The Squamidian Report – May 24 / 14
Issue #626
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Have you ever wondered about gravity? It does seem to have a rather
large influence on pretty well everything around us, including well,
us. Just the fact that life on this planet evolved in a crushing
gravity well is interesting. Here we are, barely able to fight gravity
enough to permit us to stand and when we do stand it has to be
perfectly perpendicular to the center of gravity or we'd just fall
over. Everything gets pulled toward the center. So when we are up at
the Sea to Sky Gondola lodge, we look down on the waters of Howe Sound.
From that vantage point those waters are perfectly flat and level. The
estuary and flood plains and the whole waterfront area and the old down
town sit just above the flat surface of the Sound, just the way it
should be. But if the center of gravity were to shift even a little,
that wouldn't work anymore. Water levels would drop in one area and
rise in another. That of course won't happen but we sure depend on that
constant, seemingly unchanging gravity well to keep things just as they
are and just as we are accustomed to them being. Makes you wonder what
it would be like if the actual laws of gravity were to somehow change.
All bets would be off. So, I guess its best that things stay just as
they are.
We've been doing some hiking and exploring on the trails that are
accessed from the Gondola lodge. They've built some easy walking trails
close by and we explored them first. One of them is an easy mile stroll
that takes you to some very nice viewing locations include a
cantilevered platform that looks down on the Chief and down on the
surrounding valleys. You end up WAY above all three peaks of the Chief.
The trails that head into the back country are not groomed the same.
They are the remnants of the old logging roads that had been pushed up
into the Shannon Creek hanging valley, overgrown with alders and cut by
cross ditches and small streams. We followed one trail that took us to
where the old logging road crossed Shannon Creek but the bridge has
been out for years and the stream was running very fast. Assumably a
new walking bridge will go in at some point because this is all part of
their future hiking trail system. Other trails take you up into the
higher reaches of Mount Habrich. Its pretty nice now that us normal
people can get to these areas. It used to require a 10 or 12 kilometer
crawl up a very steep and rough forestry access road that ran off the
Indian Arm access road, assuming you could get past the locked gate. In
fact, I had tried to climb that road several years ago on my dirt bike
and couldn't make it. One section was so steep and rocky for so long a
distance that I simple got bucked off every time I tried. Ryan and some
of his friends at the time had succeeded and had explored the very
trails that are now being put back into the reach of us normal people.
That is really cool.
That access road up as far as where the Gondola lodge now sits had been
virtually impassible for years but had to be put back into a usable
condition for the Gondola construction. They needed to have a way of
trucking up materials and equipment that could not be flown in by
helicopter. The interesting thing was, no truck loaded with timbers or
concrete or whatever could possibly make it up the road no matter how
'improved' it was. Each and every truck had to be pulled up by a dozer.
A friend of mine drove one of the concrete trucks and says even with a
dozer chained to his front bumper it was a very hairy ride up, and back
down. Brakes don't help much when your wheels are slipping and one side
of the road drops off forever. They actually rebuilt the access road
for another half kilometer or so past the lodge area in order to reach
some gravel deposits from which they could extract the rock and gravel
and sand needed for trail and fill material.
The whole point is that gravity played and plays a big roll in every
aspect of the building, and the enjoying, of the facility. It made it
very difficult to accomplish what they did and you can certainly feel
it as you walk the trails. There is no such thing as a level trail when
up on a mountain side, you are either climbing, or descending, and
gravity has an opinion about both.
*
Something I usually insist on for articles in this
Squamidian is that any and all articles are the creation and
composition of the person submitting them. In other words, anyone who
submits and article must be the person who wrote it. However, I'm going
to break my own rule, just this once, and include an article that was
in the Vancouver Sun, by reporter Brian Morton. I do not have the Sun's
or Mr. Morton's permission, but this article now appears all over the
Internet so its not like I'm letting the cat out of the bag. The cat is
out. Squamish has been 'the best kept secret' for a long time. Now the
world knows....
