Our summer trip this year is focused around a family cruise to Alaska. However, for Jennifer and myself, we needed a little more activity to start the trip. Amazingly, our 43rd country is actually Canada. For all our travels, Jennifer and myself have not been to Canada together. We remedied that with a four day stop at Whistler mountain to get in some hiking.

Ten years earlier, when we were newlyweds, we hiked through the Alps for nearly a month straight. The thought of taking a gondola to the top of the mountain would have been met with laughter. We were purists that had to walk every step. Ten years later, we were happy to ride the Whistler Express and the Peak Express to the start of our hike on the High Note Trail. It was also the site of our first photo shoots with the Inuksuk, a large stone cairn used by the Inuit and other artic region natives.

Whistler Inuksuk

We hiked on the trail, a black diamond for hiking and quickly were humbled by how much we’ve lost our hiking legs. Once past a steep, rocky decline, the trail leveled off to a more enjoyable grade. Wildflowers and random streams set a relaxing tone, well all except this repeated piercing whistle. We both thought how could someone be so rude as to repeatedly blow the annoying screech? However, it was our ignorance, the whistle was coming from marmots, the very marmots that gave Whistler its name.

We took another photo above Cheakamus Lake, before starting the long painful slog back up Half Note Trail. Yes, we could have gone further along High Note, but we were beat.

Cheakamus Lake

Our second day was more subdued, sticking to the blue and green hikes on Blackcomb Mountain.  The highlight was taking the Peak to Peak Gondola between mountains. It is both the world’s longest unsupported lift as well as the highest. The views of the bare grass and dirt ski runs juxtaposed with the lush evergreens and snow-capped mountains were better than those of the trail itself. We did not pull the dress out of the pack.

Whistler is a very agreeable town.  It reminded us of European places like Zermatt: quaint buildings winding streets with only foot traffic and lots of great shops and eateries. We were staying in the Crystal Lodge and at every level it was a home run. We scored a great room with a King bed.  Every single staff member was friendly and helpful. It was perfectly situated near, but not too near the gondolas. Every day they had something different to offer as a free happy hour treat. One day it was a crisp glass of wine, then an elderflower cocktail, then beer, and finally locally made gelato. However, the real score was getting to meet the general manager. We discussed our project and he provided exactly what we needed, an idea we didn’t find anywhere when searching the internet.

It was a train wreck (circa 1950s) that is sitting in the middle of the forest. Local artists have since left their mark and the local government has built a trail and bridge for easy access. We were amazed we didn’t find this in our searches. Thank you, Ian!

Jennifer posing among the wrecked trains

After the wreck, we took a whimsical photo with our favorite prop from the movie Big, Zoltar! Located at the front of a New Age store with a funky twist called, The Oracle. The staff was quite kind and very zen. As a nice touch, the money collected from the machine goes for local students’ scholarships.

Advice from Zoltar

We had planned to put a little video/photo show of our trip, but as I am the death to computers, my laptop’s boot drive crashed so we are going with just stills.

Next, up our Alaskan cruise with Holland America, stay tuned.

Holland America