Camping in Squamish

One of our birthday gifts for Jai was to take him camping for two nights in Squamish and hike up Shannon Falls. Unfortunately, he wasn't very surprised - he expected as much! Oh well. So, Mim and I drove our bikes up and Jai took the bus and we found a great spot at a campground directly across the street from the falls, right on the bay. We even had a creek, which ran from the falls, right next to our spot!

View of Shannon Falls from the campground

You can see the falls from most areas in the campground. You can also see The Chief, a looming cliff of a rock (a popular spot for climbers) to the north of the falls. When we went for a stroll in the evening, The Chief shone almost as bright as the falls in the night sky. The city lights seemed to illuminate both the majestic creations above. Another great aspect of the site was the insane amount of blackberry bushes! There were so many and they were so ripe, we picked those berries for what must've been hours. We picked so many berries my head was spinning! Look at them all! Just look!

And after having dinner on our first night out, we made some jam. Oh yeah...that's right. Yummy, delicious, and homemade right in our camp. During the prep for the jam, we realized there was not enough gas to have the fire on long enough...so Mim and Jai improvised...

Next morning, we didn't hesitate to make the best camping breakfast in all of history. Eggs Benny. Jai poached those babies real nice, then we added some cheese, toasty muffins, sausage and avocado, topped it all off with some hollandaise sauce...and we all devoured them with pleasure.

Mmmm...that's real nice

Once we finished the amazing breakfast and cleaned up, it was time for the ultimate hike up to the most incredible swimming hole ever. Here we are at the base of the Falls.

About two thirds of the way up, we meandered to a view point that was stunning...

We could see our campsite from here and had a wonderful view of the bay and mountains of Squamish. Jai and me got increasingly excited as we came closer to the falls...gaining speed while yelling giddily like little girls.

We came upon a magical moss encrusted mountainside than ascended up the hill and the sun bounced off the green, shining upon us in glorious splendor.

We hiked through some pretty awesome canyons on the way up as well...

And...WE FOUND IT!!! WE FOUND IT!!! HOLY MOSS HAIR!!! IT's AMAZING!!! Wait...nope, we can't swim here guys...or we'll be swept over that 80 foot waterfall. This isn't the right hole for sure, pretty sketchy.

I was certainly at a loss for words as we finally approached the swimming hole we had been searching for. The falls dropped into several pools before dropping all the way down 80 feet straight to the bottom. This pool that was our destination was surrounded by large mossy rocks and soft, moss covered ground, which was delightful to walk on barefoot as we prepared to jump in. The glowing, blueish green tint of the glacier water was so inviting after the hot and sweaty hike up. The mossy rocks around us on the walls were lined with yellow blooms, smiling at us from above. A giant boulder lay balancing atop smaller boulders on he opposite side of the pool, a lovely sight. To top it all off, we had a great view of the bay and mountains beyond. It was as if we stood on the top of the highest mountain and time stood still in our peaceful, serene little cove. Jai was first to strip down and jump in. Looks like it was cold, eh?

Oh it was...

...and it was magically refreshing. We had to jump in twice to get the perfect photo. But more so, we just couldn't resist! So cold, yet so amazingly pure and fresh glacier water. The afternoon hike was perfectly topped off with a nice dunk in the pool and some awesome sandwiches for lunch. Then we headed back down and made the most delicious dinner I have ever tasted: Mim's Dahl. Too bad you didn't get to try any...if you are nice and read all our blog posts maybe we will make some for you :)

That night we went for a walk around the campsite and wandered out to the docks. In the dark, the large parking lot and creepy shack near the dock were pretty menacing. As we pondered whether to stay or go we heard some odd bark/chirp/whine that was later determined by Mim to be a scary, poodle hybrid creature that only came out at night. Eeek. We settled for a spot near the train tracks (well away from the docks) and enjoyed the night sky and blazing lights of the shipping boats bouncing off the salty water in the bay.

Well, after a good nights sleep and a long day of chilling at the campsite, we packed up and out and left the awesome campsite by the creek behind. Back to Vancouver to reunite with Bronwyn!

