Travel Plans... The Dream

Hello everyone,

As I stated in my first post The Beginning..., I uprooted myself back in Ottawa for an undetermined period of time to travel.

Since being in Vancouver I have really enjoyed it, and will continue to explore Cascadia for about six more months. In this exploration I hope to accomplish a few things;

• Hike the Juan de Fuca trail
• See such places on Vancouver island as Tofino, Nanaimo, and Victoria
• Hike Lynn Peak
• Hike The Golden Ears
• Tour the Sunshine Coast
• Go to Portland
• Explore Northern California (Mendocino, Trinity, and Humbolt Counties)

After this I am planning a grand trip, a trip to eclipse all trips.

Around the World

Yup, I am planning an around the world journey, the catch? I hope to do it entirely overland and sea.

Crazy...I know, but what better way to experience the entire earth than to see it in its entire beauty? To take my time, and embrace land and ocean? 

Now I know my family will probably not like the idea right off the bat as I will be away for quite some time! I'm sure they will be supportive as always.

The planning is going well for the over land part but finding ocean vessels to seek passage on is a different story. At the moment it seems that the only way to do this is to join a crew of a smaller boat at a marina or over the Internet.

None the less, the plan at the moment is to travel from Ottawa to Los Angeles(Via
Vancouver and Cascadia) over the course of the summer. From Los Angeles I will hope to seek passage to Oceania and plan on working/backpacking in Australia over the course of 6-12 months.

From Darwin, Australia I hope to seek passage to Indonesia or Puapa New Guinea. I then hope backpack through Indonesia(Lombok, Bali, Java, Sumatra) and seek passage from mid-Sumatra to Malaysia by ferry.

Then I'm on the Asia-Europe continent and I'm down to business... Road and rail to Liverpool, United Kingdom!

From Liverpool I intend to ferry to Belfast and tour around Ireland, Northern and Republic of.

This is the cool bit, the family heritage bit. I hope to travel from Ulster, where my ancestors McClary emigrated from, to Fort McClary, Maine(Named after my ancestor Major Andrew McClary).

So, there it is, a lot that I am planning with new ideas every day... But to summarize my largest goals on this journey, enjoy the pictures(Not my photography);

Visit my Cousins in California 

Tasmania, Australia

Kakadu National Park, Australia

Climb Mount Rinjani, Indonesia

Vietnam

The Trans-Mongolian Railway(with stops in Ulaan-Bataar, and Irktusk/Lake Baikal)

Prypiat, Ukraine

Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine

Transylvania, Romania

Hungarian Parliament Buildings, Budapest

Vukovar, Croatia

Mostar, Bosnia I Herzegovina

Jajce, Bosnia I Herzegovina

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

Bavaria, Germany

An Everton Game at Goodison Park, England

Giants Causeway, Northern Ireland

 

 (I take credit for none of the photography contained in this Blog Post, although all photography in my previous posts are of my own toil)

If you have a recommendation of a must see place or landmark, post it in the comments section!

W 

The Great Outdoors

Hello everyone!

This is my second blog post in a week and it is meant to fill you folks in with the Great Outdoors adventures that Ive done in the last 2 weeks! (By Great Outdoors I don't mean the 1988 Jon Candy flick... which interestingly enough I watched last night)

So I took off ten days from both my jobs and along with activities of my last blog post, I was able to do some out doors activities. My friend Brigette and I went up to North Vancouver and hiked the Lynn Loop and saw the cool Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge. Then when I got back from Seattle I booked it up to Whistler fro some really great skiing and some outdoors walks.

Lynn Loop

Lynn Headwaters Regional Park (North Vancouver, BC)

My friend Brigette and I went for a great hike in the Lynn Headwaters Regional Park and the trail we did was the Lynn Loop and took about an hour and a half to two hours. It was a overcast and foggy day but it was a relatively good day for Vancouver. 

It was quite a bit higher in altitude than the hike we did in the Cove Forest because there was snow on the forest floor at the trail head that we started at, and about half the hike was down a trail that was snow covered. 

It was a relatively easy hike, and was quick. Aside from getting out from the city and into the wilderness, I was aiming to scope out some other more challenging and longer hikes for future dates. I was scoping out the Lynn Peak Hike and the Norvan Falls Hike. I hope to do the Norvan Falls hike tomorrow. 

So here are some photos!

Whistler Blackcomb

Whistler, BC

After I returned from Seattle I packed up my ski gear and was up to Whistler for some skiing! I stayed with my ski buddy Andrew in the Whistler Staff lodging, it is nice to know you have a free floor to sleep on.

