Loving the Lions

I went back for round two yesterday and hiked the Lions from Cypress. What a difference a day makes. Yesterday their was no wondering where the lions are. It was sunny and they were clearly in sight. Last Saturday they were completely hidden with zero visibility.



I made it to the top of the bump between the two heads of the lions.



If you follow the orange dots spray painted on the rocks, the Howe Sound Crest Trail will take you around the west lion to the middle of the two peaks and then on beyond them.



I think the trail up the west lion breaks off right before this. I didn't find it until my way back and by that time had lost my steam in the heat. Many younger kids tried it but turned back. It's pretty technical. I.E. dangerous. The key thing is you have to follow the marked trail. If you just plan on making you're own trail you're going to get into trouble fast.

On the way back one girl was commenting on how unprepared many of the people there were who hiked it from lion's bay. She said one guy say wow, I'm really dehydrated. Good thing I brought this beer with me. Yeah good thing buddy she said. On a hike like this you need lots of water. Especially if it's sunny. Two 2 liter pop bottles filled one third with water and frozen over night then topped up right before you leaver is best. Plus Gatorade and juice boxes and food to eat. These yahoos that go unprepared are the ones search and rescue end up having to go look for.

I've always wondered what it looks like on the other side of the lions. This trail that keeps on going all the way to Porteau people keep talking about. Well here it is:



This is the view of the east lion from the top of the bump in between the peaks. You can see the Capilano reservoir on the bottom right in the distance.



The Cleavland dam has served Vancouver well for many years. Hydroelectric dams are a lot better than nuclear reactors. They are clean and productive. They create a beautiful lake just like the Seymour reservoir, Alouette lake or Stave lake. The draw back is salmon spawning. You can see the fish ladder they put in to fix that at the base of the Cleveland dam.

It never ceased to amaze me that with all the scientific technology of nuclear reactors, they split the atom simply to generate heat that turns a steam turbine just like a hydro electric dam does. Only the dam doesn't create toxic waste you can't dispose of and create huge public hazards to everything around it. Anyways, right now I'm loving the lions.

There's no way I'd cross the side of the west lion in winter. There would be no ledge at all with snow on it. Now is the best time of year to climb them. Not too hot and the snow pack has melted. Just be careful and be prepared. Bring lots of water. In contrast, the beginning of summer is the best time to climb the glacier on Mount Baker. While the crevasses are full of snow before they open up and turning into giant hazards. Peace.

In Defense of Jennifer Aniston

I really don't give a rat's ass about celebrity gossip. I noticed an article the Vancouver Province reprinted from the Daily Telegraph and had to mention it. The article states:

"Jennifer Aniston has a new movie, a new look and an old problem. The film - Life of Crime - has been well reviewed, and the style mags have praised the straight-cut hairdo she showed off at the premiere, but no one cares about that any more, because Brad Pitt, the actor who dumped Jen nine years ago, has married the woman he left her for, Angelina Jolie." Holy toxic cesspools.

She had a relationship break down nine years ago. This journalist is the guy that needs to get over it, not her. This is the British paparazzi trying to stir up toxic waste to sell newspapers. That's actually quite shameful. Makes us think of British Tabloids and the Murdoch wiretapping scandal. They're even freaking stalking her on a private jet. That's just creepy.

Local reporters for the Vancouver Province on the other hand referred to her as the diva in white. "The film - Life of Crime - has been well reviewed." That's all that needs to be said.

Another Asteroid misses the Earth

The Vancouver Province is reporting that a newly discovered asteroid with have a near miss with the earth on Sunday. Of course it will pass far away but it will be within 1/4 of the moon's orbit. To me, that's pretty close. Evidently this happens all the time. May 10th it just happened as well. That flyby marked the third-closest asteroid near miss of 2014. Turns out Sunday's near miss will be even closer. More like one tenth the moons orbit.

Evidently this happens so often they refer to them as NEA: Near-Earth Asteroids. In 2013 one passed by and made headlines when "reports said that there's a chance it could strike our planet in less than 20 years. Such a collision could unleash a force as powerful as a couple of thousand atomic bombs." This one is called NEA 2014 RC and is nicknamed Pitbull. "To understand the future, you have to understand the past." Word.

