The Big Adventure: Part 4

On the 29^th we disembarked the Norwegian Jewel and made our way back through Seattle to our hotel south of town where our car was parked. We did some laundry and a bit of trip planning for the next leg of the adventure and then jumped in the car and headed north. We found a campground near Anacortes called Washington Park and got one of the last campsites. After setting up camp, we took the mountain bikes to a great nearby trail system around Cranberry Lake. These trails were perfect for Alisha because they were intermediate level with some challenges that were mostly doable and they were some sweet singletrack in the dense Washington forest.

We woke up on the 30^th and headed to the ferry terminal in Anacortes to catch the 9 am ferry to San Juan island with our bikes. On the ferry, we met two very nice cyclists from Seattle who were very familiar with cycling in the San Juan islands and helped us to chart out a good course for the day. An hour later, the ferry pulled into Friday Harbor and we were off on our bike island adventure. The island is very bike friendly with light traffic and lots of cyclists so it was a great place to explore. Our route took us clockwise around the island. We climbed through some hills and road along the edge of the island to Lime Kiln State Park where we saw some dolphins in the ocean and had a snack. The next leg took us up past English Bay to Roche Harbor on the other end of the island and we had lunch out on the pier. Finally, we traveled back along a different route to Friday Harbor just in time to catch the afternoon ferry back to Anacortes. 

On July 1^st, we headed into Canada on the Canadian holiday Canada Day which is like the 4^th of July in the USA. Before leaving Washington behind, we did one more mountain bike ride around Cranberry Lake because it was such a great mountain bike trail system. We drove to Vancouver to our hotel in the suburb Burnaby which is to the east of town. After checking in, we caught the skytrain (light rail) to downtown. Canadians have a lot of national pride and the downtown was bustling with people wearing all sorts of red gear. All the Canadians were complaining about how incredibly hot it was. In actuality, it was in the low 80s and felt pretty good by Tucson standards. We walked down to the boardwalk along the harbor and found some dinner in a café next to a grocery store. After a bit more strolling around town, we finally found some seats on the grass in Vancouver’s waterfront park to hang out and watch the fireworks later that evening. It doesn’t get dark until 10:30 in Vancouver in the summer so we had a while to wait. It was an impressive fireworks show with tons of fireworks being shot off from a barge over the harbor right in front of the downtown waterfront. In total, there must have been several hundred thousand people in the Vancouver area watching the show. Afterwards, we made our way through huge crowds of people back to the skytrain. Amazingly, they had trains running continually to transport people out of the city and we didn’t have to wait too long. We eventually made it back to our hotel for the latest night by far of our trip around 1:00 am.

We slept in pretty late on the 2^nd after our big Canada Day evening the night before. However, in the late morning we put on our bike gear and rode our bikes into Vancouver which was about 15 miles from our hotel. The waterfront in the city area includes a bike path that goes on and on for miles. First, we headed around the bay to the south towards Grey’s Point. The bike path was awesome with a lot to see and beautiful views of the water and city along the way. We ate lunch at a bakery along the way and then turned around and headed back along the path to the north. We did a loop around Granville Island along the way and had a rest on the grass at a quiet park there. In the northwest corner of town, the path led us into Stanley Park which is a giant forested park with tons of trails. We took some dirt trails through the park and then did the directional perimeter trail back around the outside. We stopped for some gelato and then made things interesting by selecting a different way to go home through Gastown, the northern waterfront, the Canada Trail, and the Burnaby Heights trail. We arrived back at the hotel around 9 pm after an extensive day of biking. The paths around Vancouver are the best urban bike paths that we have ever done and we had a great time.

On the 3^rd, it was time to head across the river to Vancouver’s famous north shore. We started with a trip to Grouse Mountain up the infamous Grouse Grind trail. It’s only 2 miles long but it is the steepest 2 miles that you will find anywhere with rocks, roots, logs, and stairs that go right up the side of the mountain. The resort offers timing chips, there is a big race there every year, and many of the locals like to blitz up it as fast as possible. I did my best to keep Alisha in check and it took us about an hour to make it up to the resort at the top. The steepness of this hike means that it is an uphill only hike and we took the gondola back down. However, we first had some lunch outside at the resort where we could overlook all of Vancouver. We also took a walk around on top of the mountain and saw some giant wood carvings, the grizzly bear habitat with two bears, and a bird show that was just starting with a bald eagle and some other hawks and owls. Alisha also got her very first souvenir of the entire trip which was a Grouse Grind t-shirt. Next, it was time to try out some north shore mountain biking. However, the north shore is in a league of its own when it comes to the trails with their “intermediate” trails riding like expert trails everywhere else. We hit the bridal path trail which is complete with boardwalks (some are super skinny), log rides, drops, and of course tons of gnarly roots. We were pretty cooked already from a couple big days of adventures but Alisha gave it a good go and we had a good time. To give you an idea of the difficulty of these trails, we got passed by trail runners who were able to do most of the technical stuff faster than we were.

For the Fourth of July, we started the day with some paddle boarding in Deep Cove on Vancouver’s north shore. Alisha has been wanting to try this for a long time and it turns out to be a watersport that I also like because you get to stand up on the board like a gondolier with a paddle and you don’t get wet or cold. We had a good time cruising around the bay and had some pizza for lunch before leaving Vancouver behind and traveling up Canada’s Highway 99 which is the Sea to Sky Highway en route to Whistler. Our big adventure of the day was hiking “The Chief” in the Squamish area. The Chief is like another version of the Grouse Grind meaning that it is straight up with rocks, roots, stairs, granite cliffs, and even some chains and ladders. However, the reward is getting to stand on a massive granite top with 360 degree views of Horseshoe Bay on one side and the mountains towards Whistler on the other side. As usual, we found that the trip down actually felt more challenging on our legs than the hike up. We rolled into Whistler in the early evening and stopped by the visitor information center to get some info on the mountain biking in the area before arriving in our campground out of town to the north at Nairn Falls.

On the 5^th, we headed into Whistler ready for some mountain biking. We talked to a guy at the shop in Lost Lake who recommended some trails in the area and we went out on some of the classic Whistler Valley trails in the area with some great swooping and dropping boardwalks on the singletrack. In one spot, I got to ride a long skinny plank for longer than I’ve ever done before. We returned to the shop for some more advice and he sent us out on a longer afternoon ride on the Flank trail. This trail had a bit of everything: some brutal climbs and painful hike-a-bikes, some sweet flowing singletrack, some amazing views of the valley and mountains, some white knuckle descents, some wood plank bridges over raging creeks, and even some swarms of mosquitoes in the deep woods. We were exhausted by the time we were done and also really smelly. Fortunately, a lake near town had a nice beach, swimming area, and outdoor shower where I smelled bad enough that I was willing to brave some cold water in order to get clean. We returned to our campsite to make some spaghetti feeling more tired in our legs after our last few days of adventure than perhaps at any point so far in the trip.

With tons of strenuous hikes and bikes in the last few days and more to come, we took things a bit easier on the 6^th to try to get some life back in our legs. After a short hike to Nairn Falls near our campground, we headed into town where we saw the finish of the BC Bike Race in the Olympic Plaza. We did Whistler’s beautiful and car-free village stroll up to the top of town. This weekend there is a longboard festival and world cup race in town and we checked out a skateboard show on the plaza and then went up to the longboard track where we watched the quarter and semi-finals as the competitors raced down paved switchbacks in tight groups at high speeds. All the campgrounds were full for Saturday night, however we were able to find a room at the HI Hostel which was built as athlete housing for the Olympics. We finally got a much needed shower and an opportunity to lie down and rest for a few hours.