I skied two days, way less than I planned on skiing. The first day was a great day and I skied on Blackcomb mountain all day and it was pretty well snowing all day. It was one of those days that the skiing just keeps getting better every run of the day. 

It was my first day on my new ski's which are Line Opus and are FAT, they were so much fun in the powder... just floating around on a cloud of snow!

The second day was great, 32 cm or fresh stuff! So Andrew and I headed up to Whistler Mountain and skied some really good glades and then when the patrol was done blasting headed up to the alpine and skied some bowls! 

"Nothing like dynamite in the morning!"

Around 1 o'clock noon I bailed and hurt my arms and sternum... If I had have bailed like I did without the powder I would have broke my arms, so I consider myself lucky that I am only down and out for a few weeks.

So I was unable to ski the rest of the time I was up at Whistler so I went on some walk-abouts on the mountain and took some photos... Enjoy!

 

 

Perogies, Protests, and Preformances

Hello Everyone!
I have had a very busy couple weeks with friends, my room mate, and one my own! This post is to fill you in and document for my own memories some of the activities that I have been up to.

Perogie Night

at the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Church (154 10 Ave E  Vancouver)

My friend Ab informed me that the first Friday of every month is perogie night at a Ukrainian church in town. It doesn't take much twisting my arm to eat perogies and cabbage rolls so we set out to the church for a great 12$ dinner.

Pictured is the plate that you get for the vegetarian dinner. A number of potato and cheese pyrogy, three cabbage rolls, sauerkraut(amazing), and a big ol' glob of sour cream! 

It was a fantastic dinner and it the number of attendees is a testament to that. There were probably about a hundred people there with more arriving and departing throughout our time at the church. 

Needless to say, this will certainly become tradition for me and my friends for future months that I am in Vancouver! Yum.

NO Consent, NO Pipelines Protest

at Victory Square and Sheraton Wall Center (Downtown Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories)

My first protest of 2013, and boy what a protest to start the year off with. Of course many of you have caught wind of the Northern Gateway Pipeline that Enbridge and the Harper Government are pushing through that will transport Tar Sands oil to Kitimat, BC. 

On Monday, January 14th Enbridge was holding a Joint Review Panel that the public was not being admitted to. The panel took place at the Sheraton Wall Center Hotel and the Rising Tide group in solidarity with the First Nations and Idle No More movement planned on marching from Victory Square to the joint review panel to make our voices heard. 

About 2,000 people gathered at Victory Square and witnessed some really uplifting and jazzy tunes from a local group. The group played their take on some classic protest songs with sax-ama-phones, trumpets, and trombones. After these performances and socializing amongst the crowd, there were some speeches from locals and people from the First Nation community. 

By far the neatest part at Victory Square was a traditional Lakota Pipe sharing prayer that was practiced in front of the entire crowd. The pipe sharing was a tradition that is rarely preformed out side the Lakota First Nation. They shared it with people that are not within the First Nations community to show solidarity between them and colonists.

It was quite an enlightening experience. 

We then marched through downtown making lots of noise and peacefully protesting the pipeline made it to the Sheraton Wall center. This is where we spent about two hours making noise and listening to some speeches from First Nations community and some from the Rising Tide movement. Word came to us from the inside of the panel we could be heard loud and clear 4 stories up in the conference room! 

I am definitely going to keep my eyes open for more Pipeline and Idle No More Protests happening in Vancouver!

To follow Idle No More visit http://idlenomore.ca/

Neurosis, featuring Tragedy, Black Breath, and Stoneburner

at The Showbox in Seattle

On Saturday, January 5th my room mate and I went to see a show in Seattle. We decided to Couchsurf with a dude name Charles from West Seattle. 

The show was fantastic and it was great to see one of my favorite punk bands Tragedy after so many years. Black Breath and Neurosis are two bands that I have started listening to within the last year and both were really good. It was one of those shows that each performance exceeded that of the band before.

Here are a few Videos of the bands live (Not in Seattle tho).

 

Chelsea Wolfe featuring King Dude 

at Media Club (Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories)

Last night (January 15th) I went to this Occult Neo-Folk show and it was fantastic. The Dude, King Dude, was awesome as always.

I had never listened to Chelsea Wolfe before bu it is like if one were to breed Blood Ceremony and Death in June together this would be the product. I totally dig it, and it was a great show aside from a girl in the crowd having a seizure mid way through the set. I think she was ok, she was able to walk out once paramedics arrived. 


Here are some photos and video! See you next post in when I update about a few Outdoors Adventures!!