Day after tomorrow I plan on undertaking an intensely surreal experience. I will not eat for twenty-four hours, and on top of it stay up all night and wander around the campus. Complete self-deprivation, as it were. I'll keep my clothes, since that would be illegal and it'd be cold, but no food, no shelter, no sleep. As close as I'll get to... I don't even know. Here are the rules I will follow:
1) No eating from 0:00 on Tuesday to 0:00 on Wednesday.
2) No sleep after 9:00 on monday to 0:00 on Wednesday.
3) From sunset on Monday to Sunrise on Tuesday, I will not sit down, I will only walk, no matter how tired I get.
4) I may stop, but rarely. There will be enough on the UBC campus to keep me occupied outside all night.
5) I'll take pictures occasionally. These will be the courtesy of my laptop.
6) I may drink water.
7) I may enter other buildings as long as I remain in accordance with the other rules.
Since I'm a fan of things coming in sevens, I'll stop there.
Vancouver branch, over and out.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
A Gadfly
I apologize for the lack of recent updates.
I've been up to my ears in schoolwork and anime, and as such have not seen fit to update in a long time. About a week, to be specific, but I'll be back sometime in the next few weeks. Don't know when exactly, but sometime soon. Like I've been saying for a while now, there's a branch I still haven't explored that I have reason to believe goes far beyond anything else, so you can expect that sometime in the predictable future. Well, maybe not that soon. But you could expect it within the month without it being an abortion of logic.
I've been up to my ears in schoolwork and anime, and as such have not seen fit to update in a long time. About a week, to be specific, but I'll be back sometime in the next few weeks. Don't know when exactly, but sometime soon. Like I've been saying for a while now, there's a branch I still haven't explored that I have reason to believe goes far beyond anything else, so you can expect that sometime in the predictable future. Well, maybe not that soon. But you could expect it within the month without it being an abortion of logic.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Greenway North Part Two
The expedition was rather brief today, since part of my travel time each way must be devoted to backtracking (forgive the pun) along roads I have already taken. In any case, I started my Greenway expeditions as always, by busing up Broadway until Macdonald and then hoofing it up to Arbutus. From there, I retraced my earlier steps until the car graveyard.
Really though, as I found out today, that's where the fun just begins. After that, the tracks are hedged with buildings and thorns and liie on gravel beds. But the first part is actually just buildings. I had to leave the tracks at several times, simply because cars don't often stop at defunct train tracks. In any case, they do an interesting series of acrobatics, involving switches and splits and places where it looks like it splits but it doesn't, and runs past fences with razor wire and barbs, runs between buildings and stores. It's a very interesting place. Here's a shot of it:
That's where it stopped being buildings and started being plants that really formed the boundaries for where the tracks were and weren't. Up until then, it's all just store after store, plastered with graffiti. Interesting sight, to be sure, but not very useful. Anyway, you can see two sets of tracks in that picture. This is because there WERE two sets of tracks that merged. Then they split again. Since one of them led the way into a barbed-wire fenced enclosure, I took the other path, and soon found myself here:
Bad photo, I grant, but that's looking back at the way I had come. Here's more or less the same spot, looking forward:
Better photo, and it gets the bridge, too. I really wanted to go further on the tracks, but the disappeared into the thorny plants that you can see in the pictures. I didn't really want to dig through the plants to see if they actually were there, so I left it and went back.
However, this was something of a bad idea. There was an entire other branch I could have started exploring. I'll have to name that, and I'll go back again next week and look into the possibility of exploring it.
Vancouver branch, over and out.
