My first HEL-SEA flight

A route that I have not flown before, HEL-SEA. Finnair has been flying these on and off for a long time. Travel starts by the traditional praying of the sauna gods in the lounge. Maybe that will help with the short connection on the next leg. Relaxing, at least.

At the airport lounge I also took again one of the "beyond meat" burgers, really good! Really enjoy the Finnair non-Schengen platinum lounge, sad that I won't be able to use it much longer as I can't maintain my status with current number of flights I'm taking.

I managed to get a (small) upgrade to an economy extra seat in the Finnair plane. Nice, the seats are slightly wider so that I can actually fit in. Used my two last Finnair European vouchers to do that. To my surprise we also got one of the Finnair's Marimekko pouches with earplugs, eye covers, etc. on these seats. Nice touch.

I happened to be sitting also next to the captain's spouse, who was both fun to talk to, and had all kinds of goodies brought to her by the crew. Nice :-) 

SeaTac, or the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is a wonderful, large airport serving the two cities and a major hub for a number of airlines. Such as Alaska Air that I took from Seattle to Vancouver. Vancouver's airport is also quite nice. I was struck by how easy immigration processes and security checks were in both. Very efficient. 

Both airports have also significant on-airport commerce, shops, etc., far more than what one is typically used to in North America. Well done!

But ... no sauna. What's up with that? Don't you see the benefits of having a sauna in your lounges???

Helsinki:

Seattle:

Weirdly enough, with all the effort of getting from Seattle to Vancouver, I rented a car and immediately drove across the border: The goal was to get to a cave and ski hill visit on the US side. Surprisingly, it was super smooth to cross the border again. Nice artwork also on the US side, in sunset light:

For more flying stories, check out the planetflier.com website! or more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot and TGR! The photos and text (c) 2024 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of other saunagoers or swimmers. and try to visit at times where there is simply no one else around or the facility has been booked only for me.

Mt. Hood Summer Skiing

Mt. Hood’s Timberline Lodge is the only (I think) open summer ski resort in North America. Wonderful, good snow and more than 800 meters of vertical in summer! Plenty of out of bounds, too. July skiing: check.

At first I was not even aware that there was such a place. Then I heard rumors about it. And read about it. But it seemed unreachable for someone living on the other side of the world. And while I sometimes travel to the US, I never seemed to be doing it in any part where reaching Mt. Hood would be easy.

And it wasn't super easy now either. But at least I was in a conference on the right coast, in Vancouver. Perhaps I could take off two days before the conference to drive down and satisfy my cave curiosity and my monthly need to ski? It would be a long drive, but ... the rewards were worth it. 

And everything went very smoothly. I arrived on a late evening flight to Vancouver, rented a car and drove as long as I felt I could until the evening and the jet lag got to me, stayed in a hotel north of Seattle. Ironically, I had flown in via Seattle but it took me almost 24 hours to get back to it, with the plane to reach Vancouver, the airport hassles, traffic, and the driving. The next day I started early and made to the Ape Cave to explore that, then stayed the night in a hotel near Portland. And again, an early morning wake-up to drive up to Mt. Hood. Exciting!

The drive up to the mountain by itself was spectacular. The volcano is towering above you, yet you are still surrounded by green forests. At the ski area the snow does not reach the main hotel and huts at the end of July. However, you can buy tickets and hop on the ski lifts up the mountain. You will be delivered at the bottom of the snowy area, and take another lift up to the top of the ski area. In the ski area there are no facilities (restaurants, etc.) but you can ski down a somewhat melted ski run back to the base if you want. I did that couple of times, and was able to get grab lunch ingredients to my backpack this way :-)

The ski area is largely used by countless ski teams practicing, but there is fair bit of open skiing terrain left. 

And there was so much out of bounds to explore! You could even climb the 11,249 ft (3,429 m) peak of Mt. Hood, if you so desire. That, however, would be a major mountaineering expedition. 

I stayed nearer the ski area. To the skier's right there's plenty of open space, when I was there it was completely unskied and untouched, with an ability to leave your own tracks in the snow. You can even just traverse to the right from the top lift without going up at all. I hiked up a bit, but one could relatively safely hike up even more. But going much more higher would be entering crevasse and other dangers on Mt. Hood. (Be careful out there!)

In any case, I enjoyed my time on the side country much more than my time on the pistes. The pistes were fun too, but the snow was much better and less bumpy outside :-) 

Once I had hiked up out of bounds, I also had a nice lunch moment, sitting on a rock and consuming the tapas-and-juice snacks I bought earlier. Peace, quiet, sunshine, snow, and a meal! What could be better?

