Day 62: Whistler

Ranger and I met a bear first thing in the morning.  We were about thirty minutes along in our walk, heading back to the RV on the major bike trail in the area, and coming around a curve, there he was.  A large black bear, just walking along the bike trail toward us.  We crossed to the far side of the frontage road and waited for him to pass.  I told Ranger, “Leave it!” and hoped that he would not bark or lunge at the bear.  For once, he obeyed, and sat next to me, just watching the bear go by.  I kept talking to Ranger, to let the bear know where we were and not surprise him.  Meanwhile, a jogger had come from the other direction and saw the bear from her side, and she too stopped. The bear ignored her as well, and just went on his way.  I was so focused on keeping Ranger quiet that it didn’t even occur to me to snap a picture; I did have my camera in my pocket.

After breakfast, we caught the campground’s shuttle into the town of Whistler.  On the map, it looked like a total maze---no grid pattern to these streets, but rather swirls and curves.   Getting off the shuttle near the gondola up the mountain, we picked up information about that option for the day, but it would have required some advance planning (for the dog and for appropriate clothing) so we figured we would do that tomorrow.  Meanwhile, we strolled through the pedestrian mall of the town.

There are dozens of big, fancy hotels, and I’m guessing that they all fill during the ski season.  In summer, the town was still very busy, but mostly with young people who are into extreme biking.  At the base of the mountain and going up it quite a way is a mountain bike challenge course where the rider goes up on the ski lift to the top (with bikes on the next lift “seat”) and rides down, around all sorts of hills and jumps.  We stopped in a bike shop to get lubricant for our chains (which have been coated with dust and dirt several times along the way) and the shop sold all sorts of accessories for such an activity.

Aside from the many hotels, the town has lots of upscale shops to browse and restaurants.  It was all a bit overwhelming!  We managed to wind our way through the “marketplace” that is part of the section of town built for the Olympics and find the bike path (Valley Trail) that leads back to the campground.  It was about a 25 or 30 minute walk back.

I caught up on laundry and ended up spending much of the afternoon on the internet, trying to figure a route from here for the coming week.  I was getting concerned about where we might end up on Labor Day weekend when many of the parks will be full.  I was able, after much time and frustration, to get us a reservation at a state park in eastern Washington, so in the coming week, we’ll be hanging out in Washington and northern Oregon.