Really though, as I found out today, that's where the fun just begins. After that, the tracks are hedged with buildings and thorns and liie on gravel beds. But the first part is actually just buildings. I had to leave the tracks at several times, simply because cars don't often stop at defunct train tracks. In any case, they do an interesting series of acrobatics, involving switches and splits and places where it looks like it splits but it doesn't, and runs past fences with razor wire and barbs, runs between buildings and stores. It's a very interesting place. Here's a shot of it:
That's where it stopped being buildings and started being plants that really formed the boundaries for where the tracks were and weren't. Up until then, it's all just store after store, plastered with graffiti. Interesting sight, to be sure, but not very useful. Anyway, you can see two sets of tracks in that picture. This is because there WERE two sets of tracks that merged. Then they split again. Since one of them led the way into a barbed-wire fenced enclosure, I took the other path, and soon found myself here:
Bad photo, I grant, but that's looking back at the way I had come. Here's more or less the same spot, looking forward:
Better photo, and it gets the bridge, too. I really wanted to go further on the tracks, but the disappeared into the thorny plants that you can see in the pictures. I didn't really want to dig through the plants to see if they actually were there, so I left it and went back.
However, this was something of a bad idea. There was an entire other branch I could have started exploring. I'll have to name that, and I'll go back again next week and look into the possibility of exploring it.
Vancouver branch, over and out.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Next on the List
After extensive research and looking around on Google earth...I've found precisely squat for accessible railroads. So, I've decided to return to the North Greenway and continue from where I left off. I didn't nearly explore the whole thing, in fact, I only got a little part of the way up. So call this a time-buying tactic on my part, to give me a little more time to think. Because I've not thought about this at all. I'm just looking at what I've got, and there's about two miles of track (minimum) that I haven't even looked at yet. Some of that is backtracking, but that's not a big deal. It's still a long distance that I haven't seen. Therefore, North Greenway part two will be in the works for tomorrow. So I guess that's about it.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
The South Greenway
I say, dear chap, that was a smashing adventure, what?
Total distance: 2.25 miles walked, approximately. I had to stop taking photos halfway through because it started to rain.
That was unfortunate, so I'll give you story with visual aids up to that point and then I'll just have to switch to straight narrative.
All right, so when you get onto the Greenway off of Arbutus, here's a little of what it looks like:
Looking North:
And looking south (the way I was going):
So I started walking south, and got a fair ways. There's a lot of overgrown hedges in there, as you can kinda see from the photos. There's also some pretty lousy graffiti, and the backs of the buildings are all peeling paint and weird disheveled-looking plants. It doesn't so much look dodgy or sketchy as it looks rather sad. It's the side of the buildings people weren't meant to see. We're supposed to look at the fronts and the painted facades, not the backs, with the parking lots of cracked asphalt and rusted fire escapes. That's the side that we aren't allowed to see, but it's still there, even in a city so toted as being beautiful as Vancouver.
Anyway, the tracks go up a slight incline and then down into a low sort of dip before coming out. Here's a photo looking down into it, which gives you a pretty good idea of what it feels like to be there.
Only not, because the photo was taken from too far back. Beyond the trees there's this huge open space where the railroad runs, between the Arbutus Street and the houses with their massive hedges. So I followed that a ways down, eventually coming to a place where the railway turns back upon itself, almost:
Literally right off the left hand edge of the photo is a massive power plant/buzzing electrical thing. Not a power plant. But one of those big transformer stations, or whatever. Anyway, that was interesting, since it was buzzing as I was walking along the tracks. Behind it, there were a bunch of houses, but between them and the tracks there were overgrown hedges and a low sort of concrete wall completely painted over in a multitude of colors. I was debating taking a picture of it, and regret that I didn't. It wasn't really exceptional art, but it was nice anyway. So the tracks curved around to avoid this weird park sort of thing right next to the electrical thingy. And as you walk along them, there's this odd sort of feeling of isolation that you almost never get in a city, because there were high plants on both sides of the tracks, and the rails themselves have been overtaken by strange wildflowers and low-growing foliage. It's really quite nice.
Anyway, once you get past the park, the tracks curve again, trying to retake the ground they lost, or something. It's probably just a switchback to avoid having a steep slope on the tracks. Maybe. I'm not really sure, to be honest. In any case, I came around a bend, was thinking whether or not to take a picture, and saw this:
And that pretty much sealed the deal, as it were. Unfortunately, it had just started to rain, so I took this picture and then packed away the computer for good. Because I'm a cheap bastard and don't have a camera. So yeah.
