Monday July 9th to Friday 20th 2018
Trip Distance 30 nm
We got out of Sucia Island Fossil Bay Around 9 am for the trip to Laconner Marina where we are docking Water Dog for 10 day’s while we drive over to Whistler to visit our friends at Whistler Ski resort where we had two rental houses. Real nice clear day yet again for the cruise over.
Directly across from the dock where we are keeping Water Dog log booms are being loaded up from land via front end loader to water waiting for a tug to come along and pull them over for processing at some local processing plant.
Our good boating friends Vince and Pam on Tugzilla loaned us their truck to head up to Whistler. It was sprinkling that morning but still a beautiful drive up the coast of Howe sound.
We met my best friend’s (39 years and counting) family and had two houses near downtown Whistler. Jenny’s mom has been hosting family legacy trips for the past 6 years and I have been invited to most which has been very special.
Our first day in Whistler we visited Nairn Falls for a walk along the river to the falls. The rivers are amazingly powerful! We say many but could not let the dogs in off leash as they easily could be swept away in the fast and strong current.
Another cool walk and place to visit is the Whistler Train Wreck. In the 50’s a train derailed. A few train cars where pulled off the track a ways up in the woods and have been painted with some real nice graffiti. Locals also made some bicycle jumps since Whistler is a mountain biker’s mecca.
The hike starts in a parking lot in Function Junction and you walk along the river rapids and the rail road tracks for a couple kilometers.
Whomever painted the graffiti on the 5-6 box cars did a great job.
Our next visit was too Brandywine falls where you take a short 200m walk to the over look past the falls.
We took a hike on the way back from the falls to the bungee jump bridge area where you can bungee jump for $140. Alex and Leah wanted to do it but not me!
We saw some people at the bottom of the falls and I (patty) had read about a path down to the bottom of the falls. At the 2nd furthest overlook Alex noticed a path going off past the fence which we suspected was the way down I had read about. On our last day Alex, myself, Leah and her friend Sheila came back sans dogs for an off trail excursion to the bottom. Had a nice snack on some wild blueberrys on the way back on trail.
The Whistler visit was very fun. Family dinners, hikes, waterfalls, exploring town and some excursions. We did bear watching, climbed to the top of a ski jump and did a tree walk in the high cedars. Ben biked twice. Crashed on day one but still had fun. This was the first year Alex joined us for the entire trip and the dogs were along so a great time was had by all.
Bear watching on the ski slopes. They plant clover to stabilize the slopes and when it blooms the bears graze it as would cattle. The berries will be out in August. Interestingly the concentration of bears is higher on the mountain due to better availability of food.
Hikes and waterfalls!
A little atypical hike…up the ski jump at the Olympic Park. Quite the walk up the stairs then an easy stroll down the mountain on the access road.
We all rode the gondola up to the top of Whistlter mountain. Took the peak to peak Gondola and explored a bit on Blacomb then back to Whistler. Sandra and Ed hung out at the Round House grill (amazing view) and some of us took an open chair lift to the very top and then walked down through the melting snow.
Dog fun too!
On the ride back to LaConner we stopped on the road for a short visit to Shannon Falls.
