Thursday.

Today was a day off from LD, but last night I agreed to help a coworker, Laura, do some cleaning up of her garden up at her house in Squamish. So I packed up some stuff this morning and headed to Squamish for the day – and what a BEAUTIFUL day it was! Sunny and 15 degrees all day – niiiice!

Anyhoo, here are a few photos I took along the way home for your enjoyment …

First we start off with “The Chief”, which some of you may remember from the trip Dana & I took up to Whistler – The Chief is the most popular spot for outdoor rock climbing in the area, the other spot being Penticton, which I haven’t been to yet but I’m sure I’ll see sometime this summer …

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A nice mountain view from the side of the highway (yes I stopped!) …

Next are a few photos of the copper mine at Britannia Beach. This is a sad story of a mine that ended up becoming one of BC’s most contaminated sites, and the poor creek that runs through it is contaminated as well. A solution has been sought for decades now, but nothing solid has been settled on yet. Meanwhile the creek and land is contaminated, and a village of people live there. Sometime this summer I want to go up there and tour the mine museum and take some photos because I’ve heard there might be plans to tear it down.

(approaching Britannia mine)

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(Britannia mine sign at the scenic view point nearby)

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(the mine itself, now a museum)

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And of course it wouldn’t be the Sea to Sky Highway (or the [i]Scream and Die[/i] as some people like to call it) without [b]LOTS[/b] of road construction. This is going to be the main highway linking Vancouver to Whistler for the 2010 Olympics, so they are in the process of widening the [b]VERY[/b] twisty road …

Personally, I like the twistiness and the feeling of the mountain and trees looming over you as you drive. But I’m afraid that with the way highways are built these days, the mountain will be blasted back well away from the road, the trees will all be gone, and some of the twistiness will be straightened out. Sad really.

Anyway, Laura and I worked for about 3 hours cleaning all the cedar twigs and dead leaves out of her garden. She has a very nice house, loads of character, which is something I love in a house. I have to decide if I’m going to go back tomorrow and do a couple more hours of work on my own to finish it up or not. I think that as long as the weather stays nice I’ll go, and maybe stop by at Shannon Falls on the way back for some photo ops.

Oh, my newest idea is to start the Sun Run training program. It’s a scheduled program that lays out exactly what to do to go from a non-runner like me, to being able to run 10 km, over the course of 13 weeks. So I think I’m going to try it. I need to get off my duff, eat a better diet and get more excercise. I’ve been a bum for the last 8 months, and I’m finally feeling motivated enough to get healthy again.

So gimme all the support you got!!!

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