Leaving Vancouver, we
headed north to Squamish along the Sea to Sky parkway.
Unfortunately, low clouds and rain obstructed the views on this
scenic route. In Squamish, we stopped at the nicest visitor center
along the trip, complete with an espresso bar and free wifi. We had
planned out a few climbs, but the rainy weather ruined our plans.
Instead, we went for a soggy mountain bike ride.
Great climbing rained out.
Awesome visitor center.
At the visitor center,
we picked up a map of mountain bike trails. Like ski runs, they were
rated green, blue, and black corresponding to difficulty. Adrianne
and I had never ridden any mountain bike trails with these ratings
before, so we didn't really have any good baseline. I figured that a
green was basically a paved or gravel flat, blues were easy
singletrack, and black started to get technical. Adrianne was
worried that a blue would be more difficult. We decided on a
blue-green trail called Wonderland. It was amazing. The trail was
intended for biking only, with quite a few narrow wooden bridges
leading over streams and gullies. It was a slight downhill through a
mossy forest, with a mainly soft floor around the trail. Lots of
roots and rocks made the trail interesting, and the drenched
conditions added to the challenge. For a blue, it seemed more
difficult than I had imagined, and Adrianne had a bit of trouble, as
this was her first technical mountain bike ride. She was a trooper
and made it down the trail and back up the green rated gravel path,
and seemed to have a bit of fun doing so, despite being a little
freaked out.
Here's a photo of the
trail. You have to check it out:
Adrianne after the bike ride.
Squamish was the perfect place for us, with lots of climbing and mountain biking nearby, but with a few more days of wet weather in the forecast and my family closing in on Banff we decided to move on. We cranked up the heater to dry the wet bike clothes and warm our cold selves and pressed on through Whistler. We lucked out and found a great campsite, the nicest of the trip, right near the highway and fell asleep fast.
Our camp.
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