Video

Here is a short clip that I forgot had been taken.

Paradise Valley, Squamish, name and grade escapes me at the moment, but I eventually did it. Nice little problem.

Final Countdown

Proof that I have been climbing. The Peddler V3, Paradise Valley

Apologies for the lack of blogging activity over the last while but there has not really been too much to report. Since my return to Squamish from Banff I have been doing a mixture of climbing, hiking and just generally chilling out. I decided with so little time left just to relax and enjoy the peaceful and stress free lifestyle I have become accustomed to over the last year, because I know that on my return home things will definitely become hectic once more.

It has also been very hot and the thought of driving any where in my car with no air con was just not an exciting prospect. These lovely Summer days have led to some great days out with the amazing group of friends that I have here. An example from last Sunday. I was picked up by Sandra about 9am, driven into Squamish to meet up with Val and Stu for breakfast followed by a great session bouldering in Paradise Valley. By late afternoon we were all tired and very hot so we went to Brohm Lake for a swim and a few refreshing beverages. We then needed fed and went out for dinner with other people that had joined us at the lake. I was dropped off back at my tent about 9pm. Great day. As if that wasn't good enough, the following morning Val and Stu on their way to work delivered a homemade blackberry and apple gluten free pie and a fresh mug of decaf coffee to my campsite. I do believe it brought a tear to my eye.

So many tales to tell but they would take me far too long to try and type them on here so I will keep them to bore those of you that are willing to listen when I get home.

It is hard to believe that I leave on monday (4 days). I really do not know where the time has gone. Parts of the last month have varied between passing incredibly slowly or so fast it is hard to know what day I am on and my emotions have flitted between excitement and sadness at the prospect of leaving and going home.

I have been mulling over how I feel about my time away and my feelings about going home. I think that it is fair to say that I think this past year has been the best one in my life so far. I am not sure how much my climbing has improved because I know that I probably have not done as much as I could have if I had a partner with me. This trip though was not just about the climbing. The climbing gave me a focus and something to travel for and has taken me to amazing places that I hope I can revisit in the future. This trip was to help me find my soul again and prove to myself that I can take on a big adventure on my own and succeed. I feel that I have achieved this and I am much more content with who I am and who I want to be. Not all of it has been easy and I have had my ups and downs, but the ups far out way any of the downs that have happened.

None of this could have happened if it were not for the wonderful support I've had from my parents and friends back home, who have kept me sane for many a long year. They continued to keep me up to date with their lives and any gossip that was worth passing along so that I did not get too homesick.

My journey has also been made unforgettable by the many many new friends that I have made along the way. I find it hard to express in words the kindness and generosity that people have shown me. Some of these people were just passing acquaintancies that I may never see or speak to again, but there are those that I hope will be life long friends. Every single one of these people made a difference to the path that I travelled and I will always be eternally grateful to them all. I only hope that I can repay some of the kindness I have been shown should any of them travel to Scotland.

It is hard to believe that this time next week I will be home and trying to settle back into my life in Edinburgh. I am obviously extremely excited to catch up with my friends and family, but the prospect of finding a job is not so enticing. Sadly I have not had any epiphanies about that part of my life. My main objective now is to remain happy and I will do everything in my power to stay that way for as long as possible. I am looking forward to the next phase of my life, the prospect of new paths and new people. Another chapter waiting to begin.

So this will probably be my last blog from my tour of the USA and Canada but I will do a final one from home that will include some stats from my journey. Until then I am going to spend my last few days enjoying the comfort of Sandras' sofa and shower and I fear I will be forced to imbibe in a few beverages on Saturday night. There has also been talk of another home made pie. Yumm.

The Burgh is calling, see you all soon.

Peace and love

Festivals and Banff

Diane, Bobbie, me

When I was in Tennessee back in May, I was in a car park near to the bouldering area I was going to, when the lady parked next to me started to chat. She remarked on my BC plates and said I was a long way from home. The conversation progressed and we exchanged short snippets of information and names. Diane told me that she would be in Banff in July for some hiking and I would be very welcome should my plans allow. Email addresses were written and we parted company.

