Crown Mtn.

Here are a few photos from a hike I did yesterday with Rachel (Graeme's girlfriend, whom we all really like and hope he doesn't ef it up with.) The hike up Crown Mountain starts on the north shore of Vancouver at the Grouse Mountain parking lot, then winds its way up beyond the resort. The view from the top is incredible, with a panoramic view of Vancouver Island, the entire greater Vancouver area and south to Point Roberts, in the United States. We made a late start and consequently a late finish, hiking out just as the sun sank behind the horizon.

On the way down we came across a grizzly bear, chilling by a stream.

Luckily he was enclosed behind an electric fence and was well fed by resort staff.

The Sandwich

This is the much hailed sandwich I ate post hospitalization. You will remember I was hospitalized for self eating and thus, in order to stave off a re-occurrence of metabolic cannibalism, I proceeded to eat a lot. This sandwich, with 18 layers of meat at it's thickest point (yes, we counted,) is a prime example of my self prescribed therapy.

I have been very careful not to make any unintended double entendres when talking about the thickness of this meat, but I also can't resist a crass play on words.

My body started to consume itself...

The last two weeks of my vacation have been marred by medical misfortune. In order to understand how I got into the sorry state pictured above, it helps to look at my journal entry of Aug 4th from Blazen Creek Rest Stop, 30km west of Creston, BC. It reads as follows:

7:30pm
Today was the most physically demanding day of my life. I climbed what may well be the highest mountain pass in BC. I cried twice on the way up and once when I got to the top. I must have gotten too much sun too because I have a massive headache and I just threw up my dinner. I am not a particularly happy camper tonight.

11:30pm
Still puking. I slept for an hour or so before I woke up. When I did, I checked my blood sugar and it was at 4.1 so I drank the last drops of juice I had made up. Then I rose to get my glucose gel and drink crystals from the bear cache. As I descended the cache from the tree I felt suddenly woozy. I lay down and threw up.

I have to keep sneaking juice into my stomach. I need the calories to prevent a low blood sugar. The thought of seeking medical attention has crossed my mind but I am too far from Creston to bike in the dark and I have no cell reception.

When I was writing those entries I remember thinking 'at least there will be a record of what happened, should anything go seriously wrong...' Clearly Into the Wild has had an exaggerated effect on my psyche but I was in rough shape.

The next day I rode into Creston and pushed my bike up the hill to the nearest hotel. I checked myself in and slept for about an hour before dragging myself into town. I had no appetite and no energy to do much more than assess the town from various sitting and lying positions. My visit to Bountiful was definitely going to have to wait.

That night I made myself a pizza. When I pulled it out of the oven I just starred at it; there was no way I was going to eat any of it. That's when I knew something was seriously wrong (I can only remember a few times in my life when I have not been hungry, at all other times I am ravenous.) So, after calling the nurses hot-line, I made trip to Creston's emergency room. The doctor there told me I probably was suffering from exposure to the sun and from drinking backcountry water. His recommendation was to drink lots of fluids and get some rest. I did and the next day I continued up the road to Nelson along the eastern shore of Kootenay Lake.


I never quite got my appetite and energy back though, and I was happy to be headed home by bus when I got to Nelson.

Back in Vancouver, my health got progressively worse. I spent five days lying on my bed, watching movies and feeling very sorry for myself. I couldn't eat and I had little energy to get myself around the city. However, as soon as I got to the doctor's office and got some antibiotics into my system I started to feel a lot better. By Friday my appetite was back, just in time to be in full eating form for mum's kitchen in Campbell River.

I spent a couple of good days in The River before the shit really hit the fan and I was admitted to hospital with chest pains. I woke up early Sunday morning with extreme pain and tightness just under my breast plate. The pain only lasted a couple of minutes but the tightness didn't go away. They hooked my up to all sorts of machines and inserted an IV. They drugged me up and put me to sleep for the night.

The next day I was scheduled to have an Echocardiogram and a stress test on a treadmill to see how my heart reacted to exercise. The Echocardiogram didn't reveal anything, but the stress test couldn't happen because they ran out of paper (I know, right!?) Originally they were going to keep me in hospital for another night but some assurance that I was feeling fine and a few tears got me discharged so I could spend the night at home.

The next morning I ran on the treadmill for the cardiologist but he couldn't find anything wrong with my heart. His diagnosis was Diabetic Ketoacidosis caused by that climb on August 4th, which was, for the record, the highest paved road in Canada. Apparently I was eating and drinking enough (possibly due to a stomach infection) and my body started to consume it's own muscles. Yikes!

I am in fine form now, but it has been a rough couple of weeks.

Trans BC Tour

View Larger Map

Here is an approximate map of my route from Vancouver to Nelson. The section between Hope and Midway follows the Kettle Valley Railway.

Holidays!

I am lucky enough to have five weeks of holidays this summer and I have kicked them off with a bike trip into the Kootenay region of BC. I am currently in Christina Lake, resting my legs and catching up on things you can't do from the seat of a bike.

I left Vancouver on July 22nd and rode along the north shore of the Fraser River to Hope, BC. For the most part it was a flat and easy ride. In Hope I met up with my friend Norm and we picked up the Kettle Vally Railway, which snakes it's way through canyons and along river beds to Midway, BC. Most of the trail is in pretty rough shape and we had a couple gruelling days. Pedaling at 7km/hr and limiting your vision to the three feet of rock and sand in front of you gets old pretty quickly. In the end we took a number of roads that parallel the worst parts of the trail in order to satisfy our need for speed. Both from those roads and from the railway itself, we were rewarded with some impressive views.

Norm looking out over the Coquihalla Canyon

Cooking up dinner JUST outside of Princeton. It wasn't until night fall that the house lights on the cliff behind us indicated how close to town we were.

The Country east of Princeton

The view from Giant's Head in Summerland

Slow regeneration after the forest fires of 2003 south of Kelowna

Myra Canyon, where the trestles were caught in the forest fires. All of them have been replaced and were reopened this year.

Midway Station, end of the line.

Tomorrow I am headed in the direction of Bountiful, BC - Canada's polygamous community of Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints. It should be pretty crazy.

Celebrating Results

There was much celebration in Vancouver last night, Leigh G graduating from UBC, Robin Havelaar turning 25, and G Max turning 28. J Havelaar's call to the bar was also on the agenda, but sadly he couldn't make it - something to do with his uncle. In any case, as is becoming routine for big celebrations among our friends, a keg was tapped and the merriment flowed.

As well as being a night of celebration, it was also a night of competition. While the much talked about Brown - Havelaar Dance Off never truly came to be, due to a lack of Havelaars in attendance, I think it is safe to say that Graeme Brown won hands down. That boy can dance!

In keg standing, Rachel Harrison, a reluctant competitor, guzzled her way to a first place finish.


And Leigh G, proving once again that the G stands for genius, took the cake in the chocolate replica category, creating this masterpiece of Robin and Graeme's best friend.


It's a chocolate Eli. Can you believe it?

Also to be remembered for

Mothers Day 2008 will also be remembered for an unfortunate incident involving Eli's leg and some unknown sharp object. The incident resulted in this bandaged appendage and one sad pooch.

This is the second time my brother's dog has needed an operation on his hind left leg. The cast from the first incident adorns his corner of the kitchen (see below.) However, it is the first time that the operation has happened in Mike Brown's living room; when dad offered to lend his skills in family medicine to service the family dog, there were no protests from his vet bill weary owners. Four stitches later Eli was mended.