Squamish weekend (West Lion hike) 21/07

It has been a while between innings for our blog. We have been a bit lazy, out of reception (Canada’s mobile setup is terrible), a bit lost of were we were going to live etc. But finally we have managed to settle in Vancouver, we are sharing an apartment with two great housemates; Aaron a kiwi & Kellie an Aussie from W.A (Boooo).

I have been back to the grind for a week, and so now the living for the weekend life begins! Luckily, my first weekend had the best weather we have had so far in Canada, blue sky’s and 25 degrees!

On the Saturday we woke early at 5am, had a quick breakfast & were out the door by 6 to meet a group of friends at a trailhead at Lion’s bay. Lion’s bay is about a 30 minute drive from our place with no traffic and is home to some amazing trails into the mountains. The hike we did was to the West Lion peak, a 19km return hike with over 1400m of elevation – Ellen went to the gym on Friday, so her legs were already shaking at the thought of this!

At 7am a group of 7 of us headed from the trailhead and up, up, up we went. After around 2 hours the views through the trees over the ocean were already starting to show. Just breathtaking – and only 30 minutes from our place, so stoked with our new home so far!

After about 3.5 hours we reached what I thought was the summit, it offered near 360 unobstructed views and we were joined by a few other people who also made the early hike.

But then I looked up to the top of a rock about 50 meters higher, this was the true summit.

Getting to the top of this section took another 30 minutes and a bit of nerve – we were like mountain goats scrambling up a cliff, which a times if we slipped we could have fell over 50 metres! But its ok Mum, we all made it to the top safe and sound – it was so worth it as per the photos below.

We had a bite to eat for lunch before carefully scrambling back down, and hiking all the way down the bottom. All in all it took us around 7.5 hours return. Ellen & I said goodbye to the rest of the group as they were heading back to Vancouver, we headed another 30 minutes North to a town called Squamish. We found a local lake called Brohm lake which was super refreshing – this is our shower for the night!

At around 5:30pm we left the lake and started driving back into the town of Squamish to find some food. And bloody Bertha (our van)…. She made a big popping sound from the front-right wheel, I pulled over straight away and was pleased to see the tire was still there. Funnily enough, on the highway I pulled over behind another van who had broken down too! Ahhhh the life of owning a van with 200,000 plus kms. After a quick inspection, and chat to the friendly broken down German couple, I decided to try limp  Bertha into town to a mechanic, but nope. The brakepad was sticking on the front-right tire making it difficult to drive. I managed to get the car off the main highway and onto a quieter street.

We both had such a great day so we didn’t let this little issue ruin it. We went out to have the BEST burger and fries in Canada so far & washed down with a couple of mate makers. Our troubles were forgotten for the night!

We woke early in the morning, tried to move the car again but with no success. We called a tow truck and got a lift to a mechanic 5km down the road. The mechanic doesn’t open until Monday. Our lovely new housemates came to Squamish to pick us up as we had no way of getting back to Vancouver for work & an interview on Monday. It was another cracking day so we stopped in at Kat lake with them and had a swim before heading back to Vancouver.

All in all, our first working weekend in Vancouver was a success I think! Fingers crossed the fix on Bertha isn’t going to cost us too much!

More photos here.