Hey everyone, I have returned again for yet another journal addition. If you’ve stuck with me this far and keep coming back, I truly applaud you. The sheer force of will required has overwhelmed many, but not you. You are a trooper in this world. Sticking to something and seeing it through. Kudos to that.

I guess we’ll get started with the actual post now – I’m hopping into stories starting June 14th, and plan on covering the entire Week 6 here in one blog post. A truly radical idea, covering a full week instead of a half, but why not mix it up? Why not have a bit of fun?

A Day Spent in Vancouver

We hadn’t spent any time in Vancouver at this point on the trip, but Becca had a planned appointment in the big city for the 14th. I offered to drive, as the two and a half hour trip from Pemberton to Vancouver must be one of the most satisfying drives one could ever do.

At this point, avid readers can probably recite how I describe this drive. Mountains, valleys, rushing rivers. But we added something new. The Pacific Ocean! We had finally made it to the coast! Pemberton is pretty inland, and with taking the northern route to arrive in Pemberton, we did not drive through Vancouver or the other coastal cities on the way.

But the Sea to Sky highway that connects Pemberton to Vancouver takes you right through Squamish, a coastal town that sits on the Howe Sound, an inlet from the Pacific Ocean. The Howe Sound and surrounding area is truly magnificent. Salty water, beautiful shades of blue, mountainous islands stretching up from the depths. Squamish is also home to the Stawamus Chief, a famous climbing and hiking destination, which makes it the unofficial climbing capital of Canada. Becca and I do some hiking here a little bit later on, but we’ll leave it for now. But know, the area is magnificent.

So in the end, yeah, I guess I’ll join Becca on the drive.

Basketball in the City

When we got into Vancouver, I dropped Becca off at her appointment around 11:30am and began the wander. I didn’t have a clue as to where I was going, I just knew I had an hour and a half to kill. I ended up searching out a café, Aidan’s. When I got my coffee and moved to one of the tables outside in the downtown financial district of Vancouver, imagine my surprise when I began hearing the bouncing of basketballs coming from close by. Interest = PEAKED.

I wander over to the noise and see a little court snuck between two office buildings, and what looks to be a single guy that works for the buildings putting up shots. Off to the side was a ball rack. I decide it can’t hurt, so I grabbed a ball and began shooting with the security guard from one of the buildings.

Being 11:30 when I dropped Becca off, it was now around noon. And noon also means people waking up from their desk job and heading out to grab lunch. Well, before I know it, my casual wander through the city turned into a 4v4 basketball game with a bunch of young professionals from the surrounding buildings. I couldn’t believe my luck.

Becca arrived about 30 minutes afterwards and was then forced to watch me play basketball, sipping her own coffee, for the remainder of the other guy’s lunch hour.

Vancouver, The City of Friends

With a nice sweat on, we spent the rest of the day touring through Vancouver, stopping at our favourite spots. Lucky Taco, Rain or Shine Ice Cream, Kitsilano Beach, Brandon’s apartment and Kim’s apartment. Kim’s new to this story, so I should probably introduce. Kim is one of Becca’s best friends, and her old roommate from Carleton University who moved out to Vancouver almost two years.

At the end of all of our adventures in the Vancouver area, Becca, Kim and I hopped back into the Subaru and drove back to Pemberton. All in all, a massive day including a 5 hour round trip drive and probably 8 hours of being in the city. A great day, one could say.

Soo Riding With Becca

Alright onto some riding. In the last blog post, I talked about riding the Soo River Forest Service Road (FSR) here in my Gravel Goodness blog post: Gravel Goodness and Whistler’s Famous Train Wreck – Week 5.5.

On the 15th, with Kim working from our Pemberton Airbnb, Becca and I decided to adventure on the South side of the river, as well as extend the ride up to Whistler.

This turned out to be a way bigger ride than we had anticipated, as it usually does!

We ended up doing 88km with 1,550 metres of climbing, or in other words, way too much biking.

Soo FSR to Whistler Riding

Once we went as far as we wanted to on the South Soo River FSR, we decided to turn back and head to Whistler for a treat. Now I’m not placing blame but one of us suggested that instead of riding the highway into Whistler the Sea to Sky Trail might be a better option. Becca surrendered to the idea and we hit the trail. So it makes sense that I’m not placing blame because if there WAS blame, it would be considered my fault. Ha.

The scenery and the treat was probably the only thing that kept us pedaling forward. Aside from the occasional steep gravel hike-a-bike section that deserved some choice words, we climbed and climbed and climbed our way up into Whistler. At one point we actually had to find a go-around as a big black bear was sitting on the sea to sky trail, staring me down.

In the end, we arrived at Whistler and got our treat and rode the highway home. Like I’ve said before, the highway bike ride from Whistler to Pemberton is mostly downhill, and the kilometres fly by. That 88km took us almost 6 hours of being out of the house, with stops included – not at all what we expected when we first set out for the day.

Cool Creek Canyon, Round 2

The next day, Kim, Becca and I toured Cool Creek Canyon. It was a hot day and the coolness of the waterfall, along with the elevated levels due to the recent rain from the night before made for an awesome adventure, perfect following a day of work.

Even though it was our second time at the hike, it was great experiencing it with a friend. Obviously this hike comes highly recommended for a short yet steep hike that can be completed in a couple of hours. It also boasts stunning viewpoints for the surrounding mountains in the area.

