Snow patch.  One of the useful aspects of summer snow is that it creates a rather convenient bridge over alpine scrub allowing access to regions that might otherwise be painfully difficult to get to.

Looking down the Murray Range in the Pine Pass.  I don’t think any of these suckers even pushes 2500m and the side I was only probably is only about 2000. The Pine Pass itself is the lowest pass in British Columbia, with the summit barely reaching 900m.

Didn’t make it through the winter.  

Mackenzie is behind the range in the horizon.  This would be looking West.  Unfortunately there was quite a bit of trash up in the alpine.  I carried a fully backpack full of cans/bottles courtesy of your lazy neighborhood snowmobilers/skiers/boarders.   Folks don’t realize that the area is also used in the summer…and yes…just because it is covered by snow doesn’t mean it’s gone. 

Murray range within the Pine-Le Moray Provincial Park .  The park was created in 2001 as part of BC’s push to allocate 12% of provincial land-base as park.  To meet this goal, the Province appeared to just circle a bunch of land on the map without actually thinking very hard about what they were doing.  It’s kind of a map room park as I don’t think the boundaries have ever been laid out by a field team and the only indication that one is nearing park land are several run-down signs near a few of the trail-heads.  Apparently a management plan for the area doesn’t exist . 

This dog loves sticks…loves them.  She found this rather log-like stick on one of the snowfields and carried it all the way down to the bottom of the mountain.  Every so often she would drop it and wander down slope a dozen or so metres…only to notice that she had left it behind.  This sudden realization would send her racing back up the slope to pick it up.  She climbed the mountain twice for this stick. 

Technorati Tags: azu, british columbia, mountains, pets, photography, pine pass, powder king, travel

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Jasper, Alberta is the exchange point between The Canadian and The Skeena, with the latter running between Jasper and Prince Rupert.  I remember when I was about 10 years old I decided that I wanted to live in Jasper.  That hasn’t changed.  Young population with everyone zipping around on mountain bikes.  My kind of scene.  Too bad they don’t hire planners.  

  Jasper Train Station

My first year of planning school we were told that small fridge = good city (a remark regarding local foods).  I think that full bike racks = good city.  As a resort community within a National Park, there are a lot of reasons why Jasper is the way it is.  Still, as far as resort communities run, I find Jasper remains a real community.  The ‘tourist’ centre is actually quite small and embedded within the greater townsite.  Everything is scaled and designed properly.  It’s a real place, relative to Banff, Tremblant or Whistler. 

China is everywhere these days.

Mount Robson , highest point in the Canadian Rockies.  I’ve visited it numerous times and have trekked Berg Lake , but the view is quite different from the rail line which is on the opposite side of the valley.  Robson is a baby by Himalayan standards, but what makes it interesting is it’s imposing mass…it dwarfs all surrounding peaks and dominates the horizon.  When I visited the Chinese side of Mount Everest, I couldn’t help but think of Mount Robson.

The Skeena is tiny…only four cars, one of which is baggage.  There were about only 30 people on the train (95% tourist) to Prince George meaning everyone gets a seat in the dome car.  The train also slows down for bears and stops for Mount Robson.

Technorati Tags: jasper, mount robson, rockies, the skeena, travel, traveling, urban planning, via rail

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Actually, there were more trees then I thought there would be.

Technorati Tags: canada, photography, praries, sunset, train, traveling, via rail

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Moving up through northwestern Ontario I received the impression that this section of the province isn’t doing to well.  The train didn’t stop that often (maybe only thrice) but each of one of these communities ( Hornepayne , Longlac and Nakina ) were considerably rundown around the CN station.  Boarded up, or abandoned buildings were the norm.  Rail remains a fringe form of transport in Canada, so I wasn’t expecting Union Station qualities, but the towns were not looking too hot.  The murals near the Hornepayne station didn’t seem to offer much in the way of economic assistance to the town.  Definite echoes of Siberia and the Soviet Far East as the train moved past closed up sawmills and abandoned industrial buildings. 

I think it was going past Longlac that I noticed a Northern outlet.  I didn’t think that company still existed.  We used to have one in Mackenzie.  We also used to have Boots Drugstore in that town as well…I didn’t think those existed anymore either until I ran into one in Bangkok (I believe it was in the mall that was recently torched during the riots).

