La pêche

À la fin du mois d'aout, nous avons commencé une étude toxicologique sur trois espèces de poissons dans le fleuve Fraser. Les détails de la recherche sont sans doute banals, et de toute façon je ne m'en occupe pas personellement. Par contre, pendant deux ou trois semaines nous avons du pêcher à la seine sur les rives du fleuve.
Les journées commençaient tôt. Je quitait la maison avant 7hr pour arriver à la rivière vers 8hr. Heureusement nous avions toujours le beau temps et malgré les diverses industries, notament celle de la pâte à papier, le paysage était fantastique.

Puisque nous n'avions pas assez de temps pour embaucher des biologistes, nous étions obligés de recruter Bob, un type un peu louche qui reside dans un bateau de pêche délabré. Quand la pêche commerciale était encore très importante il n'avait probablement pas de mal a se trouver un boulôt, mais avec l'extinctions commerciale de certaines espèces de saumon (rouge ou sockeye/argenté ou coho) il s'est retrouvé au chômage. Malgré ses défauts il a nous aidé un peu.
Pour pêcher à la seine, il faut attacher un bout du filet sur la plage alors que le bateau trace un demi-cercle pour pieger les poissons entre la rive et le filet.

Dès que le filet est placé, il faut immédiatement commencer a le tirer pour éviter qu'il s'accroche sur le débris au fond de l'eau ou que le courant l'emporte. Ce n'est pas une tâche facile. Le fond est jonché de déchets. Pendant des années les ingénieurs se sont amusés a renforcer la rives avec des vieilles voitures, donc il n'était pas rare de s'accrocher sur des bouts de métal et de déchirer le filet. Comme si ce n'était pas assez, le courrant de la rivière et les fortes marées rendaient parfois la tâche presque impossible.
Malgré les problèmes, nous attrapions beaucoup de poissons. Içi ce sont des saumons roses. On en avait parfois plus d'une centaine dans le filet.
Puisque ce n'était pas une des espèces que nous cherchions il fallait en relacher la majorité.
Ce n'était pas toujous facile de les relâcher sans se mouiller complètement et sans perdre les autres poissons.

Plus récemment on est aller pêcher à Steveston, un peu plus près de la mer. C'est içi que la pêche c'est vraiment industrialisée vers la fin du 19e siècle en Colombie Britannique. Depuis, tout tombe en ruine, même s'il reste encore des centaines de bateaux.
Un chalutier.
Les saumons rose on une vie courte. Ils reviennent dans la rivière deux ans après la naissance pour se reproduire avant de mourir. Malgré la sur-pêche, il y en a toujours plusieurs millions qui reviennent içi tous les deux ans.

Video Attempt

So I noticed yesterday when I was posting my most recent blog that there is now something that looks like a video icon on blogger!! Yes! I just put my cursor on it and it said "add video". Remi and I have been taking a lot of videos lately because our new camera actually has sound (for some reason the old one didn't) and we think it's the best way to show people what we've been doing. So here are a couple videos from our most recent camping trip to Manning Park (First Brother Mountain). Enjoy!

Okay, so these videos take about 6 years each to upload, so it'll just be two for now and I'll try again later. Actually, after over an hour of trying to get the second video to upload, it'll have to just be one for now... Crappy blogger!

Sarah

Most recently...

So, sadly, our camping trip for this week was cancelled because Remi's work got a new contract and the girls he works with were unwilling (unlike my dedicated sweetie) to change their plans so Remi got stuck working the whole weekend (except Saturday). Apparently it was "man's work" anyway - hauling nets and such. His work actually "hired" some guy who was just hanging out around the docks to help them! He's now in charge of looking after the boat and the $4000 net they're using and they all call him "Crazy Bob"... He allegedly joyrides on the boat when they're gone, but they need the help and don't have a choice, I guess. I, personally, think the idea of hiring a "river" person (apparently the people who live along the river are of an interesting sort of folk) and trusting him with your gear is absolutely hilarious!! But I digress... The following are what we've been up to lately.

Firstly, our friends from Nanaimo, Scott and Nicole, are moving (as we speak actually) to Saskatchewan. A couple weeks ago they had a "house cooling" party at their place in Nanaimo and we hopped on the ferry and went over to hang out with them for the weekend.

