That's Grouse!

Man, am I feeling sick right about now. I would probably place the blame for this largely on the change of climate. It seems that there is a lag of a few weeks every time I change from warm to cold and vice-versa. Seeing as Toronto was relatively temperate when I left, and the northwest has been cool/cold and mostly wet, I think it's safe to say that the weather has finally gotten to me. It's happened a couple of times before, most notably when I began working at Panorama. I remember being sick for so long during the infamous "Pano Bark" breakout, and that started a few weeks after going from the heat of the Sydney summer to the freezing cold of the Alberta winter. I hope that this doesn't get as bad or last as long as that time. But enough of my whining... on to the stories! There has been too much good happening for me to be complaining.

I suppose it really started a few days before I got sick. I heard from Ian and Gary (two Brits and Panorama alums) that they were in Vancouver for a day. This also happened to coincide with the hostel's pub crawl, and since they were staying at a different HI branch within the city, they came along. We caught up and had a good time out, and I also met a few people from the hostel. This planted the seeds for the Wednesday, when those people (and a few more) and I decided to do a bit of a pub crawl of our own. Corey told me that she was going to be going to a karaoke night downtown, and this seemed to be a popular choice among the group, so after a bit of pre-drinking, we headed over to this bar.

The official "gang" was Australian Sally, Canadian Isabelle, Canadian Mike, English Vikki, Scottish Adam, and myself (this later became an ad-hoc group throughout the week). We walked in and checked out the place. It soon became apparent that it was a gay bar - not that there's anything wrong with that - and we settled into some seats and picked a few songs. Only Adam seemed a bit uncomfortable in the environment, but this didn't last long, and he even befriended some of the other customers playing pool by the end of the night. I ran into Corey halfway through the night, and joined us all in the festivities. I was a bit annoyed that I put in a song request early on but didn't get called up to do it. Apart from that, it was a fun night. The next morning, I was feeling a bit worse for wear, probably partly due to the drinking and dancing, but I'd say mostly because of the cold and wet weather.

We decided to rest up for much of the next day and only left the hostel to escort Isabelle to the bus station (as well as a couple of movies for me). Most of us slept early so that we could enjoy Friday, predicted to be the first sunny day of the week. The plan was to go to Grouse Mountain and do the Grouse Grind, the famous hike up to the peak. We woke up to almost blinding sunshine (especially after all those cloudy and rainy days). After waking up Mike from deep slumber, the condensed gang (missing Isabelle, who left the day before, and Adam, who had already taken the easy way up the mountain - the gondola), we journeyed across the water to North Vancouver then onto Grouse Mountain.

We didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into, and soon after the bus driver told us how hard it was to do the Grouse Grind, we discovered for ourselves the physical work it required. I think there were two defining moments for the hike. The first was when, after hiking for about 25 minutes, we reached the 1/4 way marker. We were out of breath and completely exhausted. I can't really express, with my own words, how hard it was to walk up this hill, so I think I'll quote some statistics from the hike's website:

Often referred to as Mother Nature's Stairmaster. This rigorous 2.9 km (1.8 mile) hike takes you straight up the face of Grouse Mountain. By the time you reach the plateau, your ascent will have gained 853 metres (2,800 feet) - one and a half times the height of Toronto's CN Tower!

The second defining moment was when we finally reached the top of the climb. I yelled the obligatory "woohoo!" then stopped to take in the sights. It was absolutely incredible. I think the view in itself was beautiful, but it looked so much more gorgeous after such a grueling hike. I took some photos, but nothing will compare to the memories of that view, and that sense of achievement. Many people have done much more than what I (or I should say 'we') had done, but it does not diminish it one bit. It was one of the most challenging and rewarding things I have done to date, and I am thankful that we didn't give up after being so disheartened at that quarter way point. WOOHOO!

I really hate to counterpoint this feat, but lately I've had a horrible knack for telling stories chronologically, so you'll have to bear with me for just a few moments. I wasn't feeling too sick after the climb, but it began to hit me again later that night when I was attending my first ever ice hockey game. It was the Canucks season opener against the San Jose Sharks, and it ended in a 3-1 loss for the home team. This in itself was fine - it was still a great experience finally being able to see an hockey game live - but I think that the cold of the hockey stadium was not a lot of help, and I was once again feeling like crap this morning. I think that, until I start to get better, I shall limit my activities to attending the film festival films to which I already have tickets.