I was surprised at the large amount of rail waste along the sides of the track.  Thousands of discarded rail ties stacked up and thrown over the right-of-way.  Equally numerous numbers of creosote (or some kind of oil) buckets scattered everywhere.   Rails, concrete ties, shacks and white trash (probably from work crews) was quite common.  The old telegraph lines still follow the track but probably won’t be standing in ten years time.

The first major stop was Winnipeg, and I had about three hours to take in some of the city…meaning the downtown area.  Being Victoria Day, the place was a ghost-town and it was hard to find even a breakfast place at 9am.  I quite liked what I saw though.  There are quite a few heritage buildings in the downtown area, some gentrified (The Exchange District) and some in a serious state of dilapidation.  Lots of old murals which I thought added a layer of uniqueness to the buildings.  Where can I get stomach powder?

One of the first buildings one sees from the train while arriving in Winnipeg is the Mr. Nutty building.  It seems at one point in history, Mr. Nutty controlled some prime real-estate in the downtown.  Presently, I suspect his famous high-quality candy empire is no longer dominating Winnipeg’s downtown core.  I also randomly wandered through Winnipeg’s Chinatown which appears to have seen better days…although there is a rather interesting modern-styled Chinese mixed-use building anchoring the community.

Winnipeg also has a Union Station.  Union appears to be the default name for train station in North America.  Apparently the name is used to describe the ‘union’ of several rail companies that shared the facilities.

Technorati Tags: chinatown, manitoba, murals, Ontario, the canadian, train, travel, traveling, via rail, winnipeg

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May 22-23 2010 –

I like to believe that train travel is a higher form of travel in contrast to the sardine can nature of economy-class flying.  In some cases, it isn’t as I can think of a few Chinese train adventures in hard-seat class that left me questioning humanity.  Those trips were before China’s ambitious high speed rail days.

Traveling on The Canadian (as VIA’s flagship line is known) is in the former class.  It is a sleepy, relatively comfortable way (even in economy) to move across the country…providing one has the time.  In my case, from Toronto to Jasper, and then from Jasper to Prince George. I think the comfortable aspect is helped considerably by high popularity of the sardine class Toronto-Vancouver economy flights.  No sane person would consider a 4.5 day journey in favor of a 4 hour flight. Suckers.  Thanks to those folks, passengers on The Canadian enjoy probably a 60% vacancy rate in the economy coaches.  This translates to everyone getting their own seat +1. $400 one-way to my destination…the sleeper equivalent would have set my back almost $1600 (meals included).  I had a first class ticket on the Trans-Siberian from Vladivostok to Moscow …$900.  Strangely, both my ticket to Jasper (from Toronto ) and my ticket to Prince George (from Jasper ) were exactly the same price…but the Toronto to Jasper leg is probably three times the length.    

The seats are giant and rival the foot&body room on the Japanese, Chinese and European trains I’ve taken. There is also access to the dome car, which seems to be a uniquely Canadian rail service (maybe Amtrak has these?). Even with these features, it still remains a challenge for one to discover their optimal sleeping position.  Two seats are perfect for a child, but present some challenges for adults.  Most people seem to prefer the ‘curled ball’ position which spans the two empty seats.  There are several variations with the head either being angled against the aisle arm rest or the window wall. One may also rest on their side, facing either the back of their seats, or the rear of the seats in front of them.  The odd maverick passenger might be bold enough to stick their feet right out into the aisle, threatening the wrath of the coach attendants.  I’ve been told that smaller folks have climbed into the over-head baggage shelves, slept under the seats or commandeered the dome car.  I always thought that sleeping under the seats (with newspapers) was strictly a Chinese characteristic in their hard-seat class…but we do it in Canada too.

It takes awhile to find your position.  I think I’ve decided on a combination of curled ball (head on aisle arm rest) and side sleeper (head facing my seat).  Kind of reminds me of pass-the-pigs positions.  The razorback is when one just lies down on their back in the middle of the aisle.

