The Boy has been WFW – Working from Whistler since October 2020. At that time, he loaded up his new car with his office gear and sports gear and convinced his sister to ride shotgun with him across the country. Not sure he is really ever going to come “Back East” other than for a visit.

I have been out a few times to see the Boy, most recently last month. He has a good set up and he is happy. He has a walk-up apartment and at most a 15 minute walk with a long light to the base of Creekside and on the way he passes a local park on a well-used glacial lake. Really not so bad. A bear (just a black bear) is known to rest in the bushes just metres from his stairs, but neither the Boy or the Bear seem to mind. He does not have air conditioning during this Summer of Heat, but that does not seem to bother him either. Two fans kind of do the trick.

I arrived on a Friday afternoon and after finishing work, we walked down the “beltline” with a few pops as Alex showed me around and we finished off taking a cooling swim in Alpha Lake. Ok, I hurt my shoulder a bit jumping in from a rockface, but small price to pay. I recuperated.

Saturday morning I took the Boy’s bike and went for a nice ride down Hwy 99 (Sea to Sky) and then west to Olympic Park, the home of the cross country events during the 2010 Winter Olympics. I was remined to watch for bears and had a panic moment when as cycling I heard a voice behind me say, “Hello”. It took me a few seconds to process that it was probably not a bear saying hello to me. While I was cycling, the Boy was swimming in Alpha. He is recovering well from arthroscopic knee surgery. He is doing great. Funny how you always get hurt by definition on what turns out to be the last run of the season.

Post ride, we provisioned the Boy’s rig and off we went north a bit past Pemberton and then west along a forest service road to Lillooet Lake for an overnight camping trip. As it turned out, we were not alone. The campground, right on a pristine lake, was pretty full of pickup trucks, and billions and billions of mosquitos. The Boy had been to this site the week prior and still swears that he and his mates were alone without people and without mosquitos. I personally am not so sure.

We unpacked, pitched the Boy’s new tent and took the new camping chairs that I had added to his inventory of car camping gear down to the lake, with of course, a few more pops. It was a wonderfully relaxing afternoon as we sat sweating, swatting and swimming. We made our way back to our campsite and finished setting up camp while doing a full arm swatting work out. The boy fired up his one burner hiking stove and we feasted on sausages and mac and cheese. What is more Canadian than that!

Having had enough of the swatting work out, we made our way into his tent and tried to sleep in a moist and airless night. We were kept awake by the sounds of the billions of marauders trying to find their way into the tent and the sounds of other campsites, clearly turning to drink in response to their own marauders.  We finally did get some sleep, but of course I was up at dawn having to “break the seal” as the Girl has taught me. The Boy has still not forgiven me for my transgression of opening the tent twice – one to get out and one to get in, giving the marauders ample opportunity to get to know our few cubic metres of space. We gave in shortly thereafter and quickly threw the gear in the car and high tailed it back to civilization.

We arrived shortly back in Pemberton and more by chance than plan, found the Blackbird Bakery, a fantastic little place located on the platform of a somewhat used train station. Did that hit the spot. Try the breakfast sandwich and the grilled cheese. Made with love.

We went back to Whistler and the Boy had to work. How is that for a turn of events after 25 years of me having to change plans due to work. While he worked, I put away the gear and wandered over to Roland’s Creekside Pub to watch the final minutes of the Euro Cup shoot out. Back to the apartment and we took a hot tub and had long chat about a lot of things.

Dinner in the Village and sleep and come the morning a last little walk before taking the shuttle back to YVR. There was no need to rent a car.

I am happy for the Boy. I really don’t think he will come “Back East”. He is minutes away from the outdoor activities that he loves. Good for him to not only realize it, but to live it.  There really is a whole world outside of Toronto, believe it or not.

 

Note – Happy to have had the assistance of the Boy in writing this Blog post.