Whistler, BC – A deep breath of cedar, unfamiliar.
Training to be an artist.
My nose wrinkles.
It's greeted by forest air painted in incongruous colours.
Aerosols drip on the slight breeze, becoming stronger as we cross the suspension bridge over the roaring blue rapids of the Cheakamus River.
There, twisted between spindly trees, lie seven abandoned boxcars – the remains of a 70-year-old train wreck. They're awash in colour, having acquired a generation of artists' fresh paint.
And apparently, new life.
Today, a class of schoolkids stencils fish onto the sides of the mangled wrecks.
It's a stark juxtaposition: serene nature, dotted by grotesque blocks of man-made steel, now covered by two-dimensional representations of fish that swim just feet away.
So often, there's joy to be found in the unique and the unexpected.
Even after a morning spent driving along the Sea-to-Sky Highway, through the mountains to Whistler and into Shannon Falls and Brandywine Falls, it is by far the day's highlight.
After all, the extreme beauty of those sites had already been foreseen.
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