Northern Ontario is a lot like northern BC…mountains absent.  The forests are of similar species and size and in some cases I feel like I could be driving highway 97 from Prince George to Mackenzie.  There was some sections…I really don’t know where, that also had Siberian characteristics…low scrubby trees, open fields and run down rail line buildings and communities.

VIA trains are at the mercy of freight movement and play second fiddle to the 150-car behemoths that race down the track.  Freight train size may also be a North American characteristic.  I don’t think I ever saw a freight train in China and Russia that was larger than 50 or 60 cars.  There were a lot more of them though.  Canadian trains are exclusively diesel (although I believe there is some electric business going on in BC), in contrast to the heavy electrification of their Russian, Chinese and European counterparts.  I was always under the impression that electric train motors offered more power than diesel engines.  If the Russians can electrify their entire Trans-Siberian and associated spur lines…I’m not sure what our deal is…wait…we can’t even put in a high-speed rail line between Montreal and Toronto.  That is probably why.

Boarding The Canadian was my first time in Toronto’s Union Station (my urban planning buddies will probably laugh at that).  I was quite impressed with the size, architecture and relative efficiency of the boarding process. I was annoyed that I had to pay an extra $21 for my bag that was 7lbs over the 50lbs weight limit.  I understand weight and aircraft…but weight and trains?  Stop squeezing me for cash.

The silver HEP1 Coach Car is in good condition, but the style (blue pastel interior…carpet, walls, roof) is beginning to look dated (especially in comparison to the uber-modern and sleek Asian trains).  It has been retrofitted with electrical sockets which is a welcome addition (but no wireless yet).

The train is stopping to dump of some fishermen at the town of Alsace…that is where I am…but I don’t know where that is.  

I think I’ll dig out my camera.  My old Pentax K100D died in India.  Circuit board problem that would take weeks to repair (I brought it in in early May) and cost upwards of $300.  The camera store had a second had Pentax ist’D…which is the step down from the K100D.  I picked up the body for $200.  Resolution is a bit less and it doesn’t have an anti-vibration function…but it works fine and the shots come out great in RAW.  They also had the latest Pentax X for $700…maybe next year.

Tasty coffee on this train.

* after checking with Wikipedia …most of the passenger cars on VIA are over 50 years old.

Technorati Tags: Ontario, the canadian, toronto, train, travel, traveling, via rail

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I read with great interest the comments on running into Margo Carter, the Australian woman who moved to Tiger Leaping Gorge about ten years ago, ran a cafe at the start of the Gorge and became a life partner with Sean, a Tibetan who runs the Sean’s Guest House in the center of the gorge.

The comments that Margo was eccentric, or rude, seem so totally out of place with our experience, and thus I thought I should relate our tale. Mel and I met Margo in March 2009. I had heard about the great trek through the gorge and was very excited to do it. Mel (the more cautious half of our team) was a bit apprehensive because it was unclear from the maps and our reading, what we would do if we found the hike too hard and wanted to quit mid way (it actually is quite easy as you can always walk downhill to the road and hitch-hike back).

At any rate, when we arrived at the Gorge we ran into Margo…I told her of my desire to hike the entire gorge and sleep overnight on the trail… Mel on the other had mentioned his apprehension. She said “no problem” – I can help you both… and proceeded to offer to accompany us for two to three days (at an exceptionally modest fee) and be our guide. So the three of us took a taxi to Sean’s guest house, in the middle of the gorge, where we had a wonderful night in relatively luxury surroundings. We all ate at Sean’s by the campfire, and enjoyed meeting many other travelers and learning a bit about the gorge history. It was a delightful experience. The next day we took off on our trek. She was an interesting woman who had moved from Australia to explore China, and fell in love with the natural environment and decided to stay.

During our two days together we traded tales, and she was very accommodating to walk and talk at our pace. We stayed overnight at another guest house, enjoyed a fresh chicken stew (the chicken was killed in front of us) and continued on the next morning. Margo was opinionated… she did not like the commercialization of the gorge nor the fact that she saw many locals trying to take advantage of visitors. However our experience was that she eluded kindness, sensitivity, and had a keen intellect.

We continued to communicate when we returned home, and were shocked when a few months later we heard about the accident. The details were always very sketchy, and disturbing. I have a great picture of Margo, which I’d like to send you… so let me know how I can do it, and hopefully you will post it on your site. I’d like to promote in her memory the kindness she showed us during the few days we were together.

