Adventuring with Herbert Putkey

From Second Honeymoon

For our second honeymoon, Theresa and I went with the English to the Sunshine coast and Strathcona park. We had 3 nights in Lund (very small town north of Powell River) and 3 nights in the Strathcona Park Lodge, 45km from Campbell River. In Lund we took a boat cruise into the not so desolate Desolation Sound, and spent a great day exploring Savary Island. On Savary Island, the 10 of us split into three groups. Ollie, Cliff, Theresa and I walked around pretty much the entire island, and had a good swim at Sutherland beach. Steven, Sharon, mom and dad spent most of the day relaxing at a different beach. Robert and Catherine rented bikes and explored all of the island that way.

From Second Honeymoon

In Strathcona we had two good hikes, and managed to squeeze in some paddling and swimming in the Upper Campbell lake too. We stayed in the Strathcona Park Lodge, which worked out really well. We had a big cabin to ourselves with a view of the lake from the patio, and easy access to the water.

From Second Honeymoon

The pictures are up here.

We went to visit our friends Brian and Marie in Sechelt for some good times. They met us at the ferry on Friday night at Gibson’s, and took us for a good dinner…except Theresa had already gone for dinner.

Saturday started with what will forever be known as the epic pancake duel of 2009 between Brian and Marie - i think we all know who won. (One batch was thrown away, another one should have been). With fuel in our bellies we set out to see the Skookumchuck rapids caused by the tide. We drove up to Egmont and hiked in the 4km. Unfortunately it was only a medium tide, which wasn’t much to see. The hike was still good, though. At night Brian and I started a fire using tried and true boy scout methods.

On Sunday Brian gave Theresa and I a tour of the area in the boat, before our ferry ride home. We’re looking forward to going back in the summer, and maybe doing some kayaking and camping in the inlets.

See the pictures here.

Theresa had a Conference in Palm Springs, so I tagged along. The hotel hosting the conference was pretty fancy (valet parking only!) so i tried to take advantage of that. I arrived on Thursday, and went to see The Living Desert. It’s basically a zoo dedicated to the flora and fauna of the deserts of the world. They had animals such as Giraffes and Zebras. It also had a 5 mile hiking trail, which I did part of.

See the pictures on picasa.

We returned to the Buntzen Lake area for another hike. We did the Diez Vistas in July, which went along the west side of the lake with views into Indian Arm. This time we did the Lindsay Lake loop, which went along the east side of the lake. It had viewpoints looking South and West, as well as going around quite a few mountain lakes. It was a great day for a hike - sunny and warm, and we had a perfect lunch spot (Barton Park). All the standing water led to a lot of bugs at times, though.

There are a few pictures up here.

We went back to the lightning lakes campground at Manning Park, this time with our friends and neighbours Pam and Steve. We went up on Friday and got there about 9:30 - just in time to get one of the last spots. On Saturday we hiked the 3 Brothers. The trail head is actually quite high up, so there is little overall elevation gain, but you do have to go down a valley first. There were great views throughout the hike, but just as we were going up the ridge to the peak the clouds rolled in and it was a white out.

Click here to see the album.

On Sunday, June 15th, 9 of us gathered in Glasgow to embark on the West Highland Way - a 95 mile walk north through the highlands of Scotland. The team was David Eaton, Cliff Eaton, Fei Tan, and the Vancouver Clan (mom, dad, Steven, Sharon, Theresa and myself). Unfortunately Oli couldn’t make it due to a broken leg suffered just before the trip (full of excuses).

The trip was really good, despite many pairs of painful feet. The scenery was great for almost the entire week, and everyone got along really well. We used a company called Transcotland to book our rooms and move our luggage each day so that we just needed to carry a day pack. Mom took all forms of transport (train, bus, taxi, ferry) to get between the stages she wasn’t walking and David had to leave before the last stage. The rest of us completed the Way. Steven, Sharon, Dad, Cliff and I climbed Ben Nevis, the highest peak in Britain, on the 8th day - a tough finish on tired legs.

During the trip David celebrated his 63rd birthday (on our longest stage - 20 miles), and dad his 60th. Interestingly our oldest members were the fastest walkers, with David always in the lead.

A day in the Way went something like: wakeup; eat big Scottish breakfast; pack up and apply blister treatments; walk/eat for about 7 hours; nap/laundry; eat big dinner; watch some footy in a pub over a pint (Euro 2008 was going on).

Fei created a google map with the different places we stayed. As usual, I’ve made an album of the pictures.

After our mother’s day brunch prepared by SS Herbert, we went for a hike around lighthouse park. We explored the west side, hitting all 4 official lookouts…despite it’s treacherous nature.

Click here to see the album.

We flew from Buenos Aires to Bariloche, which is the centre of the lake district turism. We did a half day kayak trip on Lago Gutierrez as part of a group, and then a 2 day trip with camping on Lago Mascardi which was just Theresa and I and our guide Joe. After that we took the teleferico up to the top of Cerro Otto, and then did a short hike to some different viewpoints around the mountain. The next stop was Junin de los Andes at the north end of the lake district. We took a bus along the famed Ruta de los siete lagos to get there. Junin is a much quieter town with much less tourism and we both really liked it. Our main purpose in going there was to explore the Lanin national park, so we did a day hike to the base of Volcan Lanin, that had spectacular scenery.

Some of the pictures are here.

After a decade of sin, our friends Adam and Daphne finally decided they liked each other and got married (some people take forever to really commit!). They had the wedding in Kelowna, where they both grew up. Theresa and I decided we would need to take a week off to make the arduous 4 hour drive. We camped for one night in Manning park on the way up, and 2 more nights there on the way back. It was pretty cold (going below 0 at night), but that wasn’t enough to discourage two hardy adverturers like us. We had a spectacular hike on Monday - we did the Skyline trail. We hiked for nearly 7 hours without seeing any other people. When we got to the summit with 360 degree views, it felt like we had the entire park to ourselves.

In Kelowna we got to meet Adam and Daphne’s families. We had a fun morning getting taken around by Daphne’s dad, John. He played tour gude and took us to Father Pandosy’s mission, and several wineries.

The wedding was a lot of fun. Joel, Adam’s brother, gave a great speech while channeling a prospector from the 1800’s; Daphne’s dad somehow managed to get a Cuban band to come play for about an hour (they were in town for a music festival); I managed to briefly demonstrate my skills at bocci (2 weeks in a row); I also got a tattoo of Ogopogo (there may be a relationship between open bars and tattoos); and Theresa and Mark lit up the dance floor.

The photo album is here.

On the Labour Day long weekend, Steven, Sharon, Dad and I went backpacking up to Lake Garibaldi, about 20 km north of Whistler. Thinking that there would be a lot of people going up for the last long weekend of the summer, and seeing that the weather forecast showed Saturday as the only day with sun, we all took Friday off work to go up early.

After having to get a new stove because we couldn’t get the right gas for our old one, we managed to start our hike around 2:30. We got to the lake roughly 3 hours later, which we thought was quite good time. It was drizzling throughout, but it wasn’t too bad in the trees. We found a couple of campsites close together and set up our tents. Steven and Sharon were sleeping under a tarp that they got as a wedding present, which looked a little too hard core for dad and I.

Anyway, we woke up on Saturday and got to watch the mist burn off over the lake. After breakfast we decided to hike up to Panorama ridge rather than black tusk, and we had spectacular views all around. We were also lucky that the wild flowers were all in full bloom, which is actually quite a bit later than usual. That evening we also got to hear the park rangers talk about the park - how the lake/mountains were formed, as well as descriptions of the different plants and animals around.

On Sunday we packed up our tents just as it started to rain, and headed back down to the car. It rained steadily on us the whole way down. About 2km from the end, Sharon rolled her ankle, but she was able to make it the rest of the way with the help of her hiking poles. At the car, we discovered that a couple of mice had managed to sneak in somehow, and at least one of them made it back with us to horeshoe bay, and perhaps further. We couldn’t find them, or figure out how they got in! Maybe they just wanted a ride back in to town.

I’ve put all the pictures on our Picasa web album.