Squamish has been named the best mountain town to visit in North America.... I've pasted the article to the space below.
doug
****
Squamish named best mountain town
BY VANCOUVER SUN MAY 22, 2014
Squamish has been named the best mountain town to visit in North America this summer, according to CNNMoney.com.
"Travelers visiting British Columbia's Coast Mountains usually make a
beeline to Whistler," said CNN in a feature on the perfect summer
getaway.
"This year, though, the Squamish area is becoming a destination in its
own right, thanks to a new $22-million Sea to Sky Gondola and summit
lodge," said CNN. "Go this summer while Squamish is still flying under
most vacationers' radar."
CNN also cites the area's outdoor amenities, including rock climbing, kiteboarding and whitewater kayaking.
"For a more sedate option, you can stroll along the Squamish Estuary, a
popular nesting spot for herons, loons and other migratory birds."
It also noted Squamish's reputation for excellent craft brewing.
Meanwhile, the Sea to Sky Gondola said Wednesday it attracted thousands
of visitors in its first weekend after officially opening on Friday.
© (c) CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Well, it’s the “real” May 24 weekend and nothing’s happening! It beats
me why we don’t celebrate occasions on the same date every year.
Christmas gets celebrated on December 25th every year but it seams
other occasions get shifted around to suit the retail market or the
school schedule. I guess it’s a matter of convenience but what could be
more convenient than celebrating the May “two four” weekend on the 24th
of May when it lands on a Saturday? Right now I can see on the western
horizon that we’ve got a black storm coming our way and I’m thinking
it’d be a shitty weekend to celebrate the Queen’s birthday anyway if
it’s going to rain. But on the other hand, what could be more fitting
than celebrating it in true British style in the rain? Come to think of
it, why do we celebrate Queen Victoria’s birthday anyway? I guess these
days it’s nothing more than an excuse to have another holiday! I
suppose that in the first place it was to mark the occasion out of
respect for the British Royalty and Canada’s connection to Britain as a
colony. Now with so many people in the population of Canada that don’t
give a hoot about Canada being a British Colony or respecting our
British Heritage, nobody even takes notice why we celebrate Victoria
Day. Sadly, it’s just like so many of our Canadian traditions that are
being shoved aside in the name of “political correctness”. At least the
Americans still wave their flag with a hearty and loud shout of “God
Bless America” every chance they get but even the US is starting to
crumble to the pressures of the foreign and so called religious
population of imports into their country! You’d think that with the
brutality of the wars in the Middle East and the fact that US soldiers
and Canadian soldiers are losing their lives every week fighting over
there that once the veterans get back to their own countries, they
could count on our support and not have to face the same bad influences
they fought to suppress and destroy over there! We tend to be getting
these bad influences shoved in our faces right here in Canada and the
US every night on the news reports and it seams our governments are
cowering to their demands more and more! It’s a sad state of affairs
when two great countries such as Canada and the USA that were founded
on and governed under Christian beliefs are giving in to such outside
and totally anti-free world influences! If you want to get out of the
“Hell Hole” you were born and raised in you are welcome here in North
America but you must live by our rules and laws as long as you reside
here. Don’t emigrate here and expect to live by the same laws from the
country that you so desperately had to flee from! That’s like chopping
off your nose to spite your face!
I didn’t mean to get up on the soapbox today but when you get on a roll, sometimes you just have to spit it out!
I guess I started off on a Holiday Weekend and wound up in a political
rant. With the upcoming election here in Ontario we’ll have enough
political ranting without me adding my Looney’s worth! (It used to be 2
cents worth but inflation, you know!)
I think this is where I’ll leave off for this week!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now … Greg
PS: Something To Think About>
Thank God for dirty dishes,
They have a tale to tell;
While others may go hungry,
We’re eating very well.
With Home, Heath and Happiness,
I shouldn’t want to fuss;
By the stack of evidence
God’s been very good to us!
-Author Unknown.
****
Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.
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