Trans Canada Trail - BC Trail - Kettle Valley Railroad - Cycle Tour
The BC Trail makes its way eastward across British Columbia. The route starts just outside Vancouver in Cultus Lake, and for us ends in Castlegar, nearly 800km away. It’s a beautiful but challenging mix of road, gravel and single track.
Lake Lovely Water is a steep 1150m climb over 6.5km to an amazing serene lake in the Tantalus Range. You do also have the option of flying in if you don't want to hike up.
We had planned to do Mount Assiniboine as a 53km thru-hike over 6 days with a number of days hikes in between, making the total nearly 130km. In order to do this as a one-way hike, we arranged rides both to start at Sunshine Village and to end at Mount Shark.
We started by leaving a car at the base of Grouse Mountain, as we planned to do this as a one-way hike. After that, we headed to Lynn Valley to where we started the trail.
The plan was to start in Canmore and then arrive in Castlegar 10 days, and almost 700km later while staying almost entirely on trails and gravel roads. We would be taking the 'Great Divide Trail' South from Canmore to Fernie and then take the 'Trans Canada Trail' West from Fernie to Castlegar.
This was a great cross country trail that wasn't too difficult. It would be nice to continue all the way to the lake but unfortunately, there is avalanche risk after the viewpoint.
Every year we plan a night of skiing under a full moon in the month December. This was definitely the coldest we had ever attempted but despite the temperatures, Chester Lake ended up being one of the most memorable.
Brandywine meadows and mountain is a challenging but beautiful day hike that leads you through an alpine meadow and finishes with amazing views of the Whistler area.
We had actually planned to do the Howe Sound Crest Trail the weekend before and even gotten 5km into it but quit due to an unbelievable amount of bugs. You couldn't even keep your mouth or eyes open without bugs constantly flying into them. There was also still a ton of smoke from forest fires that made breathing difficult.
The best camping on the Indian arm is at Granite Falls, it's 18km and between 3-6 hours one way. It's a beautiful paddle that ends at a large waterfall.
This was our first time up there and while it was beautiful, it was very sad to see how much garbage had been left by people on the trail and lakeside. If you do decide to take the trip up there, please pack out all of your garbage.
Icefields Parkway Cycle Tour - Lake Louise to Jasper
The Icefields Parkway is an incredibly beautiful 230km stetech of highway from Lake Louise to Jasper with 1800m of elevation gain. We cycled it over the course of 4 days and 3 nights, camping along the way.
We go bouldering in Leavenworth once a year, it's a small town east of Seattle that in the 1960s during an economic downtown decided to make the town Bavarian themed. There also happens to be amazing climbing and bouldering just outside the town site.