On my return to BC from the States, it was easier for me to see what my plans etc would be and it turned out that the dates that Diane and her friends would be in Banff fitted well into my plans.

I wanted to stay in Squamish for the weekend of the Mountain Festival. I bought myself some tickets to see a photographic slide show presentation/competition by some of the top outdoor photographers, presentations by Royal Robbins and Tommy Caldwell and last but not least a ticket to the Party.

The photographers slide shows were amazing and inspiring with photos from around the world as well as locally. It was great motivation for me to learn much more about outdoor photography. The presentation by Royal Robbins, a big wall climbing legend was funny and very interesting. Tommy Caldwell on the other hand was extremely disappointing, but I suppose not all climbers are slide show/talk specialists. Partying in Squamish was much fun though, lots of drinking, dancing and fun.

I left a day to recover before I hit the road for my 12 hour drive to Banff, Alberta, to meet up with Diane. The drive was good and it was great to be welcomed by Diane and Bobbie in a comfy condo with a shower and lovely food.

I spent the next 5 days hiking some of the most scenic trails I have ever been on. Diane and Bobbie were amazing to hike with and I am extremely grateful to their outstanding generosity and kindness. These ladies have a passion for hiking and would put most people half their age to shame with their endless energy. I would also like to thank Bobbie for taking more photos of me in 5 days than I have collectively over the last year.

Banff National Park did not disappoint and I would suggest that you visit if you like uncomplicated hiking with fantastic mountain scenery.

I am now back in Squamish trying to get in some climbing with my wonderful Canadian climbing buddies before leaving to come home. Just over 3 weeks away now.

How time flies.

xx

View from the top of Sentinal Pass

Me trying to be a photographer

Did not see any!

Balance

The last week or so has been very sunny and hot here in Squamish. I have found that the best place to go to get a bit of a cooling breeze is at the shoreline. Apart from being a dog walkers paradise, it also is the home of many permanent slack lines. I decided to try my hand at this dirtbag climber recreational activity. Fun.

xx

Quiet Times

Well it is the last day of June already, so have been in Squamish for a month now. In that time I have not done a great deal of climbing, especially bouldering. I had a very enjoyable time with my friend Sandra for a couple of weeks before she had to head back to work. I led some more sports routes and got my first taste of crack climbing. All of which was amazing.

My psyche for bouldering is pretty low at the moment, mostly because of my continually aching shoulder, but also because I don't want to climb on my own but am having a particularly anti social spell. It is a weird paradox that is kind of hard to explain, so I am not going to try and bother. I think it is really just a symptom of being on the road for this length of time and my need for home comforts and friends etc is starting to kick in. Although I am free from the stresses and strains of normal life, this road tripping lifestyle can become quite tiring. Don't get me wrong I am not grumbling, I will leave that till I get home and have to find a job of some description! My body is starting to tell me that it needs some proper comfort like a good bed to sleep in, a comfortable chair to sit on, a readily available shower and somewhere to cook proper meals.

However, all that being said I am still enjoying being where I am and enjoying being outdoors. I have been passing my time just relaxing, reading books, taking photos, and walking and running some trails. I am making sure to savour these moments while I have them, because before I know it I will be back once again in The Burgh.

xx

60 hrs driving in 5 mins

Here is a wee video i made of my epic drive from Tennessee to BC at the beginning of the month.

Oops this is only a small section of video. Blogger will not install my longer 5 min version. Sorry.

Rainy Days

Shannon falls pre rain

Shannon falls post rain

Not really too much to report from the very beautiful but very wet Squamish. I have been here about a week and a half now and it has rained quite a lot of that time. The first week I was taking some time out from the climbing as I had lost my psyche to go climb by myself and the weather was not really helping. It was also a good rest for my shoulder which seems to have a permanent ache. I have been hiking though which has been great, lots and lots of uphill slogs followed by a good stroll back down.

