Road Trippin' with Paul Robinson - Part 5

It's our last night in Squamish.
Tomorrow we drop off Joel at the airport in Vancouver and then begin the supposed 12 hour trek to Banff. It was a long and crazy week full of many exciting adventures. Paul tried Dreamcatcher various times and was finally able to do the entire thing in 2 falls with the humid, hot temperatures relentlessly working against him. Singularity was deemed impossible due to the weather conditions so Paul tried some other classic lines in Squamish when he wasn't working Dreamcatcher. He completed When Harry Met Sally, Sharma's Jump, The Pain Below and Encore une fouis. We met up with his friend Nate, a local, who showed us some other cool projects. Joel climbed really well and went from working V2 to completing V5 after only a few tries.

One day was too hot to climb, and a rest day was necessary, so the three of us drove up to Whistler hoping that the higher altitude would help us escape the heat. Our hopes were crushed when we looked at my car's thermometer and the temperature had actually increased from 90 to 96 degrees. Whistler was pretty much a bust but Joel and I did a little shopping. We quickly left seeking cold water for swimming.

We decided to explore Alice Lake located close by to our hotel. Apparently the rest of Canada decided to explore Alice Lake as well which made the potentially nice lake extremely unattractive. After yet another failed attempt to find coolness we decided to retreat to our air conditioned hotel and watch TV.

The next day we went grocery shopping and upon getting back into the car discovered a sleeping baby mouse on the rear window sill. The next 20 minutes were spent trying to get the mouse out of the car but the mouse was not having it. Joel tapped the mouse and the idea was for Paul to catch the mouse in a pot lid but instead he let the mouse fall into the mess that was our backseat and we knew that getting the mouse out at that very moment was impossible. We drove back to the hotel with Joel looking around him as he sat in the backseat with the mouse. Half way back Joel yelled from the backseat that he had felt the mouse on his foot! When we got back to the hotel I saw the mouse crawling back up the seat to it's sleeping spot. We knew this was our chance to get the mouse from the car before he did any damage/crapped all over the place. After a few failed attempts, Paul resorted to using his hands and was able to remove the little mouse from the car.

A few days later we took another rest day and decided to go down to Britannia Beach and then to the Mining Museum for a tour. The beach was a bust and a few field trips happened to be going on. The beach was rocky and we sought refuge in the water, but even the water lacked sand and barnacled rocks scrapped up our bare feet.

We didn't last long and decided a tour of the mine was a better idea. The mine was really cool and we got to take a little train tour. Next we panned for gold and found 2 flakes! On the way home we stopped to see a huge waterfall right off the highway.

The next day we had planned to travel down to Vancouver and go salmon fishing. We were so excited and had the boat and guide all to ourselves. We had scheduled to go out for 5 hours and were sure we would catch AT LEAST one salmon and that the next few days would be spent consuming the many pounds of salmon. We discussed how we would prepare the salmon and what would accompany our fabulous fish. After 5 hours on the boat we hadn't gotten a single bite and the 2 other boats owned by the same company had each caught at least one fish. Apparently we had jinxed ourselves and we returned to the shore tired, pissed off and empty handed. We realized the fishing lifestyle was not for us and we returned to Squamish after an extremely overpriced Italian dinner.

Since our salmon adventure, every day has been spent climbing. We have worked hard to get good photos and video footage and we are satisfied with what we achieved. Paul feels confident that we can return in the fall and he will be able to complete Dreamcatcher with cooler temperatures. It was as successful a trip as it could have been given the weather conditions. From here it's on to the Banff/Canmore area where, weather allowing, we plan to climb a little inside and outside. Stay turned for the final blog to be written upon returning to Boulder!