Every time we have a meteor shower the earth is bombarded with objects. Most burn up in the earth's atmosphere. We know from the craters on the moon, the moon is hit with stellar objects on a regular basis. One has to wonder if the moon ever gets hit with an object large enough could that effect it's orbit around the earth? One also has to wonder if the earth has ever been hit by a large object, what kind of impact that had on the earth's orbit or climate. Scientists claim this is what might have taken out the dinosaurs in the past. I'm wondering if a NEA passes by earth this close, does the earth's gravitational field change it's current trajectory? Prism - Armageddon.

Hells Angels Criminal Organization Case

As we know the police and the government have seized the Nanaimo Hells Angels clubhouse and have applied to the courts to seize the Kelowna clubhouse under criminal organization legislation. Recently the court directed the crown to provide a list of specific cases where the Hells Angels have in fact been involved in criminals activity. That is a simple and reasonable request. Although the number of cases is exhausting, I put together a pdf file listing a few off the top of my head. When you start to connect the dots and do the math it's pretty overwhelming.

Since I realize police officers read my blog as well as gang members, please forward a copy of the pdf file to the Crown counsel in support of their application to seize the clubhouses. I have much more to say on the matter but it has taken me longer than I thought to put the list together and I wanted to get it online so it can be forwarded to assist the lawyers in that case. Cheers.

Already this list is incomplete. I forgot to put in the Lester Jones conviction which is highly relevant to the seizure of the Kelowna clubhouse. He was the vice president of the Kelowna Hells Angels and was convicted of cocaine trafficking. After he's busted, David Giles, the next Kelowna vice president also gets arrested for cocaine trafficking. That's a pattern.

The first BC Criminal Organization Conviction was in Kelowna. Thomas Donald Fraser and Jason Jonathon Herrick were convicted of trafficking cocaine on behalf of a criminal organization. 6 kilos of cocaine and 400 ecstasy tablets were seized. Only the criminal organization wasn't named. Yet in one of the intercepted phone calls between the two men, Fraser phones Herrick and orders him to “bring some s**t” to “the clubhouse.” With loud music in the background, Fraser tells him the address is 837 Ellis Street, the property known locally as the Hells Angels clubhouse. “Bring lots,” Fraser said. “A quarter.”

A former Kingpin Crew member charged with drug trafficking but that was a pretty insignificant bust. Joey Verma on the other hand was doing some pretty high level drug trafficking even while in prison. We all know who he was associated with. Darryl Wilcox was charged with selling 18 kilos of cocaine. He was a Hells Angels associate. We didn't even mention uncle Joe racing through Salmon arm with a car load of guns and a cell phone jammer right before that local grow was abandoned. That's more criminal activity for ya out of the Kelowna clubhouse. Ryan Ennis, one of the guys with uncle Joe moved into Darryl Wilcox's house while he was in jail. I'd say that's a confirmed association.

That's the problem with compiling a list of criminal activity the Hells Angels have been involved with. It goes on forever. I didn't even mention the multitude of drug trafficking arrests tied to the Hells Angels in Edmonton and Fort McMurray. I had to stop somewhere. You get then idea. Claiming the Hells Angels aren't a criminal organization at this point is offensive. Dustin Zimmerman was an associate of Cliff Montgomery. Cliff was an associate of Glen Hehn.

Howe Sound Crest Trail

Yesterday I took Howe Sound crest trail from the parking lot on Cypress to St Mark's summit and both peaks on Unecessary mountain. The first picture is the view from St Mark's summit.

I was hoping to make it to the Lions as I've never done them from this route before. I've done them from Lions bay which they say is shorter but steeper. The beginning of the trail is well groomed and the first two switchbacks up St Mark's summit look just like the trail up Baker called the Heliotrope trail. However after the first two switchbacks the trail gets fairly rugged pretty fast. Lots of rocks and roots. They are working on improving the trail with bobcats but that's a big job so it is.



Just as I hit Unecessary mountain the fog started to roll in covering the lions. In this picture you can just barely see the tip of the west lion with the east lion being completely hidden by fog.