Jai & Bronwyn!!! Vancouver, BC

We made it across the border, with only a minimal amount of trouble, and eagerly rode on to the small apartment in the middle of the city, where the loveliest people waited our arrival. And Yoshi, of course. (notice the hidden message in the picture?) For our fist day in the city, Jai took us down town for the Chinese Festival.

We drank Bubble Tea and roamed the thrifty booths, finding a good catch here and there. We also walked through Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's Chinese Garden and marveled at the beautiful lily pads, Japanese Maple trees and bamboo forests...

Then we all met up with Bronwyn and had tasty treats of pork buns and "snowballs" (bean-paste-filled seseme rice puffs) from a local shop. And that made us thirsty so we walked over to a good brewery for some beer tastin'!

Mmmm...those are some tasty enebriants! Mim and me slept beautifully that night on the foamy goodness of the pull out bed. And the next day was Jai's BIRTHDAY!!!! We wandered Main Street while Bronwyn set up the apartment to suprise Jai. Convienently, he had to work, so we got to be sneaky about his specal day. Hee hee...hee hee...hee! When we returned home from shopping, Bronwyn had created a forest inside the apartment!! A forest...OF BALLOONS!!!!!!!!!!!

Each balloon had tied to it a small gift and as Jai open them Bronwyn tied the balloons to somewhere on his body...and after finishing, there only one thing left for him to do...

FLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The balloons were so many that he floated in mid air and as he defied gravity for those few short seconds...he pondered the magnificence of flight. Happy Birthday Jai! We are so happy we got to be there.

Sam's house - Bellingham, WA

After our amazing beach experience, we took the ferry from Port Townsend to Coupeville, Wa. Turns out, I'm not a fan of boats...of any kind. But luckily the ride was short and we were on our way! The ride through Coupeville and neighboring cities was filled with much farmland. The back country roads we took had us feeling hungry and craving some berries! We made Bellingham our destination for the evening so we could visit Mim's good friend, Sam who lives in a wonderful lake house there. Our first evening, 7 friends jammed across town on bicycles, four of them on swing bikes, and I nearly got lost in the maze of back trails next to the river. On Saturday Sam escorted us to the local farmers market and we explored the booths before sitting down for a lunch of yummy gourmet pizza.

...and beer of course!

Mim tried to catch me taking a sip of his...and got some tongue action!

After some glorious swimming and paddle boarding on the lake that afternoon, we loaded up the motorcycles and headed to the border...Oh, Canada...here we come!!

South Beach - Olympic National Park

After staying a luxurious two nights at the Lake, we headed back to the coast and looked for a nice camp spot on the beach - our last chance to stay on the beach before making it to Vancouver. We found South Beach campground in Olympic National park and it was right on the bluff above the ocean tide. The beach there was covered with fine driftwood and Mim quickly set to work on a fort.

 We used the awesome, incredible, super-fabulous fort to shield us from the wind while enjoying an amazing, extra-ordinary, out-of-this-world beach fire!

I am very proud of my mans work, if you couldn't tell...

The night was filled with magical moments as we sat by the fire side by side...once the fire was finished we headed to the water to fill up so we could drown the coals. As I waited for Mim at the edge of the tide, I heard funny spurts of laughter and heckling! He apparently had the most wonderful experience with the atoms in the water that light up like fireflies. Since it was pitch black out, it was magnificent ( I can only assume he's right, since I was too cold to brave the waters that night!). Before going to bed, we watched the ocean as the waves crashed...and in the dark night air, they lit up when breaking, like random manifestations of wet, salty light. Such a gorgeous moment.

Quanoot Lake, Washington

Arriving in Washington, we watched the sunset before setting up camp at Quanoot Lake. We even had our own private section of beach next to our site! This Lake is near a few Indian reservations and it is forbidden to take part in any fishing activity. We hiked through some rain forest during our stay here, but the forests were very dry. Some of the banana slugs that we saw looked very sad and slow...We visited a place called The Cedar Bog and it was also quite dry. It would have been neat to see that area during the rainy and wet seasons. The forests were beautiful nonetheless and we wandered the trails for hours.

Not seen in the next picture, is a small bubbling creek just next to the tent (about 8 feet away on the left). and to the right is a short walk to the beach.

Quanoot Lake is just south of Olympic National Park in Washington, a little ways inland, and it is extremely beautiful up there. Next up- more coast action!