About the only plan today was to “do something”. We didn’t bring the bicycles up with us, so “something” wasn’t going to be trail riding. And we didn’t ride the motorcycles up, so “something wouldn’t be going for a rip on those either.
We ‘did’ bring our hiking shoes though…and there are many, many trails in and around Whistler. So today “something” meant going for an easy 11km hike in the trails above the Village.
Along the way a small creature darted across the rail and, since our city squirrels are the very large imported Eastern variety….the first word out of my mouth was “chipmunk” ….. quickly changed to “No, sorry….native squirrel“.
These are the squirrels I grew up with, but I see them less frequently than the black or grey ones that are opportunistic around humans. I like these little rodents, and they are definitely little compared to the black/grey ones that don’t belong here….like Bob.
But this one was less impressed with us being in its forest and near its pinecone supply. It sat on that stump and yelled at us for about a minute….fearless in its anger.
We have three native species of squirrels in BC, one is the flying squirrel, the other two are the Red Squirrel and the Douglas Squirrel. I believe these ones are all Douglas squirrels.
We thought the trails would be vacant today, being a Monday, before school is out, and before there are many holidayers. There were more people than we anticipated, but it was still pretty quiet. Over 11km of trails we ran into maybe a dozen riders, maybe the same number of hikers, and about a half a dozen disc golf players. So not busy, and pretty peaceful because of it.
I’d love to know who named the trails…”Why Johnny Can’t Read”, “Muffin Man”, “Zoot Allures”, “Gee I Like Your Pants”, “Son of Mr. Greenjeans”, “Jelly Roll Gumdrop”, “Treacherous Cretins” “Hooktender” “Toads of the Shortforest”, “Donkey Puncher”, “Pinocchio’s Furniture”, “Soap & Old Clothes”, “Tin Pants”, “The Torture Never Stops”……… and so on.
Muffin Man
Up on the top of a massive granite plateau, along the powerline, I went inside one of the towers and enjoyed the geometry of the structure.
O the way back to North Vancouver, we stopped back in at Backcountry Brewing in Squamish for a snack and to pick up some beer…clearly we like the place since we stopped there on the way up and the way down….”There and Back Again…a Hobbits Beer-Tale” 😉
It was a good birthday 🙂