Baby, In the summertime, That is where I'll be .....

So it has been a while since my last update but dead season in Whistler was pretty dead. But now it's July and summer has well and truly hit Whistler and I couldn't be happier. The sun is shining and the breeze is cool . . . . . It's just perfect.

Since a few of us have the same days off, we have a sort of "pact" to actually do things on our days off, like hiking and bike riding, so that we tick of our summer bucket list before we leave for our trip at the start of September.

So we started off May with a trip to Vancouver, an opportunity to escape the bubble for a few days. We hired a car and set off early with the intention of buying a bike each, doing some shopping, having a nice night away and dinner at a fancy italian restaurant. However with the sun shining, we couldn't resist a few stops along the way, starting with Tim Hortons and Shannon Falls in Squamish.

After a quick stop and some morning tea, we were back on the road, heading down the amazing Sea to Sky Highway towards Vancouver. Since the sun was still shining, which is rather rare in Vancouver, we decided to ditch the car, hire some bikes and go for a self guided tour around Stanley Park. We topped it off with a picnic lunch with these guys.

   

Sadly all good things must come to an end and we returned to Whistler for what turned out to be a wet, no a very wet May. As I was only doing the odd training shift, we laid low and saved our pennies.

But with the arrival of June, we saw the return of the sun and the start of summer. So what better way to kick off summer than with a trip to Squamish to hike the Stawamus Chief. I think I underestimated the power of the "Chief". After all I have hiked Mt Warning in Northern NSW without too much trouble. But as we set off on our hike, we came across a set of stairs, followed by more stairs and more stairs until an hour and a half later we made it to the top. The reward was an amazing view and being unable to walk properly for 3 days. Totally worth it though.

Our next adventure was one that all of us have have been wanting to do for a really long time - Whistler Train Wreck. We set off from the village along the valley trail, past Alta Lake, Nita Lake and Alpha Lake to Function Junction. Then on to the train track for the last kilometre or so. We got to see some local wildlife along the way - coyote pups and two bears. The train wreck was awesome to see. It's obviously an attraction for graffiti artists and bike park enthusiasts, who have built jumps onto and off the carriages.

As we live in a tourist town, we decided to check out some of the Whistler Blackcomb tourist activities. We jumped on the Whistler Gondola, went up Peak Chair, posed in front of a few Inukshuks and hiked down through the ice-walls.  We hit the Peak to Peak and made our way down Blackcomb on the chairlifts. We capped it off with a time trial race on the luge track in the adventure zone and some 4th July celebration drinks.

Jobs in Whistler must come with a perk, and the perk of my job is free/cheap adventure activities for myself, my friends and my family. So this week we decide to test out the new Superfly Zip-lines at Cougar mountain. At the start of July they opened 2 new lines and they are the biggest in Canada, at over 1.25km long and 600ft high. The tour lasts about 3 - 4 hours and consists of 6 zip-lines. Kat clocked up 96km/h on the Godzilla line. Pretty impressive!

Check out our video below! 

So whats next? well over the next few weeks we have a few things in the works - white water rafting, sky-diving, Dave's birthday, hike to Cheakamus Lake, Squamish festival, mountain top bbq and Crankworx.

Stay Tuned

xxx