High Falls

I've been hiking twice more since my last post, which makes it 4 hikes in 8 days! Pretty good going for someone who's not done much of it before! On Saturday I went with my new flattie Alexis, her brother and his girlfriend, and a friend of theirs. We did the High Falls Track, not far from the Chief I did earlier in the week, but with some quite different scenery. Check out this description from a website:

"I kept repeating to myself as I pulled myself along the High Falls trail, "someone must have really wanted to see this waterfall", because while the falls are quite impressive, the trail is possibly even more impressive. The High Falls Creek trail climbs, literally, straight up the cliffs lining the gorge below High Falls, then skirts the edge of the gorge for over a kilometer up to and past the falls. In several places, the trail actually scales near vertical rock faces with the assistance of some well placed ropes and chains. Once you get past the grunt of the hike, you'll be rewarded with a very impressive waterfall hurtling into a spectacular canyon, well over 100m deep, and in places, no more than 2m wide." http://www.waterfallsnorthwest.com/bc_waterfall.php?num=204&p=0

At one point we were climbing across steep piles of unstable rocks, from fist-sized to large boulders, which I suspect were "felsenmeer" (I learned this term today while reading Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods - he describes felsenmeer as "mile upon mile of jagged, oddly angled slabs of stone strewn about in wobbly piles...literally, "sea of rocks"). Here's a picture - see there's a man in the bottom left to give you an idea of scale. It doesn't really show it adequately, as I was peering over the edge looking back down at what we'd just climbed up, and most of it is out of view.



The falls were rather impressive as the snowmelt at this time of year meant lots of water and lots of noise! We did a loop and returned via a logging road that seemed to go on forever. It was so hot in the open that we rested in the shade of trees when we could. We all ran out of water and started fantasising about cold drinks! First stop on the journey home was at a service station for cold refreshments.



Heading back along the logging road. That's the Squamish Valley in the background. Not a bad view, eh?

It's a fantastic time of year to get out hiking because the weather is warm but there's still a lot of snow on the mountains to give that scenic backdrop. Today Lani, Maya and I went to Lynn Canyon Park (http://www.lynncanyonparkguide.bc.ca/) and crossed the famous suspension bridge there. The vegetation on our walk was amazingly lush and bright green!


Me on the suspension bridge today. There's a 50m drop down to a raging creek fed by snowmelt below!


"Creek" seems to have a different meaning here - some of the "creeks" I have seen have been pretty big and pretty fast flowing!

Even though things seemed hopeful with the temp assignment I interviewed for, the client contact keeps delaying her decision. I was meant to hear on Thursday if I got it, then it was Monday, then today, but I didn't hear anything today. However, in the meantime I've been asked to interview for two different jobs on Friday! Both are permanent roles and sound interesting. One appeals more than the other because it's closer and the money and hours are better, but I'll see what happens.

Positions applied for: 23. Interviews: 1. Job offers: still 0!