A friend from North Vancouver joined me on Tuesday for a couple of days and we had a great time at the boulders. It was good to be back and psyched to climb again. I think climbing with another girl was just what I needed, we had fun and giggles. Yesterday we went for a hike in the rain. We tried to get to Garibaldi Lake but did not quite make it due to the ever deepening snow line. Cold and damp after being out for nearly 5 hours we headed back to downtown Squamish for hot chocolate and soup.

Not too much else to report really, the forecast is supposed to pick up for the weekend. Fingers crossed.

Peace x

A category 2

Mine is bigger than yours!

Machismo Machine

Just in case you were having trouble trying to imagine the kind of truck I was talking about in my previous post. Here is a prime example of a category 2 tail gater vehicle.

A Drive and and a half

Driving, driving, driving

Well I have made it back to Canada. I had to leave the USA not because of a visa this time but because my car insurance ran out on the 1st of June and I could not renew it from over the border. So began the long journey from Knoxville to Squamish.

I gave myself a week to do the trip as I wanted to go via Yosemite and Redwood in California. I had a choice of a few routes. I could head south and go through Texas, Arizona etc but I had been along that route already with Wes so decided against it. I could come back the way I came but did not want to endure Kansas again, so opted to go North through Nebraska and Wyoming.

I left a very hot Tennessee on the Monday morning and survived a sticky non air conditioned 13 hour drive to Rockport, Missouri. The next morning I set off West. A whole 16 hours West towards Salt Lake City. My left arm was getting very hot and a little sun burnt by this point. I arrived in SLC about 9.30pm. My friend Steven was very kindly letting me use his house to kip in even although he was in Colorado. I have never been so pleased to see a bed as I did that night. I awoke the next morning and really did not have the energy or inclination to get back into my car again, so decided to have a quiet day doing nothing.

That quiet day turned into a very fun and exciting day. As I was having breakfast I noticed a man in Steven's garden, so thought I would be a good house guest and check who it was. It turned out to be his Dad who had come to cut the grass. We chatted and had a cup of tea, then he asked if I would like a ride on his motorbike, a 750cc Honda, for those interested. I of course accepted because I had never been pillion on a big bike like that before. It was so much fun he took me on a 50 mile tour of the canyons surrounding the city, including driving along the highway at 80mph. Awesome! In the evening he treated me to a Thai dinner. Once again US hospitality amazing. I am so glad I decided to have a day off.

The following day I jumped back in the car and intended to get to Yosemite so that I could spend al the next day there. To cut a long story short I did not get there. Snow, closed roads and much swearing on my part took me in a huge circle that took me back to where I had once been. Totally scunnered I gave up the idea as to now get there would be so much more driving and I mentally could not take anymore. I got a motel in Tahoe and decided just to head straight North the next day. Squamish was still a 2 day drive away.

I crossed the very busy Memorial day weekend traffic at the border patrol and was thankfully let back into Canada after a 1 hour wait. Annoyingly the border guard lady did not take my US visa thingy out my passport and I did not think to look until it was too late. So i will have to go back to a border and try and hand it in. Federal offence if I don't, but I will wait till my butt has forgotten the 60 hours of driving trauma.

Spending that much time on the road by yourself gives you time to mull over many things, so in between taking photos/video, texting people, looking at the map etc, I studied other road users. It would appear that tail gating is as much a national sport as football, baseball, ice hockey and just like these sports the supporters of this sport are all very different. I have made 4 categories.

1) The Trucker, generally male and from those that I have seen overweight. They will drive their million tonne truck at least 2 feet from your bumper. They clearly do not like to touch the brakes as this would make them drive at the speed limit. If you can you get out the way as fast as possible, if you can't then you just have to stick it out and hope that he can muster more speed to get past you.

