Snowshoeing without a camera just a paint brush

This morning when my alarm went off, at first I thought it was a work day. Then I said, wait a minute. It's Saturday. Saturday March 18th the day after Saint Patrick's Day and I didn't go out drinking last night so I have no hangover. Awesome. I feel great. The forecast said sunny so I head straight up the mountain and hit the trail running.

As soon as I hit the first ridge I pulled out my camera to take a picture of the snow covered hills glistening in the sunshine and realized I had left my camera in my ski pants which I left at my motorcycle in the parking lot. I thought yeah I'm not going all the way back for it because if I do, I'm not hiking all the way back up and then summiting. So I pressed forward without it.

They say a picture's worth a thousand words and that it is. So I'll use a few words to paint a picture of what I saw today. The trail was hard packed and a bit icy. Perfect for crampons. The sun was shining and glistening off the ice crystals in the snow. It was magnificent. I'm surprised the mountain wasn't busier. I went up Hollyburn Ridge on Cypress.

You could see the snow capped mountains on Vancouver Island in the distance but it was a little bit hazy. Yet everything on the mountain was crystal clear. When I came back down I took a picture of the thousand year old yellow cedar right before the turn off to the nordic area. It's not very tall but it's very wide. It's hard to imagine it's been there for a thousand years.

Then I rode over to Whitecliff. The parking lot was packed already. Everyone was in spring picnic mode. It's been cold and rainy for a long time. Lots of scuba divers there as well. A seal swam over to check them out. After that I head over to the Cleveland Dam on Capilano road at the foot of Grouse Mountain and it was packed too. Almost like a summer's day.

My father used to take me to Whitecliff when I was young to take pictures of the sunset. He would also take me to the Cleveland Dam to take pictures of the Lions over the reservoir. I guess that's why I like to take pictures. I prefer taking pictures of the Lions face to face from the mountaintop.

Blaze still trolls me incessantly. For someone that claims I don't have a life he sure obsesses over this insignificant blog so he does. It's always a barrage of stupid and childish insults that are all very insecure and pointless. Recently he was mocking me for having stayed in the same community I grew up in. I spent four years travelling around the world. I like it here. I have a lot of really good memories here. Everywhere I go triggers a nice memory.

As I was walking around the rocks at Whitecliff I thought it was difficult to imagine I walked this same spot when I was young yet I remember and I remember taking my kids there as well. On the way up to Cleveland Dam I passed by the fish ladder. I remember taking my kids there just like my father took me. Last month I took an alternate route home from Vancouver and passed by my first apartment I rented when I moved out after High School.

When I walk over to my kids school I remember picking my daughter up on my motorcycle and watching my son perform. I guess that's why old people don't like selling their house. They have so many good memories they don't want to lose. Yesterday I rode by the complexes my mother and my father lived in before they died. It's nice to have roots.

Yes it is ridiculously expensive to live here now. I remember doing genealogy on my mother side. Many of her ancestors came over on ship to Halifax from Yorkshire. On the passenger lists they would state their reason for leaving England. Almost all of them said it was because taxes were too high and rent was too expensive. Kind of like it is here now. The problem is, we have no place to go. Everywhere is expensive now. They sure aren't handing out any land grants any more.

When I see a big house all I can think about is a big hydro bill and a lot of property tax. When my parents retired they rented a small apartment. When you're old, that's all you need. Now that I'm getting old I can start thinking about traveling again. Yet this place will always be my home. It's where I'm from. I've been tempted many times to move to Alberta. I may retire there. I want to retire somewhere cheap so I can travel and make new memories. Life goes on so it does.