Life Aboard Isabella

It's been approximately two months that I've been living on my boat, I figure it's about time for an update.

It surprises me how people adapt to new environments... or maybe it's just me. By now, and quite frankly within a week or two of moving, living on the boat seemed totally normal to me. There are obviously quite a few differences from living in an apartment or a house.

The big one everybody asks about is my bathroom. Yes I have a bathroom (bathrooms actually called a 'head' when they're on a boat... comes from the time that they was always in the bow of the boat), no it doesn't have a shower. Mainly I tend to do my business and shower at the marina. Occasionally I shower when I get to work.

Food and food preparation is a bit different as well. I don't have a fridge, I have an ice box. If you're not sure what that is, it's essentially a cooler built into the boat. Eventually I plan to convert it into a fridge, but that hasn't happened yet. The downside to this is that vegetables don't keep very well on my boat, so to all my Vancouver friends who occasionally invite me over for dinner, force feeding me salads might not be a bad idea! As for a stove, I have one, but it's got some issues where sometimes it catches on fire. It's not cool, so I don't use it. I plan on replacing that too eventually with a propane stove/oven. In the meantime I have a single element induction cooker and a BBQ (actually a 'SEA-B-QUE') which have served me quite well so far.

I have water and electricity hookups on the dock. There's also cable, but I don't have a TV, and I'm not super interested in getting internet.

Not having TV or internet isn't exactly a new thing for me, as it's kinda how I grew up. Mainly for entertainment I read books or just work on little things around the boat. Alternatively I write stuff for my blog or play guitar. I think I've seen maybe four movies in the past two months.

They say that the test to see if you're ready to buy a boat is to go to the end of the nearest dock, throw a handful of money into the water, and if you enjoyed that you're ready for a boat. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but it seems that everything marine related is just a little bit more expensive than you would normally expect something to be. Despite this, I spend a lot of time looking at my boat thinking stuff like "I really want to fix this" or, "I'd really love to improve that". I guess I'll just start saving up all the money I'm saving on not paying rent, and put it towards boat improvement!

There are so many other things about living on a boat that I'd love to talk about, but I'll save that for another post.

Stay classy internet.

Unnecessary Mountain

Last summer I hiked to the Lions, and it was easily the best hike I did all summer. This year I decided to do it again, but this time to leave from Cypress Mountain. This route is much longer, as it follows the Howe Sound crest trail and before you get to the Lions you have to climb up and over St. Mark's summit and Unecessary Mountain.

We ended up stopping at Unecessary Mountain.

I'll admit, it's a bit hazy, but to the left you can see Bowen Island,
with Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast in the background

The first couple kilometers of the trail are on a wide, fairly level, well maintained gravel trail. Soon enough it switches back to the standard path as you head up to St. Mark's. The view from St. Mark's isn't panoramic, but it is stunning none the less. You can look out over the mouth of the Howe Sound, with a great view of Bowen Island, and the many other smaller islands and rocks scattered around sound. The trail descends fairly steeply on the far side of the peak before coming to a sign "Improved Trail Ends" with a fallen tree across the path. The trail then ascends steeply to the top of the first peak of Unecessary Mountain. In total there are three peaks. We didn't get any further than the second peak, but it has quite a beautiful view of the lions just a few short kilometers further down the trail. To the south you can see the sprawl of Vancouver across the lower mainland.

The West and the East Lion

On the trip back, myself and my hiking partners were watching a helicopter zoom up and down the range, then much to our surprise it landed in the tiny meadow we had just crossed. We backtracked and watched as three men jumped out with a number of large rucksacks. As the helicopter took off, they said that a woman had fallen further down the trail, and would we please help them carry some equipment to her. We acquiesced and ran off after them. After dropping off the bags, we opted to try not make the lady who had fallen even more uncomfortable by standing around and watching, so continued on our way.

In summary, Unecessary Mountain is one more of the many beautiful hikes that BC has to offer. The round trip took us between seven and eight hours, and we were fairly tired by the end of it.

Difficulty: 3.5/5
Enjoyability: 3.5/5