And this section would not be complete without a good photo of Becca and Kim to commemorate the experience! The smiles are either a) I made a joke, or b) they’re just happy to be going downhill. I think it’s b).

Trail Running in Pemberton – Gnarly’s Epic

June 17th was a big day for multiple reasons.

Through our time in Pemberton, we met so many young and adventurous people. Mountain bikers, trail runners, hikers, dog owners, and just people that want to have a good time in nature. Becca and I really felt at home in that town, as it was a close knit community with many friendly faces.

Something that we kept hearing from a lot of young people was a trail in the foothills of Mount Curry called Gnarly’s Epic. It is a double black diamond mountain biking trail that is also used by many trail runners in the area.

I decided to go check it out but I did not think I’d handle mountain biking a double black diamond in B.C. all that well. So instead, I decided to trail run it.

The run was a total of 9km leaving from the apartment with 284m of climbing. This took me about 1 hour to run/walk the entire thing, and to this day I’m still in disbelief that people mountain bike this trail. Some of the drops are double my height, forcing me to slow down and find the safest route down through walking. I just can’t imagine doing that on a bicycle. I guess you spend years and years practicing before working up to a double black diamond, but who has the time for that?

But the views on Gnarly’s Epic of Mount Currie and the surrounding countryside are also spectacular, making this a necessary hiking, riding or trail running path for anyone in the area. It’ll also give a good perspective of how incredible the mountain bikers are in that area.

The Remainder of the 17th

Now I said the 17th was a big day, and aside from the trail run, I haven’t expanded on that yet.

The 17th was the official day I released the blog! My first blog post, publishing the website, and posting about it on social media for the first ever time, was this day! I can’t believe what a journey it’s been since then, and how much better (hopefully?) my writing has gotten since the beginning. For a reference, here’s my first blog post link: My Recipe for a Year Long Vacation. I think I’ve come a long way, in a thankfully short time. Unless you want to see more long lists of cars and less pictures? In that case PLEASE let me know.

To top this great day off, Kim, Becca and I went to the Pony in Pemberton, and they served up an absolutely delicious Laksa. I’m not one to normally take pictures of my food before I devour it, but seeing this picture in my camera roll made my mouth water, so I’m sharing it here.

This meal also served as great fuel for what I had planned for the next day. A ride almost on the same level of pain and insanity as the Triple Crown itself.

Cycling Pemberton to Vancouver via Sea to Sky Highway

Now you might be thinking, mate, you were just in Vancouver. A 2.5 hour drive, you already talked about this in this blog post.

But that drive got me thinking – why haven’t I biked that route yet? Luckily for me, June 18th was planned out to return to Vancouver for a few reasons. We had to return Kim to her apartment, and Becca was flying out to Ottawa the next day for both a family visit and her sister’s graduation.

With Kim and Becca set out to drive to the city anyway, I figured why not ride my bike down there? I’d meet up with Becca at Brandon’s apartment where I was planning on spending the weekend, and if anything went wrong along route I knew I had Becca and Kim driving up behind me somewhere to either do a roadside assistance or pick-up! Perfect!

The Statistics – Pemberton to Whistler

I departed Pemberton at 10:25 am on the morning of the 18th, after packing up my belongings for a weekend spent in Vancouver.

I arrived in Vancouver at 5:40pm after an absolute beast of a day. What a ride. While it is a bit more dangerous to be cruising along the Sea to Sky Highway with vehicles moving 100km/hr in the lane beside you, the infrastructure of this highway was built to accommodate bikes. Wide shoulders on either side, and when are forced to narrow (rock faces, cliffs, bridges, etc.), they have signs up that flash when a biker goes by. This allows motorists to know that a bike is on a narrow road ahead, giving them ample warning time to slow down and share the road.

Overall, I felt safe compared to other roadways I’ve been on, and was able to make it all the way to Vancouver with only one incident. A flat tire, about 25kms out from Vancouver. Of course.

The overall ride was 167km with 2,091 metres of climbing. While the distance is longer than my Triple Crown attempt, the climbing was ~700 metres short. To read about the Triple Crown, see here: Vancouver’s Triple Crown Attempt – Destination Spotlight (which I accomplished 2 days after the Pemberton to Vancouver ride, aka the 20th, which surprised even me that my body was ready for it).

The Scenery – Pemberton to Vancouver

As described above, the highway is placed in a beautiful setting and I was able to experience it in greater detail by riding my bike rather than driving the car. Sadly, it was a bit foggy, obscuring most of the far-off mountain peaks, but the rivers and cliff faces were still visible at ground level!

Every time I cycle in Vancouver, I’m reminded on how much of a treat it is. Between seeing the Lion’s Gate Bridge in all its glory, ripping through Stanley Park, or just cruising by the many beaches that line the coast, Vancouver and the surrounding area is a biker’s paradise.

Now I mentioned a race earlier in the blog post, and you may be wondering how any of these events could be configured as a race. Well, I’m competitive, and I had a multiple hour head start on Becca and Kim driving from Pemberton to Vancouver. Hence, the “race”.

Which I lost, by only about 5-10 minutes. Becca ended up beating me to Brandon’s Vancouver apartment after her and Kim’s drive detoured to a hike and a café lunch in Squamish. She also did not know it was a race, but that’s only a small detail.

I think I could have taken the win if I didn’t have a flat tire 25kms out from Vancouver…

Thanks so much for reading! Hope you enjoyed it, and I’ll be back again next week for more ramblings from this Canadian Kid! Cheers!