Maggie decided to ride in style. As you may or may not know, dog owners are considered third-class citizens by BC Ferries and are forced to ride on the vehicle decks. The ride there was pretty nice, actually. We were out of the wind on the back of the boat. But the ride home was BRUTAL. We took a late ferry and froze our asses off INSIDE the boat while breathing in noxious and cancerous car/oil/truck/trailer/etc. fumes. AWFUL. Remi actually wrote a letter to BC Ferries, but I don't think he's heard back yet. He was polite and everything!! Either they get a lot of complaints (which wouldn't surpise me) or they don't give a horse's ass. Both are likely options.




The house cooling... We played twister. Bums in faces... What more can you ask for at a party?? Oh, and Remi passed out at about 10:30 pm. He actually wasn't the first, but Nicole only beat him by two or three minutes ;)


Maggie got to see her best friend Koda. They played. As you can see from the look on Scott's face, we all became a little tired of their rambunctiousness after a while. Every time we tried to put them outside to play they'd stop playing and stare dumbly at us. Kind of like cows in a field... Maggie was also freaked out by the grass in their backyard. It was just regular grass!! But try telling her that... I've never seen her tread so lightly!!


These are a few pictures of Remi's solo hike up Mt. Strachan, near Vancouver. The helicopter was being used for some concrete work for something to do with the 2010 Olympics. More habitat destruction for a one-time event!! Good job, BC.

There was a plane wreck up there. He took a bunch of pics thinking my Dad might be interested. If you are, Dad, let us know and I'll email you a few others.


This was just yesterday on our only day off together for the long weekend. Maggie, as usual has to have the biggest "stick". This was at Indian Arm Provincial Park. It's about a half and hour drive from home and has a bunch of great hikes, so we'll definitely be going back. Unfortunately, not many photo ops on the hike we were on, so no pictures of that.

What Remi likes to call a "perk" of his job. Because they're out doing sampling they catch a lot of pink salmon as by-catch (accidental catches) in their nets. Although Remi claims to have tried to rescue several of the fish, he still managed to bring home FIVE fish of his own. How we're ever going to eat five entire fish, I'd love to know. Luckily our landlord took one and we're hoping to give another to Chris and Laura, our dinner-date buddies here in Vancouver (Laura is a classmate of mine). This is after our whole fish on the BBQ dinner. It was quite good, but too garlic-y. The recipe didn't call for garlic, but Remi put in 7 or 8 cloves anyway. Yuck. Next time, no garlic ;) We had hoped to use the rest of the fish for some salmon pate, but it didn't actually turn out very well. A little bland. Any suggestions?

And this was today... Maggie decided to CHEW the fishfood bottle. We ran over to the grocery store before her afternoon walk and I guess she didn't like that. It was all over the freakin' living room!! This made me especially mad because I just cleaned the house today! We both gave her heck, so hopefully this doesn't happen again. She seems to be going through some kind of rebelious phase right now. The other day she chewed apart a bag of calcium carbonate (another fishtank item) and ate a chunk of fertilizer (also fishtank related). Maybe she doesn't like the placement of the 10 gallon tank in the living room. Which reminds me, Remi bought a 35 gallon fishtank which is now set up in the kitchen. We'll post some pictures when it's set up a bit more.

I guess that's it for now. I head back to school on Wednesday. I'm sort of excited but also a little scared. Let the drug memorization really begin!! Here at UBC you actually only learned pharmacology for two years of the program, 2nd and 3rd, so it's pretty intense. I'm also getting sick of school and assignments and the like. I don't wanna do homework anymore!! I'm too old for this nonsense!!

Anyway, enough whining ;) I'm off to cuddle with my boyfriend and listen to some Mozart. We're relaxing tonight.

Hope all is well with everyone and remember, if you read this, post a comment!!! We'd love to hear from everyone :)

Sarah

P.S. This is the next day. Sarah and I went out for some fancy Italian (pronounced eye-talian)food, and the stupid dog chewed some more useless aquarium crap. So I cursed her out good for a while and sent het to bed. Tomorrow I put an add out in the paper for a dumb dog. Hopefully we can sell her to the gypsies.

Rémi

First Brother Mountain!

Et c'est reparti, une autre randonnée en montagne. Nous avons du attendre le mois d'aout pour que la neige fonde et que les fleurs de printemps sortent enfin. Ce sentier est entre Hope et Princeton, à l'est de Vancouver dans les rocheuses.

