Garibaldi Lake: A Long Time Coming
For eight years we had avoided Garibaldi Lake in summer. This beautiful turquoise jewel of a lake, high up in Garibaldi Park, draws hordes of visitors in summer months. In fact, it’s probably one of the most popular hikes in BC, and for good reason: it’s surrounded by high mountain peaks and glaciers, and has the most unbelievably beautiful blue…
Hawaii: Flowing with the Lava on the Big Island
It all started at a gas station. Not the ideal place to start a two week vacation in Hawaii, but this is how it went. We left Vancouver a few hours prior to our arrival in the dreamy gas station, exhausted, drained and just plain tired. Flying with bicycles is always a hassle, and after we checked-in the two huge boxes, we…
Abbotsford: Discovering the Discovery Trail
On Saturday we headed to Abbotsford. Even though it’s only one hour away we had never really been there, only passing through occasionally on the way to the border. We had planned a 57km loop around Abbotsford, incorporating the Matsqui trail along the Fraser River and the Discovery Trail through town. Already after a few kilometers of cycling we encountered…
Wenatchee-Chelan Loop: The Columbia, Always a Stunner
Weather forecasts are extremely unreliable at this time of year. Nevertheless, after scrutinizing the charts for the whole region, we determined that eastern Washington would have the best weather, and the rest of the area would be cloudy and rainy. The problem was that it was the May Long Weekend, and long weekends are a terrible time to cross the…
Oregon: The Cycling Revolution of the Scenic Bikeways
When we got back from cycling in Central America last year we had a pile of Adventure Cyclist Magazines to read. From all the articles I read in the next months, one in particular drew my attention. It was about cycling the Old West Scenic Bikeway near John Day, in Eastern Oregon. The first thing that caught my eye was…
Phelix Hut: A White Easter
It was 8pm on Thursday evening, and we were still undecided on what we would be doing on the Easter Long weekend, Friday to Monday. I guess we are kind of last minute people. That’s actually one of the privileges of owning a car – we can decide where we want to go, when and with who. A long look…
- Backcountry Skiing, British Columbia (and nearby), Gulf Islands and Sunshine Coast, Trip Reports, Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC)
Tetrahedron: A Stagette Party in the Backcountry
On a sunny Saturday morning nine of us headed to Tetrahedron, on the Sunshine Coast to celebrate Pascale’s upcoming marriage, on a girls only trip, also known as a Stagette. I was excited by my late pick up time of 7:55am, especially due to the fact that Gili left our nice warm bed before dawn. Sometimes it’s nicer to be…
Mt. Breakenridge: The Mountain at the End of the Lake
The seed for this trip was planted five years ago. Maya and I were cycling up the east side of Harrison Lake, a majestic turquoise jewel. It was a beautiful spring weekend, and we kept on admiring the snow capped mountains of the Chehalis Range, on the other side of the lake. But my eyes were drawn to another mountain,…
Marriot Basin: Another Perfect “Weekend”
Last week we started our “weekend” on Monday which made perfect sense since the weekend was rainy and wet and then suddenly on Monday the sun showed up for a couple of days making it a wonderful opportunity for a trip to the mountains. For a while now we said that we’ll try to “cherry pick” the timing for our…
Iago Peak: When Everything Falls Right Into Place
There are those rare days in skiing that are a combination of both perfect sunny weather and excellent snow conditions. Last Sunday was one of those days, so we were off to the Coquihalla for some backcountry skiing. It was our third day in a row of skiing, but each day was of a different type. On Friday we skied…
