My Wet Coast Life

After the lack luster first weekend of July is over and Mother Nature still not giving us a summer to remember. After a not so great June-uary, I seem to be rusting instead of tanning. Looking outside at another overcast day and temperature sitting around 15°C, I look east to Ontario and Quebec who are currently experiencing a hot, humid and smoggy heat wave. Now living on the wet coast, we tend to always get cooler weather compared to the B.C. interior and prairies mainly due to cool ocean breezes keeping us in check. But every so often the wind dies down and we get the nice hot weather and looks like that is coming in 1 day for us.
Now I prefer love the hot weather. Due to my lack of insulation, you can still find me wearing pants or layers in 20°C+ weather when others are sweating and pealing off all their clothes. So i decide to go check our weather and see if the weather is gonna get any warmer and sunnier.

To my surprise, it looks like we are about to get our first heat wave of 2010! WooHoo! Both Environment Canada and Weather Network show the heat is on the way!
After calming down from the shear excitement that the sun will be out and the temperatures nice and warm, I realized I live in Rain-couver where people loooove to complain about the weather. Whether it is raining too much or not enough, someone has to be a weather hater. As for me, my body works like a human barometer and whenever the weather is inclement, my body hurts. I can now somewhat accurately predict weather based on pain and its location. Now why do I mention this?? Well sun and high heat tend to be the only times I do not hurt which means little to no pain medication for my bad back = Win.

Now for my unfortunate family and friends who tend to “die” when the temperature goes over 25°, fear not for i have put together some tips and tricks to beat and deal with the gorgeous tropical weather on the way.

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So for Easter Friday, i amazingly got the day off work so Robotrogue and I decided for our next hike to go do the Lynn Loop in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve in North Vancouver. It has a variety of trails, a suspension bridge, multiple other bridges and a cave tunnel (if you can find it). We arrived at the the Lynn Canyon Park entrance at around 8am and it was a decent 8^oC with a light rain and luckily, light wind too. The forecast for the day was winds, gusting over 70 knots, and up to 40mm of rain but we were prepared with more or less, the right gear for the weather. It is the wet coast, where you don't tan, you rust. Now Robotrogue recently got some new gear from Mountain Equipment Co-Op and T.A.D. Gear and this weather was perfect to test it out.

We decided we would start by crossing the suspension bridge and then head in a northerly direction and loop around to the Baden Powell trail. With one of the best ways to start a hike, we made our way across enjoying the view from the suspension bridge and the rushing water below. After some quick pics, we were on our way. Our first section took us along a gentle winding path running parallel with the river. After about 10 minutes or so, we were greeted by a rather daunting set of stairs. Hmmmm....

Now before going any further, a bit of background info. Both of us have the goal of getting back into shape and trying to get outdoors more often. I'm trying to gain weight and Robotrogue is trying to lose some. We decided to ensure we packed all the required equipment for a day hike, even though we were still close to civilization and a bit harder to get lost. Yet again, the expected terrain, anything can and could happen and always better to be prepared than not. This included a first aid kit, space blanket, change of dry clothes, water, food, mini stove (more on that later), whistle...well, you get the idea. We planned for the worst expecting the best, which is what we got. We saw a lot of people on the trail with nothing but a jacket but i guess they are either using the multi-use wide trails which have inherently less risk or just being ill-prepared for the outdoors and banking on someone else for assistance. This also gave us a decent weight in our packs to test our fitness level on a more intermediate hike than compared to our trek through Pacific Spirit park.

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Living on the wet coast, we are surrounded by forests. One of the benefits of living here is the ease of access to local and regional parks. Last weekend, a friend from work, RobotRogue, and I took my dog Wallace and went for a trek through Pacific Spirit Regional Park. It is located in the University Endowment Lands, west of downtown Vancouver and has over 54 km of walking/hiking trails, 38 km of which are designated multi-use.

As a little background to this, RobotRogue and I, like many techs, sit at a desk all day long. As with any sit down job, over time you get lazy and de-motivated and some people get fat as well as an indirect outcome of sitting all day and snacking. Now RobotRogue's goal is to get in shape and lose some of weight and eat healthier. He has traversed the net and found various useful sites such as Couch to 5K, which helps lazy people slowly get back into the work out routine and nerdfitness.com, who's slogan is "Helping nerds and average joes get in shape the right way, one day at a time."
Over the last couple weeks, i hear of his improvements and motivation. Now me on the other hand, i've gotten lazy over the years due to a back injury 10+ years ago and working more with less time to workout. I am lucky that i have a metabolism like a race car and don't gain weight really no matter what and how much i eat (yes, you can hate me now). I am at the other end of the scale for being under weight and standing over 6'1", i am commonly referred to as a stick, bean pole, someone who should eat more....well, you get the point. So when most people are losing weight, i want to gain it. This tends to tick off the weight loss people...

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Link: http://worldsunluckiesttraveller.ca/index.asp?init_story=235

For some odd reason, Mother Nature and me don't always get along and severe weather events tend to follow me wherever i go. When i was in Kenya, my visa was about to expire and i needed to leave. Mother Nature i guess didn't want me to leave and decided to throw some of the heaviest recorded rains at us and turn everything into a giant mud pit and so began my adventure back to Canada....with mother nature waiting for me to land to continue her weather madness.

Now why am i talking about this you ask?
Well...i came across Travel Guards Unluckiest Traveller Competition. This contest allows people like me to post the unluckiest travel incidents and get voted on and guess what? They accepted my story!

So to anyone reading this, check out my story about my unluckiest trip back from Kenya, register on worldsunluckiesttraveller.ca and vote for me. Each month, the story with the most votes wins a HD camera and goes into the final draw for a $10,000 vacation (which i would definitely like).

So pass this on to your friends and help me become the World's Unluckiest Traveller!
Voting ends February 28th, 2010.

Also, do you have any unlucky travel story? Do you think my story is an unlucky one?

You can also submit to worldsunluckiesttraveller.ca to see if you can win with your story. The have draws every month for the HD Camera and then the winners have a chance at the $10,000 Vacation.

Woke up today with another forecast for possible snow and i cringe at the upcoming commute with bad drivers who do not know how to drive in the snow or the car they are driving has not been winterized. Why winterize when you live on the wet coast where we get more rain and above freezing temperatures during winter than the rest of the country? Maybe because we are not 100% immune to the white stuff and our snow tends to be worse due to humidity and moisture compared to the rest of Canada.

Now for some, they might be smart enough to realize they should not go out and either stay home or take public transit...what a concept! Let someone else drive for you and if there is an issue, it is their fault. But for others, even after repeated snowfalls and them getting stuck on a flat road, let alone a sloped surface, they still venture out to cause harm to themselves, others and jack up your insurance. This is another reason the gene pool could use some chlorine...

I personally think ICBC should reduce or void insurance if they were driving with tires that do not meet road conditions at the time. If not, it would be a nice way to get your car written off. Just make sure it has snowed, your tires suck and go for a drive and throw it into a ditch or another car. This way you can make your claim, get some money and maybe get enough to afford decent winter tires...on that new car.

I spent my fair penny and got snow tires for my truck and it is a night and day difference when it snows now. I got my tires at Kal Tire and they have knowledgeable staff, the best customer service around and have earned my business on numerous occasions. Other tire stores shunned me and wouldn't give me the time of day but that can be for another blog.

Just my 2 bits and more to come when we next get more snow...