Masato's BC Adventure

[Masato]

Hey all - back from my trip to BC.

Was amazing... the only bad part was that I didn't connect with our man Greenseed. My days were packed, I had 1 brief opportunity but synchronicity did not show up :(

Thanks to Edge for runnin the neighborhood while I was away, sorry for the 'placement' & rep dis-functions... FreeForums is kind of shitty that way.

Here are some choice pics from the adventure:

My kids on the ramp leaving Hamilton Airport @ sunrise:


Was amazed to see my kids invited to the cockpit for a photo... I didn't even ask or suggest to them that it was possible, the pilot saw me taking pics from the ground and just called them in. Nice to see not everyone is paranoid of terrorists:


Nature cutting through the quilt of human settlement:


SO high... was like being in orbit or something:




"I want to see mountains, Gandalf... MOUNTAINS!"
-Bilbo Baggins




Plane flew a little too close to a peak here for my comfort:

(j/k - this is from another day of the trip :D)

[Masato]

The town of (most of) my childhood - Coquitlam - from the plane. (at least I think it is... probably more to the right side of the photo) Good memories here, till my father transferred us all up north to Fuck-Neck-Ville


Coming in to Vancouver:



1st stop was Granville Island... didn't take many pics but scored this one of some kind of factory that was painted up by some Brazilians that I liked:


Apparently car-theft is high in Vancouver, so the cops put 'bait cars' with trackers around to catch em:


My folks wanted the kids to see Capilaino Suspension Bridge. VERY crazy work of engineering:


More stuff around the bridge to walk around on -
(mrs Masato & kids):


Ewok fuckin' village:

[Winnson]

Your kids wear the coolest helmets!

[Daglord]

your kids look just like you man. spitting image.

[Masato]

SQUAMISH (North of Vancouver). Climber's heaven. Beautiful dry rocks everywhere, you can see these rocks littered with climbers if you stop to look. My dad used to climb here when he was younger, I climbed some smaller faces when I was a wee lad around here. I remember hiking up the back of this cliff and looking over the edge with him. They call if 'The Chief':


Visited some old Copper-Mine... was a crazy history, while the Depression was in full swing, people were here making top coin doing brutal work. They were completely isolated, no roads in or out. Whites and Chinese living/working together in the middle of fucking nowhere and stacking up paycheques while everyone else was starving. They had a wicked museum and tour of the tunnels. I will never complain about my job again:



WHISTLER - chairlifts were open for hikers, mountainbikers, or sightsee-ers to go up. So cool, man... I had been here before but still blown away by the awesomeness of the geography. Pictures do not do it justice:

[Masato]

more going up chairs/gondolas @ Whistler:







Me & my daughter:










Helicopters, n' shit:

[Masato]

At Whistler they have this crazy 'Peak-to-Peak' gondola, that literally spans from one mountain range to another (Whistler to Blackcomb). It is the largest in the world, and impressed the hell out of me (did not exist when I boarded here years ago):





Follow where it goes in the pic; we are headed for the TOP of the other side.
Insane:


view from the middle of the Peak-to-Peak:





@ Blackcomb (other side):


more lifts up to where people were skiing/boarding on some scraps of snow:




90% sure this is the site of the famous Blackcomb Windlip (a huge jump). I jumped it once a long time ago, I thought this was the spot but I don't see the actual jump anymore, maybe my memory is wrong:


gnarly chairlift ride down Blackcomb:

[Masato]

Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal. I have been here hundreds of times in my childhood (had to take a ferry to see my grandparents [now deceased]) Many memories here, a magical place:


View from Ferry. I had my first major spiritual epiphany on the small island in the middle shaped like an anvil when I was about 10 or 11. There is a bible camp there and they brainwashed me somethin' fierce, lol. Religion aside, the experience itself was pretty strong and I carry it to this day as an important moment of my development/awakening:


Sit-down MarioKart on the Ferry Arcade. Had to take this pic for my sister-in-law who likes MarioKart as if it was heroin, lol. (Not my kids):


I slipped my book into the ferry bookstore on the 'National Bestsellers' shelf :D :

[Masato]

ISLAND, baby!!!!!

This is where I was born (not this specific place, but Vancouver Island) - ALWAYS happy and amazed whenever I come back. So fresh, time goes slower here:


A Bungee Bridge I jumped once in my 20's. They wanted like $150 to jump now so fuk dat:


They did however have ziplines that were much more reasonably priced. I bout tix for the kids, they loved it:


Was a really big/long ride, but the pics turned out like shite. This was the best I could get:

[Masato]

VICTORIA

Shitty pic of the harbour.
This was the day I tried to see Greenseed, but the gods did not cooperate


Mrs Masato @ Fan Tan Alley (Chinatown). My cool artist Uncle had a loft here when I was a little kid, we stayed with him there, he knew all the local chinese folks like Jack Burton:



THETIS LAKE: A gawddamn Paradise on Earth.
This is where I met up with my brother and his family. They knew a secret way to hike in from the back where there were way few people. Water was warm and clean, sun hot on the rocks. Amazing, amazing place.


"





everyone but me walking back from epic-lake-day: