Monday July 4, Squamish BC

This morning we drove to Shannon Falls, the third largest in BC and really spectacular. Surprising to see so many people taking a look reasonably early in the morning. Just before we got there, we were following a logging truck which was slowly turning down a side road, and as he did so a stone flicked up and pinged my side of the front window, it was a huge bang but luckily it didn’t shatter the whole window, just one nasty stone chip the size of a large thumbnail and a crack extending across the window. Can’t believe we drove all those gravel roads in Alaska last year without even a chip. Guess it is another issue to deal with!

Heading out to Whistler we spotted a Canadian Tire store that had service bays…and they serviced RV’s. Called in to see about getting our brakes checked as well as a lube and they could fit us in…tomorrow at 12.30. On the spot decided to change plans and take the booking. It is only a 45 minute drive to Whistler so continued up there and returned to Squamish tonight ready for the booking.

A fabulous drive up and couldn’t have got a better day, the skies were clear blue with odd puffy clouds, and the snow on the mountains just glowed. Driving was so easy with the new road, and not too much climbing as Whistler is only about 830m above sea level.

Had a good map of the area and went straight to an RV parking area. The centre of Whistler is a really great “people” space with shops opening onto an open car free area with trees and plenty of seats. Such a great atmosphere, everyone was out enjoying the sun, sitting at cafés, listening to live music and browsing in the shops. And everywhere there are mountain bikes, this is a huge centre for mountain biking in the summer, with trails everywhere.

Headed back to the van to change our shoes to go for a hike to a lake in behind the town centre….but noticed the headlights still on and barely glowing. Number 2 issue for the day. Ian has everything in the van for an emergency…except jumper leads! A mountain biker was sitting beside his vehicle nearby having a break, and luckily he had some leads and was very happy to drive around and start us up…oh the relief!

Needed to keep the engine going to charge the batteries which meant hiking was out of the question, so it was back to Squamish, although we did detour up to the Olympic Ski Jump site. Had been told that there were many bears in the area. With the huge winter snowfall and the late spring thaw, the bears have come down lower to get new grass. Noticed large amounts of bear skat on the road and before long had seen two of them, one quite a brown colour and the other very black. A real thrill.

The first thing Ian did when we got back to town was stop and buy a set of jumper leads. We are camping again at Walmart, it was such a good spot last night and hardly any noise, we both slept very well. He went and saw the guys in the service centre and they were able to put him onto a place in town who will replace our front windscreen, need to be there at 8 in the morning. So hopefully we will get all the issues sorted tomorrow before we head back up the mountains and on towards Lilooet.