The Squamidian Report – Oct. 2 / 04

For the ‘ON LINE’ version of this newsletter, go to:

http://www.members.shaw.ca/doug_b2/2004/oct02.htm

Also in this issue:

The Ontarion

Hi All,

Sue is in Ontario this weekend. Yogi and I miss her, she makes our supper.

Just like back east, our fall colours are starting to show. We only get those bright reds and oranges on domestic shrubs and trees that people have planted. The wild alder, soft maple, cottonwood and so on tend to be in the yellow shades. The moss and lichen on the rocks turn all sorts of interesting colours as well. So the overall effect is a surprisingly bright colourful landscape.

And speaking of bright, any of us that have been enjoying clear night skies lately will also be enjoying that early fall full moon. It has been illuminating the surrounding mountains like a giant searchlight. The moon lit snow on the mountaintops sure glows nicely. Only draw back is that the stars are a bit washed out, with only the brightest of them being able to compete.

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We had another great dirt bike ride into some very scenic and rugged backcountry. Again, I will not bore you with the gory details. I’ll just touch on some high points and let anyone interested visit a couple of web pages I’ve put up that have pictures to look at.

http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b2/Pictures/Mamquam01.htm

We went up into the headwaters of the Mamquam River system. The Mamquam glacier is visible from the Squamish area. Had a lot of fun. Had a couple of problems as well. A loose piece of linkage at Warren’s carburetor stuck causing his engine to roar at wide open. Thought we would have to push the bike several miles over very rough terrain to where we could retrieve it with the truck. A couple of young guys on young machines came along and one of them found the problem. There was another incident where I hit a cross ditch a bit fast while skittering down a long steep loose section and ended up airborne. Came down on the front wheel. I just about did a lip stand over the bars but managed to hang on. Left me with sore stiff shoulders for a while but that’s part of the fun. Warren had a few problems with his’ vertical alignment’ but I won’t go into that.

Cross ditches are deep ditches that have been dug across the logging roads once they are no longer in active use. This permits drainage while reducing the amount of erosion. It also creates rather challenging obstacles for motorized vehicles. While some of them are only a couple of feet deep and fairly tame, many are 5 or 6 feet deep with almost vertical sides. You can’t see into them until you are right on the edge. Often there are loose rocks and boulders in the bottom as well as flowing water. They are fun to ride though and over while climbing up hill because you hit them at a manageable angle. However, going down slope you are often already fighting to keep control of a bike that is skidding wildly on the steep loose stony surface, only to hit the cross ditch from above which makes it feel like the uphill side is simply dropping out from under you and the downhill side is a wall.

Some sections of deactivated road have cross ditches every couple of hundred feet while other sections my go for half a mile or so between ditches. It is also common to rather unexpectedly come upon a section that has been washed out or buried under a slide. And keep in mind that due to the very fast growth of the alder trees along the sides, you often can only see a short distance ahead when in the wooded areas. On the other hand, the active roads are kept in pretty good shape. Good enough that any 4x4 or even SUV can travel over them easily.

Did a short run up into Garibaldi Park on the dirt bike just to take some more pictures for you guys. This area is accessible by normal everyday cars, although a bit loose and bumpy.

http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b2/Pictures/garibald.htm

Also did a run into Vancouver on my street bike to get my piece of crap cell phone replaced. I could go into all sorts of detail about how picturesque and enjoyable that was. How I could smell the salt air, feel the temperature changes as I rode from sun to shade and back. Look down on English Bay from the Upper Levels Highway and see all the ocean freighters sitting at anchor. But I won’t, don’t want to push this biking thing too far for fear of loosing everyone’s interest.

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Mt St Helens down in Washington St is in the news again. It has become increasingly seismically active. There seems to be the possibility of an eruption. This has of course gotten the scientific and media communities talking about the other eruption candidates. They include Mt Baker in Washington as well as our Garibaldi and it’s relatives. These are all part of the Cascade Range. It has been ten thousand years since Garibaldi last erupted but only two thousand since Meager, to the north blew. They are all considered to be dormant, not extinct. Nothing to worry about, just something to talk about.

