one of the welcoming billboards – this one has the mayor’s phone number too

Chilliwack is about 100km east of Vancouver, a city of 65,000, and very farm-life oriented. Lots of cows, crops, and dutch people. Chilliwack is said to be one of the corn capitals of Canada. Lots of delicious corn, in different varieties, and super cheap when you buy it from these temporary road-side stands during corn season. It’s considered a city, once named the fastest-growing city by some important magazine (I forget which), and has a high density of first-nations living on scattered reserve land. For being a relatively small, unheard of place, it does have these random claims to fame, and I once couchsurfed in Denmark with a danish guy who had come on exchange from his highschool there to Chilliwack Senior Secondary School – one of only 2 public highschools in town.

a corn drive thru, with some towering mountains in the background

I’m not 100% sure why Chilliwack is the great outside, but it must have something to do with the country-side lifestyle nestled in a valley surrouned almost 360` by the most beautiful mountains. Some of them even stay snow-covered all year round, and I completely forget how big they really are until I’ve been away long enough in Iceland for a comparison. They’re proper mountains, and totally vegetated covered in dense, evergreen, towering forests.

Cultus Lake

I think Chilliwack’s best trademark is Cultus Lake, a beautiful lake nestled in the mountains with quiet cabins and camping grounds all around it. There are a few public beaches with docks for swimming and launching areas for boating enthusiasts, causing the lake to be full of water sports, canoes, paddle boats and children every day of the summer. In the winter, everything slows down as people stop coming, but some do live there year round and get to enjoy the peaceful serenity of Cultus as the lonely, winter wonder-lake that it is.

Links: www.touristmchilliwack.com