Translator to the rescue! So I'll do my best. This is from when we first started out on the trail, before Maggie annoyed Remi by pulling. August is the perfect time of year to be in the mountains in this area because the snow is mostly melted and the spring flowers are in full bloom. The part of Manning Park we went to is between Hope and Princeton, east of Vancouver.
Notre premier camp était comfortable. Une plateforme pour la tente et une table pour manger. Malheuresement, a presque 2000m, il fait froid la nuit.

Our camp was comfortable with a platform for the tent and a picnic table!! We've never had a picnic table for back-country camping. What a luxury!! But it was cold at night and pretty buggy.
Notre camp, just avant le coucher de soleil. Nous étions tous seuls, sympa quand on veut éviter les bruits de la ville et de la foule.

This is camp just before sundown. It was quiet and there was only one other party in this particular campsite.
Le lendemain il faisait très beau. Avec un sentier facile, nous avons fait 8km en 3 ou 4 heures.

The trail was nice and pretty easy. Lots of uphill, but nice flat areas too. And GORGEOUS! Flowers everywhere. And mountain views. He also mentioned that we could hike 8 km in 3-4 hours.
Le sentier passait sur le flanc de montagne parmi les fleurs sauvages. Nous nous arrêtions souvent pour prendre des photos (presque 500 avant la fin du weekend).

We stopped often to take photos because it was so beautiful. For a change we took our time hiking!
J'adore les plateaus en montagne. Derrière on voit juste "le premier frère", le sommet de 2272m que nous avons escaladés mercredi.

Behind us you can see the First Brother mountain which we climbed on our hike out on Wednesday.
La vue était incroyable. This means "the view was incredible", which you may have guessed ;)
"Le premier frère" a gauche, et une vallée a droite. First brother to the left and a valley to the right.
La vallée en question. J'ai toujours le vertige au bord des précipices et j'ai du mal a me tenir droit.

I love this picture! You almost get vertigo looking at it. Remi gets all freaked out near huge slopes and drop-offs. He gets sympathy butterflies when I'm close to the edge ;)
Sarah qui fait semblant de grimper.

Remi is so jealous of how cool I look in this badass shot!

Après avoir érigé la tente, nous avond suivi le sentier. Là, nous étions tous seuls et on pouvait explorer tranquilement.

We pitched our tent at the second campsite ("Kicking Horse") and then went and explored the meadows beyond. We were the only ones on the trail! It was great. This is exactly why we avoid the long weekend traffic.

Le lendemain nous étions dans les nuages. Toute la journée on espérait une éclaicie pour pouvoir escalader First Brother Mountain (Le premier frère, en français), mais rien. Vers 19 ou 20 heures nous avons aperçu le soleil pendant quelques secondes, et le ciel bleu pendant une ou deux minutes. Nous avons passé le temps en lisant ou en jouant aux cartes et aux dés. Pas très drole pour les vacances, mais avec le froid (14-16°C), l'humidité et le genou à Sarah qui faisait mal, nous n'avions pas beaucoup de choix.

The second day we woke up and were in the clouds. COLD. It made it impossible for us to climb the First Brother on our planned day (Tuesday). We saw the sun only for a minute or two in the afternoon and only a few patches of blue sky. The whole day pretty much sucked. We spent three hours in the tent in the morning shivering, reading and playing crib and Yahtzee. Thank goodness we brought stuff to do! My knee was also really sore - I must have twisted it during the night - and could barely walk, so I guess it wasn't so bad that the weather sucked.
Nous en avons profité pour prendre des photos de Maggie, pendant les brèves secondes où elle n'était pas occupée a terroriser les marmottes et les écureuils.

It was a fight, but we finally got Maggie to sit still for a minute for this gorgeous glamour shot. She was enthralled with the marmot and squirrel smells that were absolutely everywhere. That's why she was pulling so badly on her leash when we were hiking in!
Le sentier qui mène au sommet de la montagne passe par une dorsale avec des pentes de 70° sur les deux cötés qui descendaient quelques centaines de mètres.

Climbing First Brother on Wednesday. This was the ridge to the summit. Il fallait escalader quelques mètres par endroits.
Scaling to the top!
Le sommet. Il faisait très froid, il y avait un vent fou, mais la vue n'était pas mal, et à 2272m, c'est la plus grande montagne que nous avons escaladée en Colombie Britannique.