I kept skiing the side country for several runs. Nice. Plenty of space, and I only met 2-3 other people. I guess everyone was either busy racing or were touristy skiers after a novelty summer ski and were quickly off the mountain.

There was also a half-pipe:

Here are some of the friends you can find from the off-piste:

The official page for Timberline Lodge is here. Interestingly, there is four other ski resorts on the mountain as well, though only Timberline Lodge operates year around: Mount Hood Meadows, Mount Hood Skibowl, Summit Ski Area, and Cooper Spur ski area.

More pictures:

Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot or TGR. Photos and text (c) 2024 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Chilliwack River Caves

Fail. I did find a cave, a small one, but I only later learned there would have been a much bigger cave higher up. And the other cave I was searching for ... I could not find. I guess the coordinates were wrong. Oh well, it was a nice outing by the riverside. 

I was in Fraser Valley, near the town of Chilliwack and following the river Chilliwack. This area is about 40 kilometers east of Abbotsford, a cheap place where I was staying while waiting for my conference hotel in Vancouver to have free rooms. (See my other article about swimming in Abbotsford's hotel.)

The cave that I was here to look -- the Slesse Creek Cave -- at was understood to be small, but I was surprised how small it was, just maybe an 8-meter hole by the road. It is under a large cliff that rises straight from the road. A bit further to the west from the cave there's a place where climbers climb on the cliff face. 

Still, a nice little cave to crawl into. Slightly muddy, plenty rocky bottom and low ceiling. Which was challenging with my knees that are not in so great shape. Oh well.

But later I learned that there's a bigger cave about 100 meters higher up the steep hill/cliff, according to this link (BrmpMaps) and this discussion (ClubTread). Sad, but on the other hand I would not have had time or energy to climb much that day, and it isn't clear there's a way up easily.

What made the situation difficult also was that there was no Internet in this area, so I could not check pictures or other articles about the cave. 

This lack of Internet turned out to be more serious as I drove couple of kilometers more east to look at another cave, the Chipmunk Caves. There's a very nicely marked parking area by the road for this cave. And one has to walk half a kilometer on paths to the river side where the cave's location was supposed to be. But, I found nothing. Scrolled through the forest back and forth, paths and off paths. Nothing. Not even any rock or cliff that would enable there to be a cave. I also checked the river bank. And the other side river bank, though crossing might not have been possible. Nothing.

Wrong coordinates? Maybe. Again, not having the Internet lead me to not be able to look for other coordinates. So I drove back to work and back to my hotel.

More information:

Slesse Creek Cave link that I learned about is here (Google Maps). It just pointed to the holes by the road. Chipmunk caves are described here (Google Maps, the link I used) and here (TripAdvisor). There's also information here (AllTrails) and here (AWalkAndALark).

Coordinates for the Slesse Creek Cave are  N 49.077442 W 121.710871. And the claimed coordinates for the Chipmunk Caves are N 49.105453 W 121.640650.

Slesse cave:

Slesse cave area. Here you can see the beautiful river, the climbing area, and some of the other cave-like holes:

Chipmunk caves area photos are below. Here you can see how well the parking was marked! But again, it was impossible for me to find the caves. Thick forest, beautiful forest, beautiful river, but ... no cave. 

Read more urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot or TGR. Photos and text (c) 2024 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Abbotsford Clarion Swim

Clarion hotel and conference centre is out of the way of the centre of Abbotsford, but conveniently located near the highway. I stayed here on a business trip because for one night there was no availability in Vancouver where my conference was. Or the prices were too high, north of 400 euros.

Of course I had to try to their pool. I was kind of expecting an outdoor pool, but no,.. an indoor one. A medium sized pool and a small jacuzzi. Not bad, but I wanted also a sauna, which wasn't there :-) Oh well. 

I also ate at the restaurant, had the crispy prawns and cucumber - watermelon drink, was quite good!

Interestingly, the hotel room had a gas-powered fireplace which turned itself on automatically if you adjusted the room thermostat. Nice!

The hotel felt like a highway-locked place where you can't really exit on foot. But if you walk past the fire station behind the parking lot, you can find a shopping area with interesting shops, like the Angry Otter Liquor:

On the way here, I also dropped by some caves in Fraser Valley. See the other article.

For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot and TGR! The photos and text (c) 2024 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take recognisable photos of other saunagoers or swimmers. and try to visit at times where there is simply no one else around or the facility has been booked only for me.