CANADA

We just returned from an amazing biking trip in Canada. We were there for just over a week and had an awesome time. There were a few epics that occurred but overall we persevered and rode our little hearts out.

Introducing our crew.

Chris

Dave

Christian and Me.

Epic #1 The bike rack holding our bikes to the back of our friend Chris' F150 broke. The boys are clever and were able to MacGyver some webbing to hold it together to finish our our trip.

Epic #2 First day we came across drunk dude who drove his car into a ditch and needed our help pulling him out of the ditch. Somewhat creepy in that he had no knowledge of the night before and insisted he wasn't driving. We did not argue with him as he had a gun in his car and decided it would be best to just help pull him out.

Epic #3 My bike had some serious break issues on the second day, and Dave's bike had some serious shifting problems. Luckily Dave is a genius when it comes to bike repairs and was able to fix all problems.

Epic #4 Dave got charged $41,000 for a blueberry scone and a glass of milk at the local bakery. Luckily he called his bank and all was worked out.

Epic #5 Chris took a nasty fall at Whistler and suffered some internal damage.

Epic #6 Chris broke his bike at Whistler. Luckily it was at the end of the day and he was able to rent a bike for the next day.

Epic #7 Kinder eggs are illegal in the U.S. (see above post)

The 20 hour drive.

We are bored.

Alice Lake. Canada has beautiful parks and it seems on a sunny day the whole town is out enjoying them. Very pretty.

This trail is called Cheshire Cat. Everything was covered in this pretty green moss and the trail was almost soft and pillow like from all the pine needles.

Me crossing a fallen log (Julie on a log pic!)

Biking at Whistler. Amazing downhill trails with the added convenience of taking a lift up the hill. I love it!!

Me getting a little bit of air on a black diamond trail called A-line.

We took a little break from biking to eat at our favorite Whistler restaurant Blacks. While the food was very tasty it was not quite as good as we had remembered it being on our last visit. Christian had the Blue Cheese Bacon Burger and I had the Pancetta and Provolone Burger. Both with sweet potato fries!

Christian took most of the photos so you'll notice there are no actual photos of him biking :(

I did take a photo of him doing a warm up climb on our biking rest day in Squamish.

While bouldering we met up with our friends Matt and Cassie. They are on a two year climbing adventure and Squamish is their current stop for the month. They are both looking really strong and sending projects like crazy!

Matt

Cassie

Me trying to look as cool as Cassie.

Try as I might I never did get this problem. It just means I'll have to go back and finish it next year.

Another biking rest day activity was to hike the Chief. The Chief is claimed to be the second largest granite monolith in the world. At a mere 2,297 feet it is clearly dwarfed by both El Cap and Half Dome in Yosemite. However when you are hiking it in jeans and you skipped lunch those 2,297 feet feel awfully far.

You get to climb a ladder.

The view is gorgeous!

I got really hangry (hungry + angry) by the end of our hike so Christian ran down the trail at lightning speed scaring many a slow hiker as he seemingly levitated down the trail. When I finally got to the parking lot this is what I found.

I love this boy!

On our last day we wanted to ride a trail called Wonderland but it was closed due to Cougar sightings. We thought about braving the Cougar anyway but decided with the hundreds of classic trails in the area we should probably just move on to another. We decided on a trail called Half Nelson. This is a government sponsored trail and was REALLY fun to ride. It had lots of wood bridges and rolly jumps. I though it was cool to see the local government spending the time and money to support the local biking trails. Squamish sure does know how to show a tourist a really good time.

Can't wait to visit Canada again.