R and I decided to take the Rivian up to Squamish to explore the Sea to Sky Highway, take some photos of the Tantalus range, and head up to Backcountry Brewing for some lunch. Whether by motorcycle or by truck, Highway 99 has quickly become one of my favorites, as well as the viewpoint of the Tantalus range—one of my favorite stops along the southern portion of the Sea to Sky Highway.

We got up to Mount Tantalus around 10:30 AM. While the sky was clear, many low-lying clouds obstructed the view of the range. It reminded me that sometimes photography is more about patience than pictures. As the clouds blew around the mountain range, sometimes the perfect picture was fleeting, only lasting a moment before the clouds covered the jagged peak of the range.

After more than a few minutes, R motioned to me as we walked over with our cameras to go exploring. Sometimes, the little kid in me never quite grew up, as I do find this equipment truly fascinating. I couldn’t quite tell the vintage of this equipment, but I’m guessing somewhere in the late 70s or early 80s—I could be way off, but it didn’t have any of the modern creature comforts common in equipment built after the year 2000. It didn’t seem to have the styling that was common in the late 80s and throughout the 90s. Everything about this piece of equipment seemed harshly utilitarian, and likely highly functional for the harsh Canadian winters or the short summer season known as road construction.

In particular, one of my favorites is the close-up of the wheel—capturing its interconnected, concentric, and complicated circles required to make a wheel at this scale functional, united by a single yellow glaze, be it paint or sediment from the ground below.

Next, we made our way to the Cheakamus River and the railroad tracks nearby. Even this late into the season, the river had a good flow to it and the greenish, opaque water common to the mineral sediments in this area. R pointed out this tree that was straddling the difference between thriving and hanging on for dear life—maybe even both—as it grew out of the side of the bridge some 50 feet over the river below.

Lastly, Backcountry Brewing has become a favorite of ours in the area. It’s a mashup between a brewery and a pizzeria run by really good people, who brew really good beer and make fantastic pizza. It’s always a treat to come here, and we always leave with extra beer for my neighbors here in the US, who are definitely becoming connoisseurs of British Columbian IPAs, lol. We knew we needed to pick up a few extra kilowatts for the drive home.

It’s been interesting watching Tesla pivot after opening up their charging networks to non-Tesla vehicles. I’ve always thought of Tesla as an energy company that makes cars, rather than a car company that has to support a charging network. Tesla’s chargers are demonstrably better than anyone else in the business, both in the reliability of any given charger and the availability of chargers throughout the United States and Canada. No other charging network comes close—maybe even including them altogether, they still don’t come close. I had to laugh seeing two Rivians next to each other drawing on Elon’s electrons.

We’ve come a long way as an industry. Hope springs eternal for EVs.

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