I'm going to start with a piece of advice I have recently learned. When a friend from BC asks if you want to go on a "hike" that means a vertical hike, up the side of a mountain. It's something all people in BC seem to just do, and with great ease. As a rather out of shape slob from Ontario, I was not quite as graceful with my ascent. But I digress.
For the Civic long weekend I booked a ticket and jetted out to Vancouver for a weekend with Jackie and Chris. I flew in on Friday night and Jackie picked me up at the airport. I always have this strange period of recognition when I'm visiting people. Waiting anywhere for someone to show up. "Is that them? Do they just look a little bit different, is that them? I mean she looks like a blonde 25 year old, but Jackie has been working out, maybe it's her.....". It took a good long creepy stare for me to accept it was indeed not her. I rudely told Jackie after she picked me up that I also automatically eliminated all of the fancy cars. Audi Audi Audi Merc, no no no no. We just hung out that night at her place. Saturday morning we had a sleep in (hurray!) and then hit the road to head up to Whistler. There's one main hwy that cuts up through Vancouver. An unamalgamated nightmare that includes: Burnaby, Surrey, Vancouver, North Vancouver, and West Vancouver. Just to name a small few.
We stopped into the area in North Van that Jackie lived briefly with her parents, before they moved back to the US, Deep Cove. It was absolutely darling, but overflowing with people and cars. Definitely worth a revisit on a non-weekend day. Then onwards and upwards to Brandywine Falls. A stop just off the highway, and maybe a 15 minute walk into the woods. It was a nice little detour for the trip. Then back in the car we piled and on we drove to Whistler.The place was really quite easy to find. Although we had trouble finding our way into the hotel the first time, the entrance became very obvious after that. We checked in and parked and unloaded. Jackie had prepped a butt-load of food for our upcoming hike, so we had to get it all arranged in the little fridge upstairs. Then back down to explore Whistler Village. We thought we had landed in a secondary village called Blackcomb Village. So Jackie asked the front desk, how do we catch the shuttle to Whistler Village. And the guy, pricelessly said, "Ummmm, we are in fact in Whistler Village at this moment." I died. Blackcomb Lodge was located in Whistler Village.....you can see where the mistake was.
We took a few laps of the village. It was really cute. It has that whole Banff/Wonderland feel to it. After a drink out at some place we put our name in for The Spaghetti Factory. Had a nice carb load dinner, and then headed back to the room. The room had a King downstairs, and up a set of stairs there were two twins. A pretty sweet arrangement for up to 4 guests. The only problem was the circulation of the cold air was not so ideal and I nearly broke a sweat on top of the sheets.
THE DAY OF THE HIKE HAS ARRIVED....
We woke up nice and early, made our lunches for the journey, packed up and checked out. As we approached the destination I started to have deep regret for my agreement to the hike. I was nowhere near physically fit enough to take on such an endeavour. And at that point I didn't even know what laid ahead. The main lot was packed, and they had just built a secondary lot for hikers to use. We parked in a nice shady spot, and then hit the bathrooms before we hiked up to the trail start. This guy in front of us went to use the porta-potty and his friend charged up from behind and joined him in the toilet. I mean, anything to save time I'm a fan.
So we get to the trail start, and set in. Lower Lake was a simple 5 min hike into the woods. It started with a sharp decline that I knew I would hate on the way out. Why....whyyyyyy. Then from Lower Lake it was, what I can only describe as a constant incline for the next 3 km. Probably about 15 minutes into the hike, after about 3 pit stops I said Jackie, you guys need to carry on without me. If you plan on doing the last hike at the end. At the beginning of the hike I had left it open as to whether or not I would make it to the Upper Lake. But at that point I had resigned myself to floppy into a pile of goo at Middle Lake. I said, if you don't see me at Middle Lake by the time you get back, call the authorities as something has gone terribly wrong. About 10 minutes into the grueling upwards hike we reached the stairs. The stairs, oh, the stairs. The stairs basically made me want to kill myself / have real flashes of dying on the side of a mountain. How would my body ever get carried out??? When the stairs ended there was about another 15-20 minute inclined switchback hike until finally, Middle Lake was visible through the trees. I think I actually might have shed a tear as I realized the hike was finally over. The trail wrapped around the lake with several spots to stop and eat. I sat and waited for Jackie and Chris to return. I hoped we wouldn't have trouble connecting. As we arranged to meet at Middle Lake having no idea the terrain or the potential meet-up spots. There was one junction that had a path that led up to the toilets and I sat there and patiently waited. At this point I was almost completely out of water. I foolishly didn't put on suntan lotion or bug spray before we split so I was....feeling vulnerable. It didn't take long for them to get back. It looked like most people were choosing to do the full hike to the Upper Lake. Jackie said it was just about 15 more minutes up the hill but the terrain was rather ugly, with several portions of boulders that had to be traversed. I was happy to sit at Middle Lake, and watch people foolishly pose on a stump that stuck out of the water, the glacial cold water. I enjoyed a few near misses, but everyone made it off safe. So that was that, although I missed the last leg of the hike, I will forever know in my heart that I climbed a mountain. Jackie even said she hoped that I didn't give up on those stairs. If I'm ever back out that way, and a few stones lighter, I might....might try it again. Maybe......just slightly maybe. I'll try a few nice flatter Ontario hikes first to get my stamina up.
We drove straight home to Vancouver after that. I feasted on leftover sandwiches and leftovers from Friday night's dinner. Monday morning we hung out at the house for a bit, and the suited up and went down to the beach. We laid out and tanned for a while, and soaked in the natural beauty of mountains that surround the city. Jackie tripped me up to the airport, and that was that. I had upgraded my flight home on West Jet to premium. It was an absolute dream. I may not be able to avoid doing that again in the future. And it was a full flight to boot, so having that freebie seat in between the premium seats was a major plus.
It was a total high and a rush to hike Joffre Lakes Provincial Park. I told Jackie it might just be the most amazing thing I've ever done. Although, it took me twice as long as everyone else....I did it. I CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN.
That's all, I'll stopped patting my own back, for now.
