Week 8 and 9?! We’re really picking up the pace now!
Following last week’s blog which can be found at this link here, Cruising Vancouver and Exploring the North Shore – Week 7, we’re now approaching the end of June, or to be precise, June 26th.
Our time in Pemberton was coming to an end on July 1st (Canada D’eh!). It was with heavy hearts that we began slowly packing up while also trying to fill the last week with activities that were still on the bucket list. We really felt at home in Pemby after the full month stay, making connections with the people and the area, and it was going to be bitter-sweet to continue on the adventure.
Heading to the Farmer’s Market
So when Becca woke up on the 26th and asked if I wanted to head to the Farmer’s Market, I thought sure! The Whistler’s Farmers Market had been on the list for quite some time as seemingly all of the locals recommended that we walk the stalls.
But it seems like Becca and I never do things the easy (or even sometimes the right) way. We decided that instead of driving the 35km to Whistler from Pemberton, instead… as befitting the blog… we would ride our bikes!
I strapped on a backpack in case we found anything that interested us from the Farmer’s Market, and after spending some of the morning looking over our West Coast Trail packing lists, we hopped on our bikes and departed Pemberton. Now 35km is not a bad ride, but we left slightly later in the day and ended up making it to the market at 3:30pm. The market closed at 4pm, cutting it just a little close! Recall I said sometimes we don’t do things the right way, perhaps driving might have been better in this scenario.
We DID end up scoring these awesome dehydrated meals and coffees from a local Whistler company, Mountain Meal Prep! I would highly recommend these meals if you’re in the Whistler/Squamish area, as they made both our West Coast Trail and the Joffre Overnighter meals simple, easy and delicious. Supplemented with Clif Bars, Becca’s famous trail mix (90% chocolate), and dehydrated mangoes, we were well fed along the West Coast Trail.
Joffre Overnight Stay
Now I’ve done a whole blog about a natural wonder of the world that is Joffre Lakes, so I won’t be repeating it (find that here: Joffre Lakes Trail – Destination Spotlight). But what I didn’t mention was one of the driving reasons why we wanted to complete the overnight stay in the beautiful Joffre Lakes.
The week on the West Coast Trail was fast approaching, with a start date of July 4th. Becca and I had not accomplished ANY overnighters at this point. No camping. Hard to believe, after we had lugged all our camping gear in the Subaru out west 2 months ago. We just had not got around to it!
With that in mind, we did not feel prepared for the 6 nights in the tent we had planned for the WCT. Seemed just a wee bit intimidating. So we geared up our bags for a sanity check that we can a) set up a camp and b) make sure we don’t forget anything important in our packs. For example, you want to make sure the tent pegs ended up in the tent bag before you begin 6 days on a trail!
The overnight at Joffre went off with only one hitch. I forgot warm clothes. I happily left this off the other blog, but I want everyone to have the insider scoop into some of the negative things that transpired on this trip (negative in the moment, hilarious now).
There I was, at 1,600 metres of elevation, at 7am, in ~4°C temperatures, in shorts and two t-shirts, reading my Kindle beside a glacier. Shivering. My god was it cold.
I had raided Becca’s clothing for a buff, I had a slightly damp yellow towel draped around my shoulders from swimming the night before, my bucket hat was on, but no sweater, no coat, no winter hats or mitts, no nothing. Note to self, REMEMBER WARM CLOTHES WHEN HIKING AT ELEVATION AND/OR IN SHOULDER SEASONS. I haven’t made that mistake since.
The hike and overnight camp was still very worth it, and if you haven’t already, take a read (or just look at the pictures) of the destination spotlight blog I put out. To this day, it blows my mind that the lakes and surrounding setting are not just a green screen set-up from a Hollywood movie.
Birkenhead Lake Bike Loop
Now this ride had been on the bucket list since I arrived in Pemberton. I remember creating a route on Strava that incorporated this loop, and it took me till June 29th (my last few days in Pemberton) to actually ride it.
The Sea to Sky trailway runs through Birkenhead Lake, this beautiful lake situated in a mountainous valley. It is along the way to a town called D’arcy, a place where Becca and I were actually looking into Airbnbs before landing in the town of Pemberton. Thankfully, we did not stay in D’arcy for a month, but more on that later.
The route was incredible. It wound along one of the main roads up through Mount Currie before venturing off onto a gravel road heading up towards Birkenhead Lake Provincial Park. The climb was intense on the gravel road.
Just to bring back something from Week 3, I had started reviewing different gravel climbs I accomplished on this trip. The two I highlighted earlier were:
- Canmore Climb: 6.2km at an average grade of 5.7%, for a total of 392 metres of climbing.