Diane Drey & Mel Winokur New Jersey, USA

Sean Xia (夏山泉), Diane Dey, Margo Carter, Mel Winokur – Tiger Leaping Gorge, Yunnan 2009. Margo Carter & Diane Dey – Tiger Leaping Gorge, Yunnan 2009

I was just as surprised to receive an email from Ms. Dey (as well as Mr. Xia).

It was never my intention to offend, disrespect or instigate sadness among anyone.  I wrote largely based on my memories of  my brief time in the Gorge three years ago.  The above description is more fitting.

Update – 1 September 2010 – Additional Comments

A Chinese friend & I trekked Tiger Leaping Gorge at the end of February 2006. Margo was incredibly helpful & friendly to us when we met her in her store.

The comments about her being rude seem completely uncharacteristic, compared to the woman we met. She was also a passionate advocate for preventing the Chinese gov from building the new dam. Is it possible that she was starting to develop Alzheimer’s?

Thanks,

Ron Auerbacher
San Diego, CA
USA

Technorati Tags: china, margo carter, tiger leaping gorge, travel, trekking, walnut grove, yunnan

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Lemoine Point is about 9km from Portsmouth Village straight down the ever so boring Front Road, although the massive housing along the way (especially near the Airport) makes for some nice residential viewing.  Fairly decent (yet limited) trail riding opportunities. 

That second last image is actually an Xbox game I found on the shore (the CD was inside).  Probably one of the more bizarre pieces of Lake Ontario trash that washes up on the shore.  Members of the Inukshuk army  were also present guarding against any potential shoreline transgressions.

Technorati Tags: cataraqui conservation area, cycling, flies, insects, Kingston, lake ontario, lemoine point

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Via In the Footsteps of Joseph Rock

His group were surprised – to say the least – to be passed by a lone western woman traveling at speed (alone, that is, except for her dog and a local guide with a horse, left trailing well to the rear) and they noted that she was only lightly clad for the trail. Not only that, but they were taken aback by how rude she was to the trekking group, refusing to talk with them at all during their brief encounter on the trail.

Things got stranger later in the day when they saw her again and she chose to camp alongside them, but again was uncommunicative. That was until she started saying that she would ‘turn them in’ to the local authorities and warning them that they would be turned back at local police checkpoints further up the Salween (Nujiang) valley and the local Tibetans would shun them. The group were un-nerved by her unfriendly and bizarre behaviour (she would only talk to them in Chinese at one point) and her apparent threats.

Margo left early the next day and they never saw her again. In fact, they were some of the last people to see her alive.

…Margo’s body was found several weeks later at a large tree near the Shuo-La pass, and the Yunnan PSB are now investigating the case. It appears likely that she simply underestimated the harsh conditions of the trek and the difficulty of the terrain that she would encounter.

I ran into this woman, Margo, when I trekked Tiger Leaping Gorge in the summer of 2007.  It was  about halfway to Walnut Grove, about 2/3 way through the gorge. She was leading this motley crue of travelers with a mixture of backpacks and suitcase on a Intrepid tour through the gorge.  Intrepid Travel is a company that organizes tours at the grass-roots level, largely utilizing public transit options and accommodations.  I’ve kind of viewed Intrepid tours as traveling for people who want the independent experience but are too afraid to do it themselves.

I recall thinking to myself…”Who the hell is this woman and how’d she end up here?”  She looked like she was in her 50’s, but was dressed like she was in her 20’s and blabbed away like she was the encyclopedia of all things China…in the loud, obnoxious way.  She also had a rather ‘in-your-face’ condescending approach when talking to locals and to travelers.  The kind of approach that makes one wince and think “I’m not with this person…” I attributed it too eating too many gorge mushrooms.

Exiting the gorge, one had three options…trek back the same way, take a taxi back (the road was washed out at the time) or trek out the backside, take a ferry across the river and hope that there is a bus/tax on the other side.  I opted for the ferry because I don’t like retracing my steps, however there was concern about transportation on the other side, so I cut a deal with the tour leader (a former American ESL teacher, I believe) to tag along on the bus they had arranged on the other side of the ferry that would take everyone back to Lijiang .  Margo was along for the whole ride. It’s been awhile since this trek, so I can’t remember too many details, other than the tour leader shaking her head and lamenting simultaneously about the many, many problems she was having with her tour group and how outrageously embarrassing this Margo woman was.

