Mu and I are back in the states from from our most recent international adventure. Where, or where, did we ensconce to? Our great white neighbor to the north, of course.
Canada is a pretty great place, and one that does not feel very international for this Maine bred boy. After all, I am not even sure how many times we went there when I was a kid, 4, 5 or 6? At any rate, it was a bit more exotic for my ball and chain, as she has never been there. I mentioned this in another post, but she had been to 56 countries before last week, and not our great white neighbor to the north.
That has all changed, as my buddy from college and his lovely bride staged an amazing wedding weekend in Pemberton, BC. Pemberton is a small town about 30 kms north of Whistler, with big, rugged mountains all around. It is pretty much exactly what you would expect from BC north of Vancouver, with a veritable ton of outdoor stuff on tap. In fact, the quantity and quality of the outdoor stuff available in our week up here was pretty stunning. And that is not even counting our sea kayaking and sailing jaunts with dear friends in northern Washington, thanks so much for showing us around Heather and Russ.
What did we get up to?
1) Trail runs: in terms of efficiency, there are few things that match a trail run for getting out into nature. You cover so much more ground per unit of time than hiking, always attractive for the korol clan. The entire trip up the coast has led us to some very special places for trail running, with the trend continuing in the great white neighbor to the north. We got out on some pretty long runs, well over an hour, in the whistler area that led through multiple trail systems and parks. I like the speed of trail running, fast enough to keep my mind engaged fully and yet slow enough to pick out little revealed gems along the way.
2) Mt biking: Whistler is generally regarded as the Mecca for downhill mt biking, which uses the infrastructure of the ski resort to shuttle riders and bikes to the top of the world and let them bomb down. You get way more vertical than self powered, and the speeds and forces at play are exponentially increased. A couple of buddies were in town for a long weekend of biking, and let us crash with them. I did get a chance to rent a bike and do some riding, but opted for the cross country trials through beautiful forest in the lost lake trail system and across some hairy bike bridges instead of the more expensive and rugged downhill. The riding was world class, really flowy and right in my wheelhouse. I wanted more, but it was on to the wedding festivities for us in the great white neighbor to the north.
3) Hiking: Sean and Sarah planned their wedding to allow folks to get into the outdoors before the ceremony, a choice which perfectly fits their own love of nature. Mu and I took the opportunity to head to the Joffrey lakes, a set of three lakes descending from a big glacier, with a creek and waterfalls serving as the connectors. The entire area reminded us both of hikes we took in Patagonia, for its steepness and the size of the glacier. Upper Joffrey is fed from fast runoff from the glacier and the water was super cold and clear. No swimming for me!
4) Climbing: this part of BC is pretty famous in the climbing world, as Squamish is 40 or kms south of Whistler. The climbing spot has massive granite walls reminiscent of Yosemite, and also had some excellent and long sport climbing routes for us to play on. The climbing had good features for granite cliffs, and we were excited to be back on the sharp end. We spent a couple days at a crag north of Squamish called area 44, which had big views across a valley to some big glacier peaks and good quality rock. There has been a long gap between the last time we climbed in vegas had us and the gap had us easing into the sport, but there is more to come as we make our way back south and east towards Salt Lake and Vegas.
5) Backpacking: some might quibble with the distinction between hiking and backpacking, since they are very similar. But for me there is a clear difference between the two, with one - hiking - being more of a speed approach to cover major miles and then sleep somewhere comfy indoors and the other - backpacking - slowing down but having the freedom to get more wild. We went on a 2 day jaunt into the Garibaldi provincial forest, which is named for a large lake that started out as a volcanic caldron and then got glaciated during the ice age. The lake is massive, deep, clear yet blue from the hanging glaciers that feed it and was one of the prettiest places we have seen in the past year+ of traveling. We got views at sunset of the lake and the surrounding ridges, and then in the morning had breakfast on its shores with the sunrise reflecting in its quiet waters.
I get the feeling that we will be coming back to our great white neighbor to the north, with Mu getting starry eyed at a few options for climbing in eastern BC and me being enticed by the cat/heli skiing.
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