Anyway, I kept walking after that and eventually got into this area the name of which I can't really remember. But it was right around Point Grey secondary. This is actually something that I really like about walking, it ties your mental maps of various parts of the world together nicely. Better than driving, that's for sure. So I got into this place, and had no clue where I was, so I popped into a McDonald's to get a wireless signal. This was after I'd been walking for about an hour. But the funny this is that my feet didn't hurt, they just started to hurt after I was walking on concrete again. Because concrete is hell on the feet. So then I bused back to the campus and finished up some other business I needed to get to done. But this is really where the story ends, in that McDonald's, since I'd left the railway. Technically, I'd left it's course before, to cross the street legally and whatnot, but never for the reason of finding where I was.
So I guess now I need to find a new set of tracks to explore next street without too much complicated busing to get to.
*tips hat* Vancouver branch, over and out.
Total distance: 2.25 miles walked, approximately. I had to stop taking photos halfway through because it started to rain.
That was unfortunate, so I'll give you story with visual aids up to that point and then I'll just have to switch to straight narrative.
All right, so when you get onto the Greenway off of Arbutus, here's a little of what it looks like:
Looking North:
And looking south (the way I was going):
So I started walking south, and got a fair ways. There's a lot of overgrown hedges in there, as you can kinda see from the photos. There's also some pretty lousy graffiti, and the backs of the buildings are all peeling paint and weird disheveled-looking plants. It doesn't so much look dodgy or sketchy as it looks rather sad. It's the side of the buildings people weren't meant to see. We're supposed to look at the fronts and the painted facades, not the backs, with the parking lots of cracked asphalt and rusted fire escapes. That's the side that we aren't allowed to see, but it's still there, even in a city so toted as being beautiful as Vancouver.
Anyway, the tracks go up a slight incline and then down into a low sort of dip before coming out. Here's a photo looking down into it, which gives you a pretty good idea of what it feels like to be there.
Only not, because the photo was taken from too far back. Beyond the trees there's this huge open space where the railroad runs, between the Arbutus Street and the houses with their massive hedges. So I followed that a ways down, eventually coming to a place where the railway turns back upon itself, almost:
Literally right off the left hand edge of the photo is a massive power plant/buzzing electrical thing. Not a power plant. But one of those big transformer stations, or whatever. Anyway, that was interesting, since it was buzzing as I was walking along the tracks. Behind it, there were a bunch of houses, but between them and the tracks there were overgrown hedges and a low sort of concrete wall completely painted over in a multitude of colors. I was debating taking a picture of it, and regret that I didn't. It wasn't really exceptional art, but it was nice anyway. So the tracks curved around to avoid this weird park sort of thing right next to the electrical thingy. And as you walk along them, there's this odd sort of feeling of isolation that you almost never get in a city, because there were high plants on both sides of the tracks, and the rails themselves have been overtaken by strange wildflowers and low-growing foliage. It's really quite nice.
Anyway, once you get past the park, the tracks curve again, trying to retake the ground they lost, or something. It's probably just a switchback to avoid having a steep slope on the tracks. Maybe. I'm not really sure, to be honest. In any case, I came around a bend, was thinking whether or not to take a picture, and saw this:
And that pretty much sealed the deal, as it were. Unfortunately, it had just started to rain, so I took this picture and then packed away the computer for good. Because I'm a cheap bastard and don't have a camera. So yeah.
Anyway, I kept walking after that and eventually got into this area the name of which I can't really remember. But it was right around Point Grey secondary. This is actually something that I really like about walking, it ties your mental maps of various parts of the world together nicely. Better than driving, that's for sure. So I got into this place, and had no clue where I was, so I popped into a McDonald's to get a wireless signal. This was after I'd been walking for about an hour. But the funny this is that my feet didn't hurt, they just started to hurt after I was walking on concrete again. Because concrete is hell on the feet. So then I bused back to the campus and finished up some other business I needed to get to done. But this is really where the story ends, in that McDonald's, since I'd left the railway. Technically, I'd left it's course before, to cross the street legally and whatnot, but never for the reason of finding where I was.
