Camping at the Co-housing

We travelled through a strange dry valley between the Rockies and West Coast mountains of British Columbia.  

The last Cinnamon bun

Joffre Lake on way to Whistler - Billy Elliot eat your heart out

After taking a wrong turn just before Whistler we saw this dog running loose on the road, a strange sight as dogs aren't allowed off the lead by law.  He narrowly missed getting run over a couple of times and there was no sign of anyone around so we stopped and he came running over, obviously very pleased to see people. He was very affectionate.  We knocked on someone's door and they rang the number from his collar and after a bit Jake was collected by his owner and off he went in the front of a pick up, he was such a cute dog, I half hoped he had no owner and we could keep him!

On the way back in to Vancouver to drop off our hire car after our 2 week Rocky adventure we somehow (Ralph's navigating and the massive amount of road works) went massively wrong and were helped out at at gas station by a lovely chap with this cute pic on his van.

Ralph in his natural habitat

We left Canada on the train from Pacific Central station in Vancouver to Bellingham, Washington, US.  There were lots of passport checks and I managed to smuggle 2 potatoes out of Canada.  The US border guards were as aggressive as ever.  They came down the train grilling everyone as to the purpose of their travel into the US and made the man in the seat in front say how much cash he was carrying.  We were met in Bellingham by a great chap called Gary who we had met mountain biking in Whistler.  He lived at a really cool co-housing where everyone has their own house but gardens, workshops complete with every tool imaginable, bikes, kayaks and orchard are shared and managed by everyone.  They have a really cool renovated farmhouse which they have functions/big meals in.  We camped in the orchard.

While setting up the tent we were visited by three white tailed deer, two males with antlers in velvet and a female, she's hiding behind the clump of grass at the back of the picture!

Bellingham co-housing

A huge can-o-worms with a specially adapted pedal mixer

The gardens contain lots of edible plants, everyone is expected to contribute 9 hours of their time a month to various tasks such as gardening/general maintenance.

Renovated farmhouse for functions, childrens playrooms, library.  We borrowed bikes and cycled to town where the farmers market was on.  There was a cycle route which went out over the sea on a raised boardwalk/pier.  Its a really great place.

A lovely lady Carol, Garys neighbour, dropped us off at the Alaska Marine Highway terminal ready for our trip north through the inside passage to Alaska.  We got there early so we could bag a good spot on deck as we were sleeping there for the next 3 nights.