- Revelstoke Climb: 5.2km at an average grade of 7.3%, for a total of 384 metres of climbing.
I’ll be adding the Birkenhead Lake Sea to Sky climb on this as well. Although less distance, the climbing was intense to say the least.
- Birkenhead Lake Climb: 2.0km at an average grade of 10.3%, for a total of 208m of climbing.
Overall, the height climbed is only half of the other two climbs, but the distance is roughly 1/3rd! It was a sweaty event to say the least!
But Birkenhead Lake was absolutely worthwhile. Quiet, serene, it felt like I had the whole Provincial Park to myself! Minus the “cougar in area” warning signs, of course.
The trails themselves through Birkenhead turned from pavement, to gravel road, to dirt paths over the course of the trip. As you can see from the image below, a nice suspension bridge helped get across one flowing river, but the rest of the creek beds were mandatory “Hike a Bike” sections for my gravel bike.
I eventually made it through Birkenhead and onto D’arcy, a small town situated on the shores of Anderson Lake. This town was SMALL. What I assumed would be a rest stop and replenish at the local gas station quickly turned into a scramble looking for anything to eat. The only store in the entire town was shut down in March 2021, never to be re-opened. There was literally nothing I could get my hands on, food or drink wise.
I had depleted my food stores in my stop at Birkenhead Lake, and while not quite hungry at the moment, I knew it would get rough very soon.
While in D’arcy, I also noticed the Airbnb that Becca and I had debated staying at. No wifi, no cellphone service in the entire town, and no grocery store within 40kms. I’m very glad we ended up in Pemberton instead of that little get-away-from-everything spot!
But on the other hand, the locals were incredibly nice! I asked a guy if there was a shop in the area to replenish my food and water, and after explaining that the shop had shut down, he grabbed my bottles and replenished them in his house! Acts of kindness like that do not go unnoticed, and I’m forever thankful for that kind stranger for helping out a random biker.
With only the water replenished, I was able to make it back to Pemberton without requiring extra food. I put the wheels on the pavement the entire way and avoided detouring through Birkenhead Lake on the way back, which was the initial plan setting out for the day.
Overall it was an awesome ride. I viewed 3 different lakes, and the road ran beside a flowing creek for a lot of the ride. Luckily, the scenery did a great job of keeping my mind off the growing hunger pains.
Overall, the route was 112km with 1,350 metres of climbing, taking me a total of 5 hours and 15 minutes with breaks. A big effort, and I was glad to stumble in the door and eat everything in the fridge afterwards.
Canada Day!
Our official final day in Pemberton. With plans to head to Brandon’s in Vancouver to spend the night, we cleaned the apartment and headed out around mid-day. I also ate a ridiculous amount of frozen blueberries (probably about 0.6 kg) because they were in our freezer and I hate throwing away food.
We made it down to Brandon’s and celebrated Canada Day at Kitsilano Beach with a few beers and a frisbee. Lucky Taco was the next stop for margaritas and their delicious quesabirria!
We had a ferry to catch the next morning, as we were heading to Vancouver Island at 8am the next morning. The idea was, lets not drink too much. Wake up hangover free, feel refreshed. Only good intentions over here! But as you can see from the picture above, Canada Day won out and we all woke up with hangovers. Classic, but I think I would’ve put money down on that outcome.
West Coast Trail!
Isn’t this the week of dragging up older blogs?! Seemed this week was pretty special, with all these different destination spotlights I’ve already written about it.
Well, we’ve finally arrived at the beginning of my West Coast Trail story. The ferry led us over to Nanaimo, where we hopped on to Lake Cowichan and spent the night readying ourselves for the longest hike I’ve ever accomplished!
We made some pretty special memories on the West Coast Trail that I am happy to share here with all my friends and family on the blog. Between sea lions, whales, sunsets, the ocean and the friends we met along the way, the WCT will stay in Becca and I’s hearts forever.
The blog West Coast Trail – Destination Spotlight highlights all of these adventures over the next week of our journey, another one I implore you to read in your spare time!
The WCT prep and execution took us from July 3rd – July 9th, rounding out Week 9 of our trip. Looking back, it’s just crazy how quicky that whole 2.5 months flew by from when we first set out on May 1st. As I’ve said before, I write this blog for everybody and anybody that’s interested. And I glad I’m spending time writing it, because I may be my own biggest fan (behind my mom). Re-reading these adventures brings me right back to the time and place they were happening. I’ll be able to use this blog as an escape from reality whenever I need it in the future, to bring me back into the great days of a seemingly never ending vacation.
I’m also so glad I can share the memories with you! So thanks so much for reading, I really do hope you’re enjoying the adventures of Go Hike a Bike!
Lol you know it! I am your biggest fan for sure😘