Confront the Familiar: Squamish in the spring time

This past weekend, Paul received the opportunity to go to a conference on Experiential Education in Squamish and so we excitedly packed our things into the little blue car and drove the 12 long hours out to the West Coast for a few quick days in one of the most magical places that I know of. The trip was a bit rough, but not due to road closures like the past few times (the highway was down to single lane traffic at one point because of a rock slide, but that's all!), instead though Paul was sick with the flu.

We carpooled with our broken roommate, Dre, to Golden and both her and Paul were getting hot and cold flashes with nausea the whole way. We met Dre's partner at a cafe in Golden and he was also not feeling that hot.... it was a bad sign of things to come. After a few stops on the highway after that we called it a day in Merritt and got a hotel room for the night. Lucky Cam and I both seemed to escape it for the most part and were in great spirits, so we spent the rest of the evening playing in pool and hot tub while Paul slept the sickness off in the room.

Cam crawling over drift wood logs

The next days travel was substantially better, but a uneasiness of stomach stuck with Paul for the remainder of the trip. We arrived in Vancouver Thursday afternoon and stopped for lunch and to stretch our cramped legs and soar bums on the beach.

Paul and I

It's so good to be near the ocean again

Exploring beach life

Setting up camp (and eating the forest floor\)

We camped in Squamish at the Climbers campground at the base of the Chief, although officially closed still allowed campers to use the walk in sites, left the outhouses open, but did not have water. We were one of only 3 or 4 tents in the whole camp ground and had our pick of the sites nestled in the thick of the forest. The coast forest is generally a magical place, but there is something about the Stawamus Provincial Park that speaks to the soul - its the 700m of vertical granite rock face that hang above you, the thousands of massive mossy boulders scattered at the walls feet, the ancient ceders and firs, a soft smell of the ocean... its beyond description. If you have not been there, I truly recommend you go.

The painted wall; strains from iron seeping from the rock created beautiful streaks down this vertical, featureless wall half way up the trail to Summit 2

The Conference started at noon on Friday and was a series of engaging lectures, actives and workshops on the concepts, methods and delivery of Experiential Education programs. Several staff from Enviros were there, as well as some familiar faces from our travels.

Playing in the tent

While Paul was getting paid to learn rad things from some pretty awesome people in the field, Cam and I were free to frolic in the mountains. We did lots of hiking about, biking, swimming at the pool, and even a bit of climbing once Paul was done for the weekend!

Stairs, stairs and more stairs

The first day we went on a big bike ride in the valley, met a good friend for lunch at the Zephyr (amazing!), bike back to the campground and then took on the hike to Summit 2 of the Stawamus Chief;

I had forgotten what a grind that hike is! Its literally 600m of steep, uneven stairs - some built of wood, but most of stacked boulders, a bit of steep trail hiking and a few technical sections that have fixed lines and ladders to help you get through it.

Making it to the top with baby was well worth the work though! We got an amazing view of the Howe Sound, the snow capped peaks around us and it was even pretty warm up there!