How I took some cheesy cliché photos

Mt. Seymour

22nd December 2014

I decided that after a busy week I'm going to hike up mount Seymour to watch the sunrise.  I picked up Klara at 6.30am and we took off for the 'hard drive'.  In about half an hour we reached the Seymour parking lot and just hurtled up to the very top to catch the sun coming up.  There's nothing like enjoying your morning cuppa gazing at the sun coming up above the clouds that are choking the whole Lower Mainland.  As soon as we started eating our breakfast, the Gray Jays noticed us and came to pester us while taking our cheesy cliché photos so we had a little fun with them.  Good morning, it was indeed!

How we did some Surfing in Oregon

A Throwback to August 2014

- Beginning of the Journey -

Oswald West State Park, Oregon

Our #driveourwayround adventure started off by getting to the coast of Oregon, where we had the last sentimental encounter with the Pacific ocean for a while.  Arriving to Seaside, OR, the first thing we stumbled upon was a surf shop and that made us to come up with an idea of renting surfboards and just enjoy the time there.  The waters of North-West Pacific are chillier than Alpine rivers; therefore, there is no chance you could surf without a wetsuit.

All geared up we set off for Short Sand beach in Oswald West State Park, OR.  Beautiful beach with a short hike to get to there.  Although carrying the boards was a challenge. As we both are beginners we had to carry the heavy soft tops and it wasn’t that long of a walk but a good 10 minute hike.  I passed on the theoretical knowledge I gained on Hawaii on to Kachna, to explain the very basics.  Him being such a hulk he luckily grasped it quite quickly and was even able to catch some of the waves.  It was a good fun being there on a little hidden beach that was recommended by locals.  The beach might be  500m long and is surrounded by tall rocks and forests. 

After a long day of surfing we got to a creepy campground run entirely by an old lady that welcomed us limping out of her shed not even saying a word.  She might have been in her late 50s and probably lived through the great American hippie era.  She wore a long green cape, had long grey hair and without a word, she showed us a spot and only responded to a question “So how much is it?”.  After that she pulled out a little notepad and headed back to our car to get the details.  So being all set, just having the tent already waiting and upright we cooked a dinner of 6 massive burger on our little backyard grill and surrounded by the great Pacific fog fell asleep on the grass just somewhere between our car and the tent. Good times!

How I Sought to Get Cured from my Cough - Pemberton, BC

Upper Lillooet Provincial Park

Keyhole Hotsprings

December 15th 

I felt really sick for the past two weeks.  Therefore, I decided to finally do something about it. I really like being cured the natural way, without any help of useless pills and other prescriptions so I took the risk of asking the nature to help me out a bit.  

The Keyhole Hot-Springs are located about two hours drive north-west from Pemberton, BC, out of which about 40km is on a very rough, gravely forest service road.  I remember when we went there last year it was about 49km and a half an hour hike.  Over the summer the plant construction did, however, change the conditions a bit and now everyone seeking the pleasure of bathing in a purely natural hot water has to hike for about another 2km down to the valley. Normally the hike would take about an hour but considering the icy conditions and snow, due to which the provincial park is actually "closed" to public since november, and the fact that we arrived around 5pm and had descent to the valley in the dark, it took us about 2 hours. But it was worth it! 

We camped on the bank surrounded by hot pools, which made the freezing cold that we faced in the morning a bit less serious.  It's very easy to get up and get out of your warmed up sleeping bag when you know that it doesn't take much to escape the shivers you get on an icy morning.  There were about four pools, where 2 of them had an ideal temperature. Not too cold, not too hot.   The soothing feeling of defeating the cold, cough and getting an experience that anywhere else in the world would be hard to get.  I remembered Yellowstone National Park, where none of the hot-springs are actually open to public to bathe in so would probably ended up with a fat ticket for attempting to dip yourself in a pool there.  Good thing that not many people know about this hidden gem and that it actually takes an effort to get here so that only the determined and nature loving people can enjoy this.

On our way back, after the strenuous climb back to the service forest road, we got an unpleasant surprise of a flat tire on my wandering machine.  Luckily, it was still half inflated and I decided to take the risk of driving it to Pemberton, where I'll get a chance to inflate my spare wheel to actually be able to use it.  We made it safe and sound and this only added a little more adventurous finish.

