Random Road Trip - Silver Lake, Mt. Baker and Maple Falls (Washington State)

Sunday morning I dropped Jon at the airport and he lent me his car while he's away in the States for a couple of weeks. I decided to make the most this and the couple of days of good weather and no work and take off for the night. I SMS'd Sarah and said you have 14 minutes to make up your mind if you wanna come. I packed a tent, sleeping bag and a few clothes, dropped Jon then picked up Sarah and Alisha from their place and hit the road. We decided to cross the border at Abbotsford and head towards Mt. Baker.


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We stopped just across the border for some good ol' American/Mexican food and the waiter suggested we stay at Silver Lake which was on the way to Mt. Baker. We drove there in about 1/2 an hr. and decided it was going to be way too cold and the tent was going to be way to small so we booked a cabin that was right on the lake which was pretty cheap and perfect for the night's accommodation!





We then drove the 3 miles into Maple Falls to get some other supplies. Unfortunately they didn't have towels so there was no showers for us for about 36 hrs.

There was an open fire in a gazebo on the lawn just near the cabin and we had some beers, toasted some marshmallows and listened to some tunes for a couple of hours. When it started getting really cold we moved the party inside and played some 'Kings' with the miniature pack of cards we picked up at the convenience store.



The next day we got up (reasonably) early and had breakfast at a little bakery in Maple Falls. We then drove about 30 miles up to the top of Mt. Baker. It was a perfect day and the views were amazing! We will definitely have to get back there this winter for some boarding.



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Old school track of the week

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Nice & Smooth - Hip Hop Junkies - 1992

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Chopper ride to Victoria

I was sitting at home last Sunday and not wanting to waste a day pretending to get stuff doe on the computer so I packed an overnight bag and got a cab down to Vancouver's waterfront to try and get a standby flight with HeliJet to Victoria. The one-way flights are usually $250 but up until the end of the week they had a standby rate of $75. I'd always wanted to ride in a chopper and this was about as cheap as it's ever going to get. And the ride is 1/2 hr so you get a decent ride and a great view of the city, the Gulf Islands and Victoria. So anyway I made it down there just in time to book one of the 2 remaining seats and was off to Victoria for the night in style!

Old school track of the week

via youtube.com

A Tribe Called Quest - Check The Rhime (With Lyrics) 1991

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Grouse Grind PB

It was Ad's last week in Van and he was yet to tackle the Grind so we went up after work yesterday and hit it. After a decent stretching session he suggested I set the pace as I'd done it a couple of times before. Both of these times I hadn't gotten under an hour so the target we decided would be 50minutes... just to really push it. Within 75 meters of the start Ads took over and began striding up the hill at a crazy pace. As I tried to keep up I felt like a was carrying a bag of cement over my shoulder. When we reached 1/2 way and he began to realise he may have bolted from the gates with a little too much ambition, we got more in sync and stayed closer together. At 3/4 we were out of water but well on the way to our target. Near the end we realised we could break the 45min mark. So we bolted (on hands and knees for the most part) and I fought off the cramps as we reached the summit and came in right on 45min. Pretty sore but pretty damn happy with the result!