2) The non lorry truck driver, again generally male. The make of truck does not matter it could be Chevy, Dodge, Nissan, Toyota they are all the same. They will drive right on your ass for as long as it takes for you to get out of their way. You know that they do not want to bump into you as they would not afflict any damage to the very expensive turbo charged often pimped out extension of their manhood. Either get out their way as soon as you can, but it is more likely he will under take at the nearest opportunity to get to that important meeting/bar he has to go to.

3) The general run of the mill car driving asshole that just seems to be in a hurry all the time. He will tail gate then as he passes will give you the death stare before he speedily cuts you off and shots off down the nearest exit.

4) The last but possibly the most scary is the female that drives something expensive that either Hubby or Daddy bought her. She will tail gate even when there is room, space, time to over take but she does not notice as she is too busy talking with nobody important on her phone. If you are really lucky she will be checking her hair and putting on her lipstick too.

I am sure there are more categories but those are the main ones. They probably hate Canadians who take photos and text, but actually I don't think they care too much about their cross border neighbors anyway.

Mother truckers on my ass

So what am I going to be doing over my last 12 weeks. Yes only 12 weeks left, I personally can't believe it. At the moment I am not doing too much as guess what it is raining. I am actually quite psyched on doing some walking and trail running if I can, my fitness has certainly taken a bit of a dive over the last 9 months. So in other words I will keep you posted as I don't know what I will be doing or seeing.

I tried to post the video I made but it won't upload. Will try another time. Sorry.

Peace

I thought I recognised the gray clouds and rain.

All photos by Caroline Harvey

Chiefly hike

A panoramic view from the top

A reasonably good weather day today so thought I would go for a hike up the Stawamus Chief. It was a fairly steep trek to the top of the North summit but well worth it for the views. Good day.

The Chief and the Saturn

Follow the trail up

Up

Clouds

The top

Waterfalls

All photos by Caroline Harvey

Love is.......

I don't think I need to say anything except this is Georgia, she is nearly 11 years old, acts like a puppy, loves lots of cuddles and comes to sleep on my bed in the morning. xx

Photographs by Caroline Harvey

Mini Road Trip

Oh look the tide is going out again!

There has not been much happening on the climbing front since I arrived in Canada, except a few trips to the local gym. It is still too wet. So with a couple of sunny days forecast I thought I would make the most of them and see some of the local sights. A mini road trip to Vancouver Island was planned. It was also a good opportunity to test out my car, as it has not been on a decent run yet and I wanted to see how good it was for sleeping in.

I got the ferry from Horseshoe Bay, which is about a 1.5 hrs sail to Nanaimo and then drove to Tofino and settled on a campsite on Mackenzie Beach as it had a perfect ocean view.

Over the couple of days I was there I visited Tofino and Ucluelet and stopped at various beaches and points of interest, but mostly I just watched the waves. As much as I do not like being in water I do love to watch the tides go in and out and in and out......

On my visit to Tofino I stopped in at a gallery of an artist named Henry Roy Vickers. I absolutely loved his work and stayed for quite a while just gazing at the prints. If I could have bought one I would have. The long boat style building in which the gallery was housed was pretty spectacular too.

A pleasant few days were had and I enjoyed fairly comfortable and cozy sleeps in my car. I impressed myself with my amazing curtain system that keeps out straying eyes.

Sunset

Words of the day

I like writing or making patterns on the beach, there is something about the fact that it will be washed away with the next tide that makes it interesting. Who will see it before it vanishes and what will they make of it? The above were my thoughts of the moment. I think this is how I see the world through my rose tinted spectacles! The picture below is of someone else's take on the day.

An anniversary maybe?

Lighthouse

Clouds on the water

More low cloud

Lots of Maple Syrup.

On the drive back I stopped in at a small town called Coombs for some lunch. One store in particular had lots of foods from all over the world including a British section where I found many things including Marks and Spencer soups, Tunnocks Teacakes and Snowballs, Thorntons chocolates, Branston pickle and Heinz beans. I did not buy any of these things but I did try their beef and salmon jerky, both were delicious.

