St. Mark's Summit

Canada Day fireworks off of West Vancouver
viewed across English Bay from Kitsilano Beach.  

Hi there, thanks for stopping by!  The locals are out, the tourists have arrived and summer is in full swing here in Vancouver.  Just as I had hoped, July so far has been dry as a bone, and the outdoor activities and opportunities for fun in the sun are boundless.  I have been keeping it up for the PMC, biking, hiking, running, lifting, climbing, walking and swimming.  It has been a lot of fun but not always easy, and I have not yet found the time away from school to go for a big mountaineering objective.  This has been depressing to say the least, but the summer still has plenty of life left in her and I will get above the clouds soon enough.  Before I fill you in on the last couple of weeks of good times let me update you on the more than $14,000,000.00 raised so far for the PMC!  We have just a few more weeks before the ride, and a few more months before the October deadline to reach the $38,000,000.00 goal.  I know we can do it but we're going to have to dig deep, which incidentally is what I say to myself right before blacking out on the spin bike in front of Canada's hippest.

The Kitsilano Beach saltwater pool.
Downtown West End and North Shore Mountains in the background.  

Once the clouds and rain finally scram Vancouver turns into a summer paradise, and every corner of the city seems to offer up something different.  I don't mind telling you that our own neighborhood of Kitsilano Beach is one of the best.  Besides the beach of course there's the 450 foot long beachfront saltwater pool, parks, lawns, basketball and tennis courts and the seawall bike path that will take you pretty much anywhere in the city.  It is nearly impossible to be sedentary here, and also nearly impossible to walk by it all on my way to work in the morning.  As hard as it has been to juggle a master's program and PMC training, I couldn't imagine a better place to have to juggle it all.  Not far from all this, right across English Bay, are the North Shore Mountains which is where Bailey, Evan and I went for a day hike this week.  

Deep in the North Shore Mountains.    

The North Shore Mountains rise steeply from sea level to about 5,000 feet just north of Vancouver.  Their rugged slopes directly abut the city of North Vancouver, where dense urban neighborhoods stop and wilderness begins.  This wilderness continues northwards into the vast British Columbia Coast Range, and one would have to go over the Arctic and into Russia before finding another city of any considerable size.  These mountains dominate the view to the north from anywhere in Vancouver, and are a great place for a hiking, camping, skiing and climbing right outside the city.  With a free Saturday, Bailey and I invited my co-worker Evan to drive up to the Cypress Ski Resort and hike along the Howe Sound Crest to St. Mark's summit. 

The Lions (5,400') from the Howe Sound Crest Trail.  

The Howe Sound Crest Trail runs along a ridge high above the Pacific, going through dense rainforest and over 5,000 foot peaks.  It is a great place for training, the views are incredible, the trail is in great shape and the summits are all of varying difficulty.   With just a Saturday afternoon to burn we would be doing a relatively short section of the trail from the Cypress Resort to St. Mark's Summit.  With good weather and good trail, we decided to be happy with our short day and do it as fast as we could to get some good cardio pump.  We did about 8 miles and 1500 feet of elevation, and we did it in about 3 hours, with another hour or so on top so soak up the views.  The mountains here rise so steeply out of Howe Sound that the shoreline is almost directly below the ridge, and views from the peaks leave you feeling like you are floating right over the sea.  Tiny ferries zip around below your feet on their way to Vancouver Island, and the Sea-to-Sky highway snakes along the shore just out of reach. 

Bailey and Evan enjoy some views.

It was a short-ish day, but the heat, the steep terrain and our quick pace made for a great afternoon of PMC training.  Besides which, I can't complain with being able to enjoy a hike like this and be back in the city within a half an hour.   As much as I love Boston, I will definitely miss this place when I leave. Driving a half an hour north from downtown Boston, you'd probably wind up no further than the North End of downtown Boston.  Paul Revere and cannoli are great, but I prefer mountains.

Howe Sound and the Bowen Island group from St. Mark's Summit.  

Cooling off in some snowmelt.  Beautiful. 

That's it for this one, I'll be heading out to the Sunshine Coast here in British Columbia this week for some world class cycle touring so stay tuned for that.  Check out the PMC website for info and updates on this year's ride, and please head to my PMC profile and donate if you can.  I'm up to 25% of my goal, so thanks to everyone for your support, and thanks for stopping by!