Whistler, B.C. — Pierced and iPod-packing international adventurers squeeze into an intimate tour bus by 8:30 a.m., leaving Vancouver's downtown hostels buzzing from the previous night's party.
They managed to snag tickets on the Moose Travel Network tour bus before it had sold out.
The national company does most of its business in British Columbia, a beacon for backpackers from around the world.
The Moose network sells laid-back trips led by cool locals promising good times on the mountains, in the Interior's vineyards and at surf towns on Vancouver Island.
Aussies make up the base of the grooving West Coast backpacker scene, which is studded with Brits, Germans and language students from Japan and Brazil, but also a few Canadians.
Nina Schach, a 27-year-old from Frankfurt, had B.C. mountains in mind when she bought a round-the-world plane ticket. "I landed first in Toronto and stayed at a really cool little hostel. A lot of people had just come from Vancouver and were raving about it. This is really the place on everyone's lips, it's the place to go," said Schach, who is taking five months to travel before starting a teaching job.
She sat up front in the 12-passenger Moose bus listening to tattooed driver Mike Racicot talk about Whistler, the province's playground, now in the global spotlight as it gears up for the 2010 Olympics.
"You guys are going to see some sick trails for mountain biking, and guys catching serious air. We can go for a ride, hang out at our hostel, which has an awesome hot tub," said Racicot, a 24-year-old from Ottawa. "I was thinking we could stay in and make a group dinner, we could have a serious spread if everyone pitches in $5, and someone who can cook cooks," he laughed.
Racicot also promised to take them to the places where locals love to party. "Nightlife makes up half the life in Whistler," said Racicot, who has lived in the ski town for three years and knows which bars are hot on different week nights.
Driving up the Sea-to-Sky highway, blasting house music offered up by one of the backpackers, Racicot pointed out train tracks leading to an old car in the woods where B.C.'s nature-loving club kids throw 24-hour parties on full-moon nights.
Mountains soar above the ocean, giving the bus riders a hint of views to come.
Many had signed up for zip trekking, the latest Whistler adventure, a wild ride in a body harness down cables running through the treetops.
"I'm afraid of heights, but I have to do it," said Jamie Henderson, a 26-year-old pharmacist from Glasgow. "It's a rare chance because so few places in the world have something like zip trekking."
Lured by Canada's dollar, cheap compared with the British pound, she said B.C. is packed with adventures. "You can go whale watching, visit islands by ferry, hike mountains, golf, kayak, raft. There's just so much to do."
Skydiving, bungee jumping and houseboating on Lake Okanagan are popular with West Coast backpackers. But Moose owner Rob Sheridan said the biggest draw is the B.C. outdoors. "People come with a picture of Canada in their minds: the Rocky Mountains, bears, elk, moose. And they are blown away when it turns out to be more real than they imagined."
Ivan Ransley, 29, from the Tasmanian city of Hobart, was thrilled to hear Racicot say black bears are sometimes seen wandering into Whistler Village and foraging for berries at the bottom of ski runs.
The Pacific Mountain region of Canada is by far the most popular destination in the country among the backpacker crowd, Sheridan said. His Moose Travel Network crosses Canada, but he said 75 to 80 per cent of its business is in B.C. and Alberta.
Sheridan said Vancouver is a common starting point for many travellers to Canada. From there, they head on to the Rockies or Vancouver Island. "I'm taking the ferry to Victoria," said Moose passenger John Collington, 30, from Glasgow.
"It's another tour arranged by the hostel with a company it's hooked up with. [The tours are] a good way to maximize your time, it's cheaper than renting a car and you get to meet people who are on the same wavelength as you. If I didn't go through the backpackers places, I'd probably end up on tours with retired people and children."
Guides in the know are set up at hostels in Victoria, offering kayak tours of the quaint inner harbour and hiking the rocky bluffs in East Sook park that run along the Juan de Fuca Strait with views of the Olympic Mountain Range.
For more information, visit www.moosenetwork.com
Canadian Press
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