I remember after I did that trip and I would hear of other people traveling through Yunnan and up to Tiger Leaping I would always say “yeah, you’ll probably meet this weird Aussie woman when you trek the gorge…it makes the trip even more interesting!”.

Highly eccentric/weird people who choose this sort of life are in a way, sort of timeless and part of the cultural landscape of the region.  Cringe?  Yes…but they make life interesting.  Besides, if one wants to be a modern village/city/town in China these days, you’ll need your foreign loonies . 

I was thinking to myself, “oh yeah, I probably have a travel post archived somewhere about the time I met this incredibly odd foreigner in the middle of Tiger Leaping Gorge”. So I searched around…and searched again…and found out that not only do I not have a post about that interesting trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge, I can’t seem to find any record of any of that summer 2007 trip from Kunming to Kathmandu.  To be honest, I can’t remember if I even wrote anything.  I just assumed that I just did given that it was a trip that fulfilled many, many of my adolescent travel goals.  But, it seems I didn’t…and I’m kind of down about that.  I’ve got stuff from my time in Mongolia and Japan to Europe and India …but nothing about South East Asia either.  Bummer. 

I was traveling with my friend who maintained this beautiful written travel journal complete with doodles, glued-on business cards, flora/fauna and other tidbits of travel memorabilia.  Granted, she was an artist, and had a knack for the creative, but I’m quite jealous.

Technorati Tags: blog, china, margo, tiger leaping gorge, travel, trekking, walnut grove, yunnan

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While the train and station scenes brilliantly visualize the annual railway struggle, the film is more about the shaky situation of the migrant worker family in 21st century China.  From the richest Shanghai families down to the poorest migrants, China is a country where society hasn’t caught up with and adjusted to the insane development. 

The film follows a real rural family from Sichuan province through a time frame of about three years.  Like many migrants, the parents are working textiles somewhere in Guangdong earning cash for their family, with their two children being raised by their grandmother on their family farm in Sichuan.  Family reunions are limited to a visit at New Years.  The eldest child, Qiu (18) is of the rural variety of the post-Tiananmen generation or after-eighty generation .   More materialistic and more individualistic regarding her situation, she harbors quite an dislike of her parents, whom she feels have abandoned her in favor of work in the city.  This culminates in a very, very intense family fight on New Year’s visit.  Qiu drops of out of school and works textiles in an atypical 3rd tier city, opting to naively live an existence similar to her parents.

Her family turns their hopes to the the 13 year old son, Yang, of whom they dream will enter university although his 5th place marks are not encouraging for his parents.

Probably the most disheartening item of the movie was the constant belief that this education would provide the route to better life.  As a general policy, I certainly believe this, however, I can’t help but look at the phenomenon of the Ant Tribe .  The hundreds of thousands of new university graduates that eek out an urban existence very similar to the factory workers profiled in the film.  It is as if there is no way out .  Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle came to mind a few times during the film in the sense of the never-ending optimism expressed by the characters in spite of their situation.  If anyone has a right to blame a system, it is surely these people…yet the blame is often directed at themselves, usually for not “working hard enough”. 

Mr. Fan’s CCTV background became quite apparent when he referred to to China’s migrant/farmer population as ‘backward” in an interview with CBC’s Jian Ghomeshi a few weeks ago.  One may claim semantics, but that phrase is para-official (along the same lines as splittist and harmonious) among media elites on the Mainland…still, as someone who had recently heard Mr. Fan speak mentioned to me via FB , he appeared somewhat disconnected from the subject he was exploring.

That said though, it’s a great film and pulls out the often over-looked affects of rapid development on family structures in post-1979 China.  

The film was shot over a few years with the craziest rail station scenes having been shot during the 2008 ice storm that shut down most of southern China.  It’s probably important to keep that mind.   As chaotic a train station is during that time of year, it’s not usually that bad.  