It was damn cold and windy! But this is the highest summit we've climbed in BC - 2272 m.
Le sentier. Içi on voit bien la dorsale. The ridge.
Et le précipice. The drop-off.

Le panneau dit, à peu près, "pelouse interdite".

I think this fantastic photo speaks for itself.
Une dernière photo en montagne...

A fantastic photo! This was on the way back to the parking lot. I love faking poses for the camera. "Ok, turn a bit to the left... Perfect! Now look natural."

Et le weekend est fini... Aren't we cute?? This picture was supposed to represent the end, but...
Avec l'exception du fait que nous avons un plat.

We got a flat!! This is what we found when we returned to the parking lot!
Et l'aventure est finie...

But we (as in Remi) put the donut on and off we went. All in all, a fabulous trip. The tire is fixed now, so we're back to normal.

Adventure fin ;)

Rémi & Sarah

Capilano Rip-Off Bridge

So, as you may or may not know, Remi and I are cheap. We prefer the term "frugal" (prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful - Dictionary.com), but cheap will do. So it may surprise some of you that we would actually PAY to do a "hike". Well, stroll really. So here goes...

Capilano Suspension Bridge (AKA Capilano Rip-Off Bridge) is just what the name sounds like - a suspension bridge. BUT, it's HUGE. It's 450 feet (137m) across and 230 feet (70m) above Capilano River. The park claims that you can fly two Boeing 747 side-by-side under the bridge, but I'm skeptical... Maybe after some of that clear-cutting BC is famous for. It's also Vancouver's oldest park, opening in 1889. So what makes this great attraction worth $26.95 + tax per tourist? (BC residents get a whopping $2 discount!!) We're not quite sure. Let's analyse it a little.

They had some nice totem poles.

These guys with an extra stump for you to pose on. (Racist? We're not sure. Stereotypical? Definitely.) And they had a few Native Americans who came out and sang a traditional song with drums! This was neat to hear. And though the park touted having a "Native Art Gallery", all they had was a little lean-to with five or six carvings under it. The carvings were very cool though.

+

OH! And they had the bridge, of course! It was actually pretty cool. Worth $26 when there's a not quite as cool suspension bridge only a short drive away? Probably not. And yes, those are our shadows on the left in the first picture :)

The park also had a "Tree Tops Adventure". In theory, this is a walkway built up off the ground in the tree canopy. In REALITY, it was a walkway built about 30 feet off the ground far below the actual canopy. It was "mediocre-ly" cool, as I put it. AND apparently this is a rainforest!! I couldn't tell what with all the ground cover having been cleared out!! I saw one fern per 100 sq. feet! RIDICULOUS! In REAL rainforests, such as those you can visit for free in and around Vancouver, and all over the coast and on the island for that matter, you can't step two feet off a path without being enveloped in understory (which is, for those of you who don't know: the shrubs and plants growing beneath the main canopy of a forest - Dictionary.com). This "forest" had absolutely NO understory!!

The park also had two extremely skanky looking "trout" ponds. I quotation-marked the trout because while there were trout in there, I doubt anything could live there naturally (in Remi's lingo, the ponds are "stocked with fish"). But you can feed the trouts if you go on their tours!! I might pay $3.50 to do that and only if there was nothing else to do in town.

Oh! And we were there. But how many of you would pay to see us?? (I'd love to know so I can hit you up the next time I see you.)

So after careful thought, Remi and I have decided that the reason it costs $26.95 + tax for non-BC residents is because of the extreme over-staffing with people dressed in 19th century garb. I saw about 5 women wandering around randomly "looking busy", not to mention the HORRIBLE barber-shop quintet playing in front of the outrageously over-priced Gift Shop.

Oh, I almost forgot! They had ring toss!! Probably worth about 50 cents a round :)

Have I made my point? We will only be going back because the $24.95 + tax that we paid includes a season's pass and we figure we'd better get the most out of it! Bottomline, we don't recommend it and if any of you deadbeats ever get around to visiting us (Remi's parents aside - they have actually been out here on two separate occasions!), we'll be taking you elsewhere to enjoy BC's beauty for free and away from the throngs of those who would rather part with their money.

Hope you enjoyed my review :)