a bear for it to count! Mx
Your Butterfly is a Swallowtail, not a Monarch which are Orange and black or black and orange if you want!!!
Thanks Richard. (I'll stick to cycling and describing scenery I think...)!!
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