I had learned my lesson regarding travel during New Year’s during trip to Xi’an in 2007 and opted to spend my 2008 holiday out of country, but I still managed to hit huge crowds in the airports and at a rail transfer in Shenzhen.

During that trip in 2007 I barely made it aboard the train and had to be pushed into the car (on account of my backpack).  Bizarrely enough, I actually managed to buy a ticket that had a seat, but it was impossible to access it given the sardine nature of the car…so I just told the conductor to give it to a kid. 

22 hours sitting on/near/under my backpack slammed up against the entrance door in the tiny section between train cars.  Luckily the door never opened.  I was near the washroom facilities which was somewhat of a Catch-22.  Odor-wise…not the greatest spot to be…from an convenience point of view…not bad.  I’ve heard that people will often wear diapers during such trips because they just can’t get to the washroom.

  Being used as a pillow (Xi’an – Nanjing February 2007)

Having some warm brews.  Most people told me they were just happy to get a ticket. (Xi’an – Nanjing February 2007)

My good ole’ pack is so useful (Xi’an – Nanjing February 2007)

Heading home – Shenzhen January 2008

Heading home – Shenzhen Train Station January 2008

Stuck in the airport – Nanjing Lukou International Airport 2008

Technorati Tags: china, chinese new year, guangdong, kingston canadian film festival, last train home, lixin fan, migrant workers, sichuan, train

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Tremblant is an IntraWest instant resort-in-a-can, with the standard pedestrian village ,  hot spring spa, tubing, skating and over-priced food stuffs.  

Snow conditions were very good, although some of the terrain became very slick in the late afternoon.  I’m told that Tremblant is usually like that.  Hard ice (not surprisingly) is quite difficult to cut across and I definitely felt my Western weakness and instability when navigating through some blue ice patches.  

Tremblant has the largest number of good skiers I’ve ever seen on a mountain.  All hills have their share of good skiers, and in the case of Western hills, they usually cluster around the alpine bowl and other steep areas.  In the case of Tremblant, they are all over the mountain, 80% know how to carve an arc and hold a bump…and there are lots of them.  I credit the strong racing program at Tremblant, the multi-generational nature of skiing culture in the area, and the hard snow conditions.  I also could argue that the limited terrain options on the mountain has everyone slicing corduroy at a young age.  Boarders, however, are a minority

Despite terrain limitations, it’s a good hill and left me with a fairly decent  impression of Eastern skiing, but I think that two days is enough on the trail system.  Run design is really good where a combination of long verticals and wide cuts creates excellent cruising trails.  The hill could use about an extra foot of snow to cover up the numerous rocks, roots and stumps that are very common throughout moguled and gladed areas.  My skis sure were not happy about those.   

I had a fairly close encounter with a tree somewhere in the glades.  Actually, close encounter is kind of an understatement.  I bear-hugged this tree, bounced off it like a rubber ball hitting a wall and slid a good 15 metres down the hill before realizing what happened.  In my whole life of skiing, I’ve  been sucked into tree-wells , smacked branches, face-planted , yard-saled , landed in open creeks and fallen down rock faces…but I’ve never hit a tree.

I’m quite confident in the trees and know how to move through them, yet snow-snakes attack the best of us and that was what sent into a juvenile maple tree.  I wasn’t moving fast at at all.   My up-hill ski hit a hidden root, knocking it off and causing me to pivot sharply on  my downhill ski.  With one ski off and no balance, the pivot acted somewhat like a sling shot and blasted me counter-clockwise directly into the tree below, which promptly threw me back  down the hill like a rag doll.  I consider myself very lucky.  My upper body took most of the hit, avoiding my face but the shock vibrated up through my helmet and into my head where I probably suffered a mild concussion. 

I now fully appreciate the danger of trees.  I didn’t hit the tree that hard, the force being nothing more than the momentum from the pivot, but it totally knocked the wind right out of me.  If someone hits a tree at even at moderate speed…it’s death.   

I took a 40 minute break after that, but was back at the moguls a run or two later.  Battered ego more than anything, especially after I just said to my friend “just follow me” :-p

Technorati Tags: canada, laurentians, mont tremblant, mountains, quebec, skiing, travel

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