The Bru

Here is a small selection from the vast range of hot sauces they had to offer.

All photos by Caroline Harvey

Comfort zone.

A terrible photo of me with my eyes closed, but thought I would post it just to show that I am still alive.

Today was the day that I had decided to leave West Vancouver and head to Squamish so as not over stay my welcome with my lovely hosts in West Vancouver, and I did leave, but now I am back...... Why? Well I shall tell you.

As some of you may be aware I had tried to stay in the US a little longer as the climbing season here in British Columbia has not quite started yet, March is one of the wettest months, but alas the States would not let me stay. So here I am as you all know in Canada.

I drove to Squamish, it actually only takes about half an hour or so and had the full intention of camping etc, but when I got there it was snowing and because it is still "off season" the park where I intended to stay did not have any of its' facilities working, blah blah, excuses excuses. Anyway, before I had left West Van my hosts had made it clear that I was very welcome to come back and stay longer if necessary and that it would be cold and possibly quite wet still in Squamish at this time of year. So whilst sitting having a coffee and watching some very large black clouds gather on the horizon, I weighed up my options. I could either stay in a very lonely National park with no one else there and hope for sunny dry weather or I could go back to West Van and sleep in a nice warm bed and just go to Squamish on day trips when it was dry. Guess which one won my vote?

So here I am back in the comfort of a house for a wee while longer. My current plan is to stay here for a few more weeks go train at the local indoor gym, try to do some CV training as I feel incredibly unfit, do some day trips to Squamish and other places and help my host Harriet out with some things she needs done. Excellent plan, even if I do say so myself.

I realised today that I have very few photographs of me actually climbing, which is kind of a shame but inevitable I suppose. You will all just have to believe me when I tell you what I have climbed!

I will post a few photos from my weekend trip to Gabriola Island soon.

Getting there, slowly!

Well it has been a week since we left Hueco and what a week it has been.

Friday = 13 hour drive back to LA, although Wes did all the driving.

Saturday = Up early because I did not want to sleep in. At LAX by 8.30 am. Arrived at Tacoma, Seattle 1.0opm, departed 2.30pm. Landed Vancouver 3.30pm. Arrived final destination about 5.00pm.

Sunday = Went for walk in the morning then watched Olympic ice hockey final, visited Down town Van to watch celebrations, lost camera lens cover, watched closing ceremony on TV.

Monday = Looked for a car, found one, paid deposit. Bought a new phone because you can not buy just a sim card and my O2 wireless one from the States does not work here.

Tuesday = Bought car. Had hassle getting insurance because British Columbia's car insurance is run by the government and they have many funny rules and regulations. Managed to get 3 months insurance for Canada. If I go to the US again will need to get some there, hopefully. Got myself a haircut after 8 months without. Looked ok once the guy had finished.

Wednesday = Realise that my new phone is not receiving any texts. Try to contact Bell to sort out why this was happening. They were less than useless. Took phone back to shop and got a new one. Hair not cooperating, my cow's lick has a mind of it's own and I look like I am 12, not a good look.

Thursday = Went for my first run in 3 months, very slowly and only 25 minutes. Managed to find a play park to do some stretching and some pull ups. Took a trip into town to the Mountain Equipment Co-op and bought some new climbing shoes, they were on sale, but still quite expensive, wished I had managed to get to the 5-10 store in Redlands, Ca, but I never passed on a Friday, the only day it is open.

Friday = Muscles a bit sore from my run etc. Drove to Walmart in North Van to get a few things for my new wagon and next trip. Pimped my new ride with some lovely stripey curtains.

Tonight I am going with my hosts to their other home on Gabriola Island for the weekend, and then hopefully head off to Squamish on Monday and if the weather is nice get some climbing in before all my hard earned Heuco skin disappears.