Squamish was so fun! I think it's my favorite outdoor climbing location I've been to. Vancouver is so close to Seattle, and then Squamish is so close to Vancouver. Our GPS from Burnaby told us it was only 31 miles away! Burnaby is a suburb East of Vancouver, so the distance from the city proper was probably closer to <25 miles away. It's amazing how close such a spectacular gem of nature is to civilization.
We began our morning with a stop for breakfast at Tim Horton's. O "accidentally" got 5 doughnuts, but A and I ended up polishing off at least 2 of them. Another step for obesity = another step towards bliss. Those crullers are amazing! We also stopped at a Canadian grocery store for sandwiches and potato chips. Potato chips were my favorite as a child, and my love for them has not waned. Anyone that tells you otherwise is lying or is not a human person. The drive up to Squamish is gorgeous. It goes around the Howe Sound. You're surrounded by this beautiful deep blue/aquamarine color water, mountains and trees. There's no other way to describe it besides beautiful. In the truest, simplest, most organic form of the word - beautiful. We arrived to the parking lot in no time, and there was a sign for "Climber Parking Lot." We probably spent more time looking for parking than looking for the first climb.
The first set of boulders we saw was literally steps from the trail entry. It's amazing. There are so many climbs all packed so close together. All the boulders are clustered incredibly close to each other. All the boulders you could want and more are right on the main trail, all the climbs are in your face before you have any time to wonder where the boulders are. It was not crowded at all - the most we'd have with us at one boulder would be one other group. Everything is in the forest and shaded. We didn't even apply sunblock and no one got burned. Any day without a sunburn is a good day. The temperature and weather was perfect. There were even bathrooms, and it was close enough to access one whenever I wanted (not often because I have an iron bladder). The feel of the rock was super grippy/frictiony, but it didn't leave your skin torn up like frictiony rock often does. Since the sun doesn't set until 9:30 over there, we were able to get in probably close to noon and left around nine.
We were done just before sunset so we got to make a stop at Shannon Falls on the way back. There was so much water. I loved it! The drive back was just as gorgeous as the drive there. And in no time we were back in Vancouver to hunt for dinner. After watching tv the previous evening, we decided that we had to try this restaurant. But we hadn't plugged it into the GPS, so we figured we'd just go into the city and drive around to see if we saw something or if one of our phones could find it. No such luck. After driving by the nightlife and riff raff, we stopped off at a Marriott to see if I could get the directions from the front desk of a hotel we weren't staying at. With my best lost tourist impression, mission success! It was the perfect ending to a perfect climbing day.trancontinentally aghast,
jt
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