You might be surprised to learn which part was the most spectacular of my 5,024 km journey to Squamish.
Or you might not.
After being offered a job as Editor of The Squamish Chief, I excitedly ventured out from my Eastern Ontario home to cross most of the continent for an opportunity to live in one of the most magnificent places on Earth.
I have worked as an editor for other newspapers and magazines, but never in a place that looks like Squamish, nestled among the mountains by the ocean. This place does not seem real.
I’m lucky in that during my life so far, I have travelled to five continents and 30 countries, and here’s what I have discovered: Canada is the most beautiful country of all the places I have visited, even nicer than New Zealand and Thailand. And for scenery, B.C. is the most spectacular province. So of course I accepted the job.
To reach Squamish, I googled the options and chose the southern route across the U.S. I had previously bicycled the Trans-Canada (and Google verified the U.S. route would be eight hours shorter). The 5,024 km solo drive transported me past Chicago’s skyscrapers, across prairie lands, deep into North Dakota and Montana’s mystical badlands, up the mountains of Idaho and Washington, where in pitch darkness, I almost hit a wolf. I took a deep breath, collected myself, and then continued the route to the backroads north of Spokane to enter B.C.
At the remote border entry, I seemed to be a rare visitor and the guard requested every detail of my personal life, and then confiscated an illegal apple before allowing me into Canada. He must have been bored.
I was thrilled by the B.C. mountains but anxious, after a week on the road, to finally reach Squamish on Saturday evening. You can probably guess the most spectacular part of the journey: It was the final part, the Sea to Sky Highway, a route perched on cliffs with mesmerizing views of the ocean. I have never seen a highway like this, not in Switzerland, not in Nepal, and certainly not in Ontario!
I knew instantly I had made the right choice, that I had seized an opportunity I will never regret. My only regret, if any, is not moving here sooner.