Watch a Video:

Throwback to Mexico - How I wandered around the Yucatan Peninsula

See PHOTO ALBUM

January 2014

It is almost a year now since Klara and me had that idea of leaving the poor winter behind and chase the migrating birds somewhere warmer.  I've heard awesome stories from people going to Cancún and how this is the place you wanna be at while going for your winter vacation.  So all revved up we couldn't wait for celebrating the New Years Eve on the beautiful beaches that we knew from pictures online that lure you to visit the party capital of Mexico - Cancún.

We didn't spend a single day in Cancún. It kinda threw the same party atmosphere on us that you see anywhere else in the 'western' world.  Drunk Brits, party American teenagers and occasional confused German tourists.  Nothing new to us.  So we rented a sweet ride and set off for the adventure down south.  Playa del Carmen, same stuff but smaller - there's not even any public beach there. So we carried on in our southbound expedition.

Yucatan is the centre of Maya civilisation and that's why there's so much more to being there than drinking the same tequila as you get anywhere else, and siting beside the pool and playing it cool. Places like Tulum, although it's also on the verge of being devoured by tourism, Mahahual and the magical Mosquitero peninsula, and west from there Chetumal, Calakmul and plenty of other places that we didn't manage to visit in the ten days we spent there. 

By meeting very generous locals that seemingly didn't have much to offer, yet were extremely rich in having the freedom of not being "consumed" , finding white-sand beaches, where we didn't meet a single person for days, we again realised it doesn't take much effort to discover a paradise.  Swimming with turtles in cenotes, the mysterious bottomless holes that Mayas worshiped and that kept them alive by supplying fresh water, enjoying local cuisine in family restaurants so good it gives you diarrhoea, camping far away from the civilisation, somewhere in the middle of a vast green ocean of jungle, seeing a flock of real wild parrots - that's the real Mexican experience, alas, not discovered and it even seems like avoided by many.

The New Season Begins!

Cypress mountain already launched the season and I gotta say it looks promising.  For the time of the year and considering how bad last winter was it got me pretty excited, and I rushed to catch the first snow of the season.  So far only one run is open on the Black Mountain side, which offers a great  run for downhill as well as snow park-like area with couple of kickers and rails. All that you need to revive your skills after the long and amazing summer.

It's chilly enough and another cloudy-like weather is coming so I hope it will bring a decent amount of powder to cover the rest of the area and other runs!! 

Winter is coming!! Overnight hike to Joffre Lakes Provincial Park, BC

More Pictures HERE and HERE (Klara)

You know you're looking forward to winter when you chase the snow and try to get closer to it no matter what.  All excited about the good weather, Klara and me set off for an overnight hike.  The temperature went far below zero but that didn't stop us from our dedication to see some of the most stunning lakes in British Columbia. 

Joffre Lakes Provincial Park is located about 30 minutes drive past Pemberton, BC and as the name of the park suggests it boasts with three spectacular lakes of glacial origin.  Beautifully turquoise colour graduates with altitude and amount of sunlight that lacerates through the icy crusts covering each lake. The highest lake is 1600m high above the sea level but the elevation from the first one is only about 400m, which makes it a very easy and pleasant hike. 

But being 1600m high meant we eventually had to deal with overwhelming cold.  When we got to the top and settled in the campground the sun just set behind high peaks surrounding the lake, which brought a significant decrease in temperature.  The lake we took water for cooking from froze overnight forming a decent ice layer that would probably withstand the weight of us walking across it but I decided not to test that. 

Soothed with the beautiful views on each lake we descended down slowly and carefully not to slip on any icy rocks and headed back to Vancouver.  It is an amazing weekend hike that is one of the 'must dos' when you live in southern BC. 

Arches National Park, UT

September 8^th 14

You know you’re pulling into a National Park when you see an intimidatingly long traffic jam before the entrance.  Loads of curious tourists from all over the world are just waiting for the ‘drives of their lives’.  It is disappointing.  This really is a thing that always makes me feel a bit uncomfortable, feeling that I’m losing my freedom as we're pulling into the park.  Wherever we go, we go there with other tourists wearing flip-flops, constantly bumping into each other, rushing through the national parks’ “cattle corridors”, just to take a picture of whatever monument they want and leave.  In worse case, and unfortunately quite often, they only roll down the window of their rented SUVs to take a pic and carry on driving.  Don’t get me wrong but that is my most common experience from National Parks in the US.