The wind was coming from the ocean so I thought luck was on my side and it would blow the fog away. In reality, withing two minutes the wind brought fog from the ocean and the entire panorama was zero visibility. This is a direct view of the Lions from the north peak of Unecessary mountain:



Not much to see but when the clouds aren't there it's spectacular. Turning to the left this is the view of Lions bay. Again when the clouds aren't the view is spectacular.



I finally found the trail down from Unecessary mountain to the back of the lions. It's a short steep descent but with the lions in sight you're almost there. If you see a rope anchored to the rocks you're on the right trail. Kinda like how they have a chain riveted to the rocks to help climb on Goat mountain and the back of the Chief.



I was somewhat disappointed to make it so close to the lions and have to turn back defeated. The lions are without question the crown jewel of Vancouver. As I was descending there were several groups that were determined to pass the Lions in their journey despite the fog. One group of backpackers were heading to Deeks lake while two groups of runners were going all the way to Porteau cove. That is a long way.

For me the Lions is the primary quest. If you go too early in the summer there's still lots of snow to cross. If you go mid summer in the heat, you'll need more water and since there is no fresh water en route you have to carry it which significantly adds to the load. Now is the best time of year to do them. Not too hot and the trail is bare of snow finally. Yet like always on the coastal mountains the visibility is hit and miss.

This is an old youtube video I made of the Bruce Cockburn song Wondering Where The Lions Are. It has pictures around Vancouver including a close up of the lions when I hiked them from Lions bay. Yesterday as I stood at their foot looking straight at them hidden in dense fog that song Wondering Where The Lions Are came to mind. Of course it's also metaphorical. Wondering where the lions are can also mean the lions of Judah willing to stand against crime and corruption in defense of civil liberty. But then again people say I'm too metaphorical. This is a picture of the Lions from Hollyburn ridge on Cypress. They are the crown jewel of Vancouver.

She was Not just a junkie

There are a few stories to catch up on and although I will mention them briefly I really want to focus on where this has all taken us. 37.5 kg of cocaine were seized at Toronto airport. 3.3 tons of cocaine bound for Belgium and Spain were seized just outside of Peru. We still haven't heard what happened to our local Hells Angels arrested in that 500 kilos of cocaine seized in Spain.

The Globe and Mail reported that the Canadian Medical Association said smoking anything is bad for you including pot. Kinda like I said. The weird thing is they had to vote on it. Since when did scientific evidence become popular opinion? If enough people voted to say smoking cigarettes was good for you would they have said so? The Vancouver Province also ran an article saying smoking pot while driving is a bad idea. No kidding. Yet my real concern is Eric Clapton's version of Cocaine. When you want to get down, down on the ground, cocaine.

Although I do think way too many people smoke way too much pot, I recognize that meth and crack are much worse. Selling drugs in clubs to people who can afford it really isn't any of my business. These predatory drug dealers that push crack on the homeless and live off the avails by giving prostitutes crack then collecting all their money to pay for it is predatory exploitation.

Which brings us back to the Prince George serial killer case. Personally I think the guy is indeed a pathological liar. There is no possible way the 15 year old legally blind girl he killed was killed for a drug debt. His claim that she committed suicide while he was on a date with her is absurd. Under cross examination the crown implied he made up the story about other people being involved so he wouldn't be labeled a sex offender in prison but it's too late for that. He is a sex offender. He admitted to having sex with the sex trade workers before he killed them and he had sex with the 15 year old girl before he killed her too so he definitely is a sex offender.

Even if his story about killing the sex trade workers for a drug debt was true, it doesn't change the fact that he murdered them. That is what the evidence clearly declares. The fundamental problem in this case is that this guy has absolutely no remorse whatsoever. That is sad.

It reminds me of the Britney Irving case. Britney was most certainly not a sex trade worker. She sold pot to support her oyx habit. After Joey Verma killed her and was trying to get another man to take the fall for him, he said "I had to do it. She was just a junkie anyways."

Britney was not a junkie. In the trial Britney's brother testified how he was concerned about the plan to go shoot guns in the bush during a drug deal while the buyers picked up the product stashed in their car. He said that sounded kinda strange since during a drug deal you're trying to be inconspicuous and not get caught. Britney reassured him that they could trust Joey and that everything would be OK.

