Our Beginning in Brilliant Big White

This is the view out of the window at our new winter accommodations at Big White on Oct.29th!
The abundance of snow bodes well for our approaching season of shredding.

The views down the street from our building.

11cm of new snow overnight!

This snowy wonderland is almost deserted this early in the season, so it was ours to explore.

Big White village centre.

Juan-derous Juan de Fuca Trail

Botanical beach at Port Renfrew, the very beginning of the 47-km Juan de Fuca Trail.

Super Sphagnum!

As the days passed, we hiked through kilometer after kilometer of gorgeous, remote coastline and old growth temperate rainforest.

Breakfast: Quinoa with cranberries and freshly picked salal berries.

Sombrio beach, a popular spot with surfers about 25 kilometers from Port Renfrew.

A beautiful Sitka Spruce right next to our campsite.

BC parks put in some very nice suspension bridges to spare hikers the more dangerous river crossings.

Masses of kelp along the rocky coastline.

Tide pools full of small fish and crustaceans.

Chels fell in love with this massive old hemlock.

After Sombrio, the trail got much gnarlier and difficult.

 Finally after 5 days we reached the end of our hike and returned to Vancouver just in time to avoid the first fall storm, which arrived the day after we left.

Elegant Elfin Lakes

We headed back up to beautiful British Columbia for some more hiking. This time we went to Elfin Lakes, in Garibaldi National Park just outside Squamish. After only 2 short hours of hiking we emerged into the magnificent alpine wilderness.

Mt. Garibaldi.

One of the Elfin Lakes.

A shelter to escape from the bears...

After a chat with the construction workers we set up our tent on a finished platform in the 'under construction' campground. So we had the place to ourselves and the most spectacular view!

In the morning we watched them helicopter in supplies for building a new shelter and campground.

Another very relaxing and beautiful trip.

Washington ~ Soothing Sahale Arm

We took advantage of the continuing sunny weather and abundance of free time, and went hiking in the North Cascades. We left in the evening and drove down the 23 mile logging road to the trailhead in the dark.

We camped for the night, and when we awoke this was the view from our tent...

The views only got better as the hike went on.

A cute little grouse.

Six miles and four hours later we reached the highest point of Sahale Arm.

Another beautiful Washington hike accomplished!