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THE ONTARION REPORT

OCTOBER 2, 2004

OK, here we go! Full swing into Fall and a beautiful one it is so far! I hope everyone is enjoying the weather we’ve been having, at least the people that live in Southern Ontario. This is the weather we should have had in July and August but I say better late than never.

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I think when I was a kid, this weather was my favourite. Although it meant that we were back in school, that didn’t stop me from enjoying it on the weekends. I can remember having a fort deep in the wilds of Breithaupt’s Bush. Me and a pal of mine by the name of David Bernhardt used to “own” that bush or so we thought. It had all kinds of walking and biking trails in it and a couple of dirt roads for cars. The biking trails aren’t the kind we see in the city these days, they were just paths worn in by people cutting through the bush. Breithupt Park actually had two main sections to it. There was the area surrounded by Union St, Margaret Ave and Fairfield Ave and then there was the part of the park that had the kiddie swings and wading pool etc that was accessed from Union St about a block before Union entered the westerly portion. We used both parts of the park depending on what we had a notion to do. If we wanted to break a wrist or leg, we’d head for the play area and challenge each other to do stunts on the monkey bars. If we were in a mood to just sit around and talk or play cowboys and Indians, we’d use the bush with our “fort” in it. There was a line of trees that stretched out into the field closest to Margaret Ave and Fairfield Ave. I guess when the city landscaped the park for future development of the Breithaupt Community Centre and the rest as baseball and soccer fields they decided that this line of trees would be a natural dividing line between the two levels. We decided that from high in one of the huge maple trees in that row we could see in all directions best to enable us to watch the world go by. We could see Bernie’s house to the east and Floyd St (my street) to the south as well as see if anyone was trespassing in the area of our ground fort in the main bush. We decided to name the tree The Tarzan tree. It seemed appropriate since you had to be able to climb like Tarzan to get up into it. If ever we needed a meeting place, this was it. The Tarzan tree was like our clubhouse. We would hold meetings there or just sit up there and daydream. It was a great spot that seemed far away from the rest of the world and even our parents didn’t know our secret place. When it came right down to it, there weren’t many leaves on it at the best of times but that made it easy for us to see in all directions. I guess there was just enough foliage to give us a little camouflage when anyone looked in our direction from a distance. I wish we had access to today’s mini tape recorders back then. It sure would be interesting to listen to the conversations that took place in that tree in the late 50’s. It was a place where you could tell your best friend anything and you knew that he was sworn to secrecy if he heard it while in the Tarzan tree. I guess most kids had a secret place back then. I don’t know if the kids of today have that kind of imagination. I guess with the electronic entertainment of the modern age, kids can hardly be bothered venturing outside to play as we did. When the advent of TV was only a few years old and my parent’s Spartan Black and White set would only receive about 4 channels there wasn’t much point in staring at the snowy screen for more than a half hour at a time. Besides, channel 13 didn’t come on the air until 11am and it ceased broadcasting at 11pm I believe. I could be wrong about the exact hours but it was nothing like today’s network system. I’m sure that today’s kids still have their secret places but I couldn’t tell you where they are. Of course, I guess that’s why they’re called “secret places” isn’t it. Did any of my fellow Squamidians have a secret place or even, as George Carlin put it “A place for your STUFF” when you were a kid? If so, maybe you could share a story or two with us in next week’s edition. Like Karin has said many times, I like to read about the past adventures in people’s lives, so c’mon and join in the fun with a story or two.

I’ll let you all go for this week and I look forward to hearing from several new people next week. Give it a try, you just might discover another side of yourself.

Thanks for tuning in and have a great week!

Bye for now…..GREG.

PS: Something To Think About>

A snail can sleep for 3 years.

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or

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Have a good one..

the doug