She was sadly mistaken. She genuinely cared about Joey and he used her and literally shot her in the back. The expression on her face they showed in court when her dead body was found still haunts me. I'm not sure which was worse. The pain of being shot in the back with a shotgun slug or being betrayed by the person she trusted and cared about. The pain on her face was real.

The tragic part was her excitement about her decision to go into rehab to get off the oxy once and for all right before she was killed. Just like how Natasha Montgomery was ready to leave Prince George and return home to be with her family right before she was killed. Someone didn't want them to get clean. It's the if I can't have you no one can tragedy.

It's like the Dianne Rock and Vince McMurchy case. The court was told Vince sold crack and got her addicted to it. After she was addicted, then she became a sex trade worker to pay for the drug. When her beauty started to fade and she was no longer able to pay her debts she was killed just like Janice Shore and Ashley Machiskinic. The point is, these women became sex trade workers out of necessity after they became addicted to crack. They weren't sex trade workers or drug addicts before they met their dirty dealer. As I said before the drug dealers are the pimps outside the Front Room in Surrey and in the DTES. They are the predators we must confront.

BC Teachers: Get back to work - Update

There is nothing more disgusting and infuriating that seeing BC Teachers on strike again holding signs that say think of the kids. Going on strike does not help the kids. Teacher's raises do not help the kids. If the government locks them out that is one thing but going on strike is another. You don't have to ratify a contract. There is no reason you can't vote down the contract, keep working and let the courts hash out the details of the contract. The Union can sign a memorandum with the employer agreeing that the old contract remains in effect until the new contract is ratified. Everybody knows the BC Liberals are corrupt. Everybody knows the BCTF is corrupt too. Now we know the teachers are selfish and greedy and don't give a rat's ass about the kids.

Never before have I had such an uncontrollable urge to yell out get back to work when I see a picket line. Never. I support free collective bargaining and the right to strike. However, education is an essential service. You only graduate once. You're only in grade eight once. You once play sports in that year once. Nothing replaces those lost memories. Nothing. Now when I see a teacher with a picket sign that says think of the kids I just want to scream out Shame! That's my position on the matter. Let the parents volunteer for the extra curricular activities and God help any selfish bastard that calls them a scab.

Update: Christy Clark's recent publicity stunt is yet another example of everything that's wrong with the BC Liberals. She sends out a press release saying she's asking the Teachers to call off their strike and the media reports that the Teachers rejected her offer to return to work. That in itself is ridiculous. If she wanted the teachers to return to work she makes them an offer at the table. I'm sure if she said they would obey the court order they have refused to obey that would have significant more impact in getting the teachers back to work. This conflict isn't a matter of being on the teachers side or being on the government's side. Both are wrong here.

A child's education is an essential service. The government can easily legislate the teachers back to work. It because ever so problematic when the government legislates them back to work after they have been found in contempt of a court order themselves. Often the federal government has in the past legislated Postal Workers back to work with legislated wage settlements. Education is much more of an essential service than the Post Office.

What the government isn't allowed to do, which is to my understanding reflected in the court order they are in contempt of, is legislate someone back to work and throw away their existing collective agreement. True, wages are considered part of a collective agreement but the rest of the contract they just can't throw out at will. That's what they did. So although the teachers are being greedy and selfish and are using the kids for their own personal gain, it is important to realize who really caused the problem and elect a new government next election. We also need to remember that Surrey MP Fassbender is the current Labour Minister at the seat of the conflict. Fire him.

Peter Fassbender rejects binding arbitration. Exactly. Fire him.

Tentative agreement reached. Thank God.

Prince George Serial killer claims he had accomplices

The Vancouver Province is reporting that "a young man accused of murdering three women and a teenage girl in northern British Columbia admits he was involved in two of the killings, but he told his trial Tuesday that he didn't act alone." Cody Legebokoff said three other people were also involved. He refused to provide their names, instead referring to them only as X, Y and Z.

