Buns of steel

Saturday, September 23rd at 7am we were off to Garibaldi Provincial Park for a hike and a night of camping. We drove on the Sea-to-Sky Highway (the highway from Vancouver to Whistler) all the way to the parking lot at the base of The Black Tusk Mountain. We then put on our hiking boots, strapped our bags on our backs as tightly (and as comfortably) as possible, grabed our hiking poles and the bear mace, and commenced our hike up the 9km trail with an elevation change of 810m to Garibaldi Lake where a campsite awaited us. What a hike!!!! Forget Pilates - if you want buns of steel this is the way to go. It took us about 4 hours to hike to the Lake, but it was worth it. The scenery was the most beautiful we have ever seen. The backdrop for the lake is a glacier, which feeds the lake so the water was the most blue we have ever seen. It was litteraly breathtaking. After lunch and a couple of hours of recuperation, we hiked again...we hiked up a little higher and did half a trail (3kms) before we decided to turn back - we were really tired and it was getting too late. Back at camp we had dinner by the Lake where we watched the reflection of the sunset off the glacier.
Sunday morning, we had breakfast and then a nap by the Lake and then packed up and hiked back down. You'd think the hike down would be easier then the hike up...well it's not. Hiking up is a big cardio workout but hiking down actually hurts! Our feet, calfs and butts were, and still are, killing us!!!
The weekend was amazing. We had a great hike, saw beautiful scenery and ended it with an amazing sushi dinner. You just couldn't ask for more!

Check out our pictures in our PHOTO ALBUM

Alway reserve a ferry ride back!

September 15th we packed up our little car and drove to Tsawwassen port (about 30mins from our place) to take the Ferry across to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. What a ferry! These things are HUGE! They have 2 floors of car parking and 2 floors of indoor lounging, a restaurant, a snack bar and a souvenir store.
We took the 2 hour ferry to Nanaimo where we camped for the night. Saturday morning, we threw everything back in the car, drove over to Tim's for a quick double-double and breakfast and then headed out towards Green Point Campground in the Pacific Rim National Park. About 30 mins into our drive, we stopped at Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park for a little walk through the forest. The trees in this forest are about 800 years old - we took lots of pics don't worry. After our little mini-hike, back on the road!

About 30 mins later we were driving through Port Alberni (located about in the middle of the Island). As we drove through here we couldn't help but notice all the people that were either sitting in chairs or standing by the highway - watching and waiting. There were SO many people that we decided - what the heck, we'll stop too! So we stopped at the local Wal-Mark pulled out our camping chairs and joined the crowd. What did we see? Ah...well, you'll have to look at the pictures to find out.

Finally about 2.5 hours later we arrived at Green Point Campground in the Pacific Rim National Park (just South of Tofino). We set up camp and hung out at Long beach. Unforunately the weather wasn't looking too promising so we didn't do much except walk on the beach, eat and sleep.

Sunday morning - RAIN! Yes! Nothing like packing up a wet tent in the rain. Did we mention that we forgot the ground sheet for under the tent? Fun times. We then drove back across the Pacific Rim Highway back to Nanaimo. We arrived at the Port around 3pm to a long long long LONG line up of cars. We were told that we wouldn't get on a ferry until 7pm!!!!!!!! We freaked out and called BC Ferries ASAP and we were able to reserve a spot on another ferry at 8:15pm for $17.50 - at least we didn't have to stay in line for 4 hours! So instead, we visited Nanaimo...2 hours later we were bored. We drove around as much as we could stand it and then ended up going to the port to wait in line for our ferry at 8:15pm! But at least we knew we were going to get on and there was a terminal at this port (the other one had nothing, not even washrooms!). In the end, we got home around 11pm and learned a valuable lesson - Alway reserve a ferry ride back from Vancouver Island!

Map of our trip:


See our pictures in our PHOTO ALBUM

The weekend of September 9-10 we went hiking in 2 parks; Saturday we went to Lynn Headwater Park and Sunday we went to Cypress Mountain (see map below). Lynn Park is near Grouse Mountain and had a very rainforest feel to it. Cypress Mountain is right near the ocean, west of Grouse and Lynn Park, and will be the site for the freestyle skiing events at the 2010 Olympic games. Check out our pictures in our PHOTO ALBUM: LYNN PARK & CYPRESS MOUNT.- enjoy!

A pic of our car.