We Had an Unobstructed View for Two Decades

We finally had another fantastic day of sunshine in Metro Vancouver! 

I used to take our balcony view of Mt. Baker for granted.  This mountain is around 125 km away by road and sits in northern Washington State.  The elevation of the andesitic stratovolcano rises 3,288 meters above sea level.  As this mountain is glacier-covered, the top stays white year-round.  

 

The city on the other side of the Fraser River is called, Surrey.  It is an area of high growth.  Surrey Central in particular is seeing a great number of developments.  Our neighbouring city is due to match and exceed the population of Vancouver this decade.   Unfortunately, some of this growth is occurring between our apartment and the mountain.

What a Unfortunate Location (for Us)

We've lived in the same apartment in New Westminster since 1998. We're downtown and face the Fraser River. On clear days, we have always been able to see Mt. Baker from the balcony.



Lots of construction is taking place in Surrey, BC. We are now losing our unobstructed view the mountain that's around 50 of 60 miles away in Washington State.

It Feels a Bit LIke Cheating

It used to be that in order to make interesting images one needed to have the requisite equipment and possess specific skills. I guess those requirements really haven't changed.

However, Mt. Baker in the image above does not exist on canvas anywhere. Moments ago, I stepped out onto our balcony and zoomed on the mountain top on the southern horizon with my Nikon P900. Then, I simply copied the image to my Asus tablet and altered the image in Snapseed.



There is not a shot in existence which cannot be improved with a little photo editing. However, if one takes the time to play with the tools, creativity can run rampant. I probably should try to be less of a documenter and more of an artist.

It's All Optics

This is a view of Mount Baker from my balcony today. A hill in Surrey, BC stands between it and me. I can only see the top, so it is snow-clad nearly year round.


I took this a few minutes ago with my little Nikon S9900. Our apartment faces south, south-east but there are no local mountains in this direction!

In fact, Mt. Baker is in the State of Washington. It's probably almost 100 kilometers (60 miles) away as the crow flies. So, I should probably not use the 30x optical zoom.


If I use my camera's wide angle, you'd be hard pressed to see the mountain at all. The reality of the view, as in most things, lies somewhere in the middle.

When Walking Home

How could I not go on a walk today? There's not a cloud in the very blue sky. The temperature is perfect as is often the case here during a summer high pressure system. It's warm but not sweaty or humid. It always gets cool enough to sleep over night.


I try to vary my route for the sake of interest. Today, I walked right down Sixth Street on my return to the apartment. This is a major car route too. Next to the New Westminster City Hall, I stopped to take this picture to the south. The cars in the picture are parked in front. The Fraser River is not visible here, but my apartment building is. Also, to the right of the tower building you can see Mt. Baker in Washington State. Even with the zoom, my phone could not get a very good shot of the peak.

Facing South

The fact that this apartment faces south is one of its best features. That means during the winter, on the rare days when it's not raining, we will get a little sun directly in the bedroom and living room. The arc during the summer, however, brings it over the building so it doesn't get excessively hot inside.

Unfortunately though there are none of the famous, lower-Mainland mountains in this direction. I can see Mt. Baker in Washington State but the reason it looks so close is only because of the zoom on my camera. If I change to wide-angle, the view from my balcony looks more like this:



With the naked eye, the perceived closeness falls somewhere in between. The weather for this long weekend in British Columbia really is fantastic though!

The Sun's Rising Later

I was in class all morning and correcting assignments all afternoon. Due to this situation, I didn't get around to making a blog entry until now. Trying to think of a good topic in the evening is not my forte. Therefore, I will just include a photo I took from the balcony before sunrise this morning.


The sliver of the moon looked interesting. I couldn't zoom much though as I wanted to include the mountain as well. Mt. Baker is quite far away in Washington State and it's partially hidden by a ridge in Surrey. I have a picture from much closer in this 2007 blog entry.

Topless Since 1980

I just added a Facebook status message which implied that due to the weekend get-a-way, I'm finding it hard to get into the right frame of mind for this afternoon's class. These 5-week Intensive courses at BCIT really require a sustained effort from both students and the instructor!

So rather than doing online tasks related to class, I took a second to upload this picture of Mount St. Helens to Flickr. I was sitting on the 'inland' side of the Horizon Air turbo-prop on the way to Portland last Friday. Jay was booked on the opposite window seat for some reason. He got to look at the Pacific only. I saw Mt. Baker, Mt. Rainier, Mount Saint Helens, and Mt Hood. One really gets a better idea of Cascadia from the air.

Climate Change

Unlike today, the weather was superb yesterday. It was clear and warm. The photo shows my building as photographed from the New Westminster City Hall. Mt. Baker lies about 60 miles away in Washington State.

I experience the, often profound, effects of living in a place where the weather can be bipolar. When the sun is out, I have the overriding feeling that I've got to get outside. It's as if I don't want to waste any of the limited nice weather. This is followed by overwhelming guilt if I fail to walk around in the sunshine. In the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, seeing the sun is such a precious gift for about two-thirds of each year!

Alpine Appreciation

I woke up this morning before a lovely sunrise. From the balcony, I was able to look across the Fraser and see the tip of Mt. Baker in Washington State.

After breakfast, we decided to take a little trip as the weather was nice. The rest of the week promises to be rainy, so we jumped in the truck and went to the Aldergrove border crossing into Washington. Apparently, others also had the idea of a road trip today as we had to wait in queue for fifty minutes at the border. Incidentally, in order to jump the line, one just has to stop by the duty-free shop and then be directed back into the line far ahead of others. I'll remember this for next time.

We ended up driving around a bit more than needed, but the roads were nice and the deciduous trees colourful. At the top, Heather Meadows was patiently waiting. There was almost no snow at this point today, but I'm sure in the next couple of weeks, it'll be blanketed.

We came home through Bellingham, stopping at the Country Buffet at the mall for a 3 o'clock lunch. I ate like a pig, and consequently am still full. The wait coming into Canada at the Peace Arch was about a half-hour.

Over the River

Some days, there's nothing that I can say that describes the morning view. My words can instruct yet not inspire.

Some days, there's nothing that I can say that describes the morning view. 

South from the balcony, the sun rises west of Mt. Baker in December.

More Reflections

I cannot argue with the superb weather. I'm just sitting on the balcony. Even though it's 8:30 pm, it's bright and sunny and still in the mid 20's Celsius.

What a perfect day to watch the barges, nesting gulls chasing a bald eagle, and the snow on top of Mt. Baker reflecting a pinkish hue. Oh, I nearly forgot to mention; there's pleasure in sipping an extremely cold Labatt's Wildcat.