Legebokoff described X as a drug dealer who introduced him to cocaine. He said he met X at a party and soon became a regular customer. He said X came in soon after and told them Stuchenko was going to be killed because she owed a lot of money. A prostitute murdered for a drug debt in Prince George. Imagine that. And who runs the drug trade in Prince George?

The Life and death of Jill Stuchenko



Update: Evidently one of the four women Cody has been accused of murdering is a 15 year old partially blind girl he met online. It is not believable that she too was killed for a drug debt. He was caught after dumping her body. Evidently this case has been going on for a long time and 93 witnesses were called. I'm going to have to go through some of their testimony as well.

One woman who claimed to have had a relationship with Cody testified that she knew one of the victims. She claimed that she and the victim were both prostitutes that did a lot of crack cocaine and crystal meth. Montgomery’s boyfriend, Brian Godwin, confirmed that she developed a serious drug problem around crack cocaine and the relationship broke up. Right before she died she was trying to leave Prince George and come home to her children.

Natasha Cynthia Maas' blood was found on a pickaxe in Legebokoff's Prince George apartment. Montgomery's blood was on an axe found leaning against a wall in a coat and boot closet near the apartment's entrance and was seen upon opening the closet door. Montgomery's blood was also found in Cody's apartment. There's lots of dna evidence. The three adult victims worked in the sex trade to pay for drugs. The fourth 15 year old victim did not.

These are however, some links to relevant information about sex trade workers that have been murdered for drug debts that Cody did not make up:

Prince George Torture Chambers (That was obviously an internal conflict because the Renegades, the Crew and the Independent Soldiers all work for the Hells Angels)

Diane Rock and Vince McMurchy

Larry Mizen and Janice Shore

Ashley Machiskinic

Anthony Terezakis and the American Hotel

Anthony Terezakis and Piggy's Palace

Mining company sues the Federal government

This is exactly what I'm talking about. This is exactly why these bizarre trade agreements have nothing to do with free trade and everything to do with removing our democratic system. The Vancouver Province is reporting that Taseko Mines is taking the Federal Government to court because it rejected it's application to create an open pit gold mine beside a lake over environmental concerns. WTF?

In Costa Ricca a Canadian mining company sued the the Costa Rican government over the canceled Las Crucitas gold mining concession. The concession was revoked in 2010 following environmental concerns and doubts about the concession’s legality. The corrupt company claimed that Costa Rica violated the Costa Rica-Canada Bilateral Investment Treaty when an Administrative Appeals Court revoked its mining concession in San Carlos, Alajuela, in 2010 and sued for a billion dollars in damages. The Costa Rican government was forced to let them continue their hazardous practices. These trade agreements remove our democratic sovereignty.

This time they aren't even going in front of one of these ridiculous closed door tribunals. They're going in front of the Supreme Court of Canada. Where and the hell is the jurisdiction to hear this application? The public elect a government, the government says no over environmental concerns and that's it. There is nothing more to discuss. The people had a protest and the government actually listened for once. Now a corrupt corporation wants to overturn the democratic will of the people. That is the problem right there. The court has absolutely no jurisdiction on this matter.

Innocent bystander shot dead in Calgary

The Globe and Mail is reporting that "a Toronto woman gunned down in Calgary early Saturday was an innocent bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time, police say. Natasha Mohamed Farah, 26, was killed in a shooting near 11th Ave. and 1st St. Southwest at about 3 a.m. Ms. Farah, who had just recently moved to Calgary, was pronounced dead at the scene."

CBC reported that "three people are in custody after being arrested at a hotel in the city's northwest, police said on Monday." The Calgary Sun is reporting that "she was killed only because she happened to be chatting with friends on the sidewalk, directly in the path of one badly-aimed bullet."

The Calgary Sun is reporting that "the man wanted in connection with a shooting in the Calgary community of Tuscany has been arrested in Ontario. Ulises Boris Quinteros, 51, was taken into custody early Monday morning in the lake city of Kenora, located 200 km east of Winnipeg. Quinteros is now charged with attempted murder, pointing a firearm and discharge of firearm with intent to wound, maim or disfigure. He is also charged with choking with intent and break and enter with the intent to harass." That shooting appears to be a second one that happened on sunday after a car crash where the victim survived.