Day 27 ~ Thursday 17th September, 2015

We've woken to rain. Not sure if we will do the gondola as it is a half hour ride up to the peak in an open air carriage… fine for us, but not for the camera gear. We'll go have some breakfast and monitor the situation. The gondola doesn't open for another 2 hours yet.

YES, let's do the Gondola, its not like we'll be back here again any time soon so what the heck. The village was very quiet at 10am as the shops were just opening. We bought our tickets and onto the first gondola we went. Smooth and very steep, and for 30mins we rode it! Unfortunately the weather really set in, so it wasn't very long before it was raining and we were in cloud.

We got to the top and there was nothing to see, so we jumped on to the worlds longest unsupported gondola ride over to Blackcomb. Yep – wasn't much good there either. Very light rain, absolutely no visibility. No Marmots either (but who could blame them – on a day like that I would be snuggled up in bed too!)

The autum colour is really starting to come out, so it just had to be photographed!  The bears have been coming out to the lower runs to eat the berries and into the Village itself over the past couple of weeks - but of course, no bear sightings for us today.

We walked around for 15mins and then decided to head back to Whistler Mountain and from there back down to the village. Well, at least we have done it.  The staff at Blackcomb were saying it was snowing at the summit for the first time and it was minus 4 degree's.  They were all really happy about it, as it means an early start and hopefully a bumper snow season for them.  We couldn't get that excited about that news as they were!  ha ha ha

Steve and I had a joke about what we saw up at Blackcomb - "saw absolutely nothing except shit"...and that's exactly what we saw.  We think it might have been from bears as it was quite large, but eh - it was our in-house-gag! 

We walked around the stops – Steve desperately hoping to find a “bargain” with some light weight Gortex gear, but alas, there was no bargains to be had. So we left Whistler.

Hmm look at the time – 2pm, well, that means we could almost make it to Squamish for lunch – let's see if they have any Goulash left !! YAY !! It wasn't meant to be, seems they sold out of the Goulash yesterday, but he had made a Chicken Coconut Curry Soup – so what the heck, I had that. OMG – that was bloody epic too! YUMMYYY YY Such a shame I don't live closer, as I'd eat there every single day. People. If you are ever in Squamish, you must eat at the Bistro Gelato Carina !!

We stopped off at a little lake on the way into Vancouver.  It was as still as a mill pond, so we just had to see if there were any photographic opportunities whilst the rain had stopped.  We walked a lap around - it was very pretty.  Only shame about it, it is right on the edge of the highway, so the traffic noise  ruined the ambience, but other than that - it was perfect!

From there it was a lovely scenic drive into Vancouver West where we are staying the night before going on the Ferry to VI. We went to check into our Air BnB accommodation, but alas no one was home, (we were a tad early), so we decided to off in search of the lone tree on a hill that our photographer friend Chis Callacott had photographed at Lighthouse Point. How hard could it be to find this tree? Lol – oh famous last words. We parked the car as close to the lighthouse entry as possible and loaded ourselves up with ALL of our camera gear and started walking. This was at about 4.45pm. Hmm, very long steep walk down to the lighthouse. Nope, not there.

We took a track off to the left, East Beach Trail, which lead down a goat track to the rocky shore. We walked along the rocks to see if this tree might have been hiding from view, but alas, no tree.

So we hiked back up to the lighthouse and tried to email our friend Chris, but no reply. We were quickly starting to loose light. We thought we might as well keep trying as many tracks as we can. Any track that lead off to the left close to the shore, we took. Beach Trail, Shore Pine Trail, West Beach Trail. We hiked up huge rocks and then down them. We scrambled through dense forest and very steep rocky tracks, (as photographers have a knack of finding obscure ways of getting to places off the beaten track,), but alas no tree! We were sweating like never before, it was close to 2 hours of full on hiking at a fast pace, and we were very tired now, and all the fun had long since disappeared!  lol

Standing on a rock looking out to sea I spied the bloody tree – there it was, way off in the distance, high up on a rocky knoll. YAY!! We had a good 20 mins to get there before whatever light we had available had gone. So off we went again. This part of the track was extremely rocky, and slippery, which slowed us down. After another obscure track in, and no tree, we stuck to the mail trail, and would you believe it – there it was! YAY!

We couldn't believe it. What an effort to get to this tree on a rock! But once you had seen the images from Chris, you'd want to do whatever it takes to get there too.

So we scrambled up on the rocks and found our positions and we started shooting. Mother Nature wasn't that kind to us – no colour in the sky. The whole day it has been raining and very drab with a “blue” hue washed over everything. I didn't care, I was here and very happy with what I was shooting!! I was at the Juniper Tree!

We didn't stay long as there wasn't going to be any colour, and the light was fading fast and we still had to get out of this place, and if the walk out was as bad as the walk in, we couldn't do it in the dark. So we followed the signs to the carpark and would you believe we were only a few hundred meters from the bloody thing, and a 10min walk – OMG – a 10min walk! Ha ha ha ha – oh you have to laugh. It was a true Steve & Vicki Adventure that's for sure!

So running very late to check into the B&B, we arrived at 7.30pm with two lovely hosts.  The apartment we had was just gorgeous & quaint.  At the back & bottom of the existing home.  Ceilings were really low, which I liked, but Steve couldn't fit under the shower and hit his head on the ceiling so not ideal for him.  But it was quirky and we did like it!   We grabbed our keys and went back into the main area of Marine Drive where we had dinner at Carmelo's – an Italian Restaurant. It was pumping! Full on busy, heaps of atmosphere and the food – well, was AMAZING! I had a very good food day!! :)

Back to our accommodation, Steve did the booking of us and the car onto the Ferry to Vancouver Island, and found us a place to stay at Campbell River, and did all the research to some tours we can do….. whilst I quickly fell asleep on him again – (sorry babe). Steve's been amazing with all his researching and dedication to finding us the best spots to stay. He could be a travel agent in his next life!

So by midnight he was in bed and we were up again at 6am to ensure we made it to the Ferry with time to spare. Big day tomorrow!!