So I guess now I need to find a new set of tracks to explore next street without too much complicated busing to get to.
*tips hat* Vancouver branch, over and out.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Greenway South
That's probably going to be my next project. There's a bunch of space down there, and although realistically I should go back to the northern section and finish exploring it. See, what you couldn't tell from the pictures I took was how sketchy the whole area looks when you're there. Being there made me a little uneasy, though admittedly I AM a pansy white boy and therefore have no guts, much less the street smarts to know when to be brave and stick with it and when to high-tail it out of there.
Map Here
So I was there, going north on my way, and made it to the funny roundabout looking thing not very far down the line. My next project will be significantly more ambitious, and will probably take place this coming Tuesday, since that's the next block of significant free time that I have running around my schedule. That said, there's about six times the amount of walkable track to the south that there is to the north, so this should be a much longer walk. What this means in practice is that I'll need a lunch that can be eaten while walking, since out of the hour I spent by the tracks last time, about twenty minutes of that was spent eating and sitting. Now, assuming that I have about time and a half within which to walk, I'd have a total of an hour and a half. So if I hit the tracks at 1:00, and walk for an hour and a half, I'd get back to my starting point about 4:00. No good. So I guess I've still only got maybe an hour of walking time.
But that's three miles I can go, not counting time spent taking pictures... but that's negligible. All in all, I just did the math in Google Earth, I end up walking the better part of the walkable distance on those tracks in one day. That said, the last time I spent less than an hour walking, and made it significantly less than three miles. In fact, I barely even made it .8 miles. This is a big problem. So, I guess a week from today will be the big test to see how well I can gauge my walking speed. I'm pretty sure it was 3 miles an hour... considering I did two and a half in 40-45 minutes pretty regularly, it might even be faster than that. We'll just see, won't we? Not something for the faint of heart, I guess.
So, Greenway South, the 6th of November, 2007. I might not have pictures, I've heard that November in Vancouver is pretty rainy. So... with luck, I will. Without it... I may not even take the hike. But now that it comes to it, I'll want this to be a rain or shine sort of affair. After all, rain won't wait if it comes when I'm on the road to Duluth, now will it?
Vancouver branch, over and out.
Map Here
So I was there, going north on my way, and made it to the funny roundabout looking thing not very far down the line. My next project will be significantly more ambitious, and will probably take place this coming Tuesday, since that's the next block of significant free time that I have running around my schedule. That said, there's about six times the amount of walkable track to the south that there is to the north, so this should be a much longer walk. What this means in practice is that I'll need a lunch that can be eaten while walking, since out of the hour I spent by the tracks last time, about twenty minutes of that was spent eating and sitting. Now, assuming that I have about time and a half within which to walk, I'd have a total of an hour and a half. So if I hit the tracks at 1:00, and walk for an hour and a half, I'd get back to my starting point about 4:00. No good. So I guess I've still only got maybe an hour of walking time.
But that's three miles I can go, not counting time spent taking pictures... but that's negligible. All in all, I just did the math in Google Earth, I end up walking the better part of the walkable distance on those tracks in one day. That said, the last time I spent less than an hour walking, and made it significantly less than three miles. In fact, I barely even made it .8 miles. This is a big problem. So, I guess a week from today will be the big test to see how well I can gauge my walking speed. I'm pretty sure it was 3 miles an hour... considering I did two and a half in 40-45 minutes pretty regularly, it might even be faster than that. We'll just see, won't we? Not something for the faint of heart, I guess.
So, Greenway South, the 6th of November, 2007. I might not have pictures, I've heard that November in Vancouver is pretty rainy. So... with luck, I will. Without it... I may not even take the hike. But now that it comes to it, I'll want this to be a rain or shine sort of affair. After all, rain won't wait if it comes when I'm on the road to Duluth, now will it?
Vancouver branch, over and out.
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