canada: fernie in the rain

western canada is awesomely beautiful. unfortunately, for the week we were there it also decided to be awesomely rainy. but we are not the sort to let a wee bit of rain stand in our way of having a good time, so we went for a hike to a ski lodge anyway...
 

oliver, we discovered, is not one to hide his feelings. he thought we were nuts to be walking around in the rain when we could be nice and warm indoors, and as you can see from his face palm below let us know it.

but there is something really beautiful about different places in different kinds of weather, and personally i thought it added to the beauty of the forest to have the rain dripping softly around us - it was really peaceful and atmospheric.

old-growth forests have different ages depending on the place. if there are frequent fires, an 'old-growth' forest might be 100 or 150 years. so even for BC, 800 years is not too shabby. these trees have lived peacefully through gengis khan, the renaissance, da vinci, michelangelo, shakespeare, the industrial age, and they are still happily there.

sadly they are also most at risk since they are generally the most commercially viable.

at the top of our hike was a beautiful ski lodge made from huge logs. we stopped for a hot chocolate. there was a pretty hike down to the lake, and for some strange reason everyone wanted to stay in the lodge next to the fire drinking hot chocolate (i think influenced by oliver) and i walked down alone.

finally we stopped in the little town called fernie. small and picturesque. there were cute little shops that made chocolate from scratch - beans and all, arty little art shops (that sounds a bit redundant, but its accurate), a pretty bookshop and my favorite, the old fashioned print shop. this guy prints stuff on an old hand driven press. no computer made plates here - it is all carved by hand, or set in an old fashioned letter press. a huge amount of work but boy is the result beautiful. i tried to get a picture of the interesting looking owner...didnt quite come out the way i had in mind, but...

 

kim claims that when its not raining, fernie is surrounded by beautiful mountains, but i cannot prove this one way or another.....next stop, kimberley.