August: Squamish, BC

With our friends Mara and Adam, we headed to Squamish for a week of climbing on world class granite, and biking on the Sunshine Coast of BC. Squamish is an hour north of Vancouver, right on the water. You can see it in the background of some of the pics. The biking was a little crazy at times. Up in BC, they like to build up trails and do lots of tricks with their bikes. Rich and Adam braved some of the obstacles, but Mara and I were too smart.




























It was really hot the week we were there, so usually we started climbing early and hid in the shade. Most of the rock there is west facing, so it was hard to find much to climb in the afternoons. Some days we climbed in the morning and evenings, and napped during the afternoon.
















































Biking around Squamish was very fun. We've climbed here for several years, but never brought our bikes. It turns out the biking is fantastic, and there is an incredibly extensive trail system. Mara had only been on a mountain bike a few times, and she was a trooper, since we inadvertently ended up on some super technical and steep trail each time we went out. Thimble berries were in season, they grow wild all through the woods there. We stuffed ourselves while riding, and saw some giant bear berry poops. We also biked on the Sunshine Coast, which is a ferry's trip away. Who's pretty bike is this?!

Just an example of some of the jumps we saw. There were teeter totters, jumps, balance beams and obstacles. Rich had a blast playing on them.


Riding on elevated boards made me a little nervous. Yes, the trail went through the tree stump.