But there’s always so much more to it than just that.  Our luck got better though.  Well sort of.  As we walked down the path trying to avoid being dodged by the crowds of eager tourists, we realised there is a “Primitive trail – Difficult hike” pathway.  Judging by the sign, this won’t be that appealing to those guys wearing flip-flops or their fancy clothing.  So we made a turn.  We started joking that it is actually very easy hike, there’s just sandy surface.  But as we carried on walking, kind of unprepared, considering we are still in the desert and have no water on us cause we didn’t even hope to discover anything like that.  It turned out to be an excellent hike. Nothing too difficult but when it surprises you with no water supply on you it gets quite strenuous.  The beauty, however, and the fact that you finally avoid those fashionable, leisure “hikers/photographers” makes you almost forget about the neglected water.

We saw all those famous arches such as Double O, Landscape, Black and Skyline Arches.  They were all fascinating.  As we got to the Double O arch we kind of lost the trail marks and ended up descending a narrow cave that lead us to the very edge of the boulders.  One of the most amazing panoramic views that we got to see in the Arches National Park.  A great green and orange like dusty plateau with occasional boulders, towers and sandstone fins spread all over the place.  We, however, figured that it didn’t lead anywhere and eventually returned to the original trail, which lead us through the landscape of forming arches.

Returning back to the mainstream area didn’t even bother us anymore.  We were thirsty enough not to care about the crowds and as we got back to the parking lot we kind of pitied the people stumbling in their flip-flops that carried a memory of a crowded place in their solid professional cameras and didn’t even have enough time to appreciate the hidden beauties of the National Park views.

More Pics to See HERE

Thompson Springs, UT

5^th September '14

On our way to the Arches National park we needed a place to camp as it was getting dark and we saw massive cumulonimbus clouds and lightning in our vicinity.  To our “luck”, as we travelled east at the i70 we pulled into a place where the time had been gradually slowing down till it almost stopped.  Thompson Springs used to be a prospective town, located on the interstate 70 and main railway connecting Denver and Salt Lake City, where lots of coal miners used to find their last resort. Unfortunately, the last three decades have been quite uneventful, and as one of the locals said; ‘The school closed down, the trains stopped stopping, the restaurant shut down and people started moving out leaving everything behind.'

Thompson Cyn Rd

The main boulevard boasted with many gems from centrally located train station to many motels and restaurants.  Everything that’s left behind now are abandoned buildings, some still in a really good shape but some in ruins only forming the ghost town nature of Thompsons Springs.  As we explored the main boulevard, we noticed an old pick-up truck cruising around with a kid on its bed.  They most likely realised that there are two strangers roaming around their town and eventually aimed at us through a grass field next to the railway tracks and pulled over to question us.  As it was already getting dark and the stormy background really did add a dose of strangeness to the creepy atmosphere of emptiness, we didn’t feel quite safe.  If you ever watched a movie with a setting in a half-abandoned American town you’d know why.

Closed Cafe

Frontage Rd

Three men in an old shady truck, where one of them was balancing the bumps of their not really carefully chosen direction on the truck’s bed approaching us. Well, that kind of felt like we might no longer find our way back home.  It turned out they were the law of the town.  With the emptying town, the official law enforcement left with it and they, claiming that “there’s no police in the town no more”, only wanted to check up on us and ensure we don’t vandalise their treasures.  In fact after a little chat with them it turned out that there’s quite a sad story behind it all.  People, who left the town, are for no reason holding their properties and refuse to revitalise the town, even if it seems like there might be a little potential for occasional tourism due to its location.

Grocery St

We heard stories about voices in the wind and occasional visual appearance of ghosts, not far from the town where natives’ graveyard is located and native art is decorating the walls of Sego Canyon.  It turned out to be a very friendly encounter and they even gave us some tips on where else to go in the town, let the other nervous locals know that the “two guys from ‘tzecheslovekia’ are around and are harmless”.

Still, seeing all this and having in mind the classic stereotypes of abandoned American towns in the desert we were very hesitant to pitch a tent in this area.  We carried on down the road leading us to the bespoken mountains carrying the native mysteries to find a suitable spot.  Another of those creepy scenes was brought to our minds when we saw headlights in the rear-view mirror that are quite rapidly moving towards us.  We were scared for no reason; it was a campervan doing the same as we are.  Trying to find a safe place to camp.  The dawn brought a very new perspective to it all and as we left with sunshine in our back and a great memory of sleepless night thinking of ways to revive the spirit of Thompson Springs.

For more Pictures, click HERE
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An Old Pontiac 8