Pyros and Mountain Men reign supreme in Green Lake, BC.

We’re actually on a flight to Montreal, QC at the moment but I thought I’d get a little blog post update in while I have the chance. Honestly, we’ve been so flat out (holidaying yes, but also cleaning, selling and packing) that I have had very little opportunity for sleep, let alone anything else! So for the blog and photo delays, I apologize, but I’m doing the best I can!

We’ve spent the majority of the past week selling furniture, cleaning our unit and packing all our worldly possessions, which, I can sadly but also triumphantly say, fit into a total of five suitcases and two boxes. I think we did pretty well. Steven kept me (and whoever else was over visiting) thoroughly entertained during the week with his incredible knack for negotiating furniture sales which either involved him selling our four year old Ikea furniture to unsuspecting buyers for more than what it costs brand new (I knew all the original prices, but it clearly helped that he didn’t!) or negotiating like a champion …

Steve: "I'll sell it for $450"

Lady: "Okay. Uh, so I guess we have to negotiate now right?..."

Steve: [awkward laugh]

Lady "$400?"

Steve: "DEAL!!!!"

In our spare time (hah!), we rented a Mustang coupe on Thursday. It wasn’t intentional but when we turned up at Budget they said we could rent it for an extra $10 so Steven was sold. He was in his bogan element when we were driving over the Lions Gate Bridge and ACDC suddenly came on the radio … you can imagine my reaction. Anyway, we made our way to Squamish to hike the Chief – which was challenging (we had to use chains and ladders in places and climb up a few boulders), but not as challenging as the Grouse Grind. It was well worth the effort though – we were aptly rewarded at the summit with beautiful sweeping views of the surrounding landscape.

Shannon Falls (end of summer - I've been told it's usually a lot bigger earlier in the season!)

Patiently waiting for Steven....

Using chains (and ladders) to make our way up!

The views from the top of the Chief.

After we hiked the Chief we continued our journey to Whistler and checked out the mountain bikers. Originally the plan was for us to do the Peak 2 Peak gondola ride but we arrived too late so that goes on the list for our last weekend, if the weather is nice (fingers crossed!). Instead, we had dinner at Sushi Village, home of my most favourite sushi – and it delivered yet again. In fact, I dare say we’ll be back there for dinner again if we manage to fit Peak 2 Peak in before we leave BC. On our way back to Vancouver later in the evening we also spotted a black bear hanging out on the side of the road, which was an awesome finish to a great day. 

This past weekend was spent with friends at Ben’s family lake house in Green Lake, BC, Steven affectionately dubbed “Hanemaayer Estate” (Ben’s surname). Ben’s family own a number of plots on ex-camp ground land that his grandparents bought many years ago. Green Lake is located east of a very small town called 70 Mile House, about four and a half to six hours drive from Vancouver (depending on who's driving!). The drive itself, thankfully, was absolutely stunning and, after a massive breakfast in Squamish (Steven and Ben ordered themselves the crème de la crème called ‘Mountain Man’) we stopped off at a few places along the way to take in the breathtaking scenery - at Joffre Lake (a glacier-fed lake) and Duffey Lake, as well as a stop at Lilooet to check out a local winery. We were also fortunate enough to see another black bear on the roadside – our second in as many days!

Joffre Lake (glacier fed hence the beautiful colour of the water)

Dave & Brendan play on the logs in Duffey Lake

Our view over Green Lake

The cabin

Steven celebrates the freezing water

The boys ponder life, looking out over the lake

Playing on the dock

Green Lake was beautiful. For the most part we enjoyed a really quiet, peaceful weekend. So much so I think I napped about five times every day. The lake was pretty cold but the water was absolutely crystal clear. I have never seen water so clear before! The weather was surprisingly really beautiful for this time of year too. We enjoyed two hot, sunny days with temperatures around 28 degrees (yeah, that’s hot weather for us now!). Ben, Steven and I arrived on Friday just after lunch and we were joined by Dave C, Brendan and Suze later on Friday evening. Teddy, Sharah and her friend (also a Nat) made their way to the lake on Saturday.

The majority of our weekend was spent relaxing, drinking, hanging out in or around the lake, making s’mores and barbequing an exorbitant amount of processed meat. 

BBQing processed meat. Ew.

Roasting s'mores over the fire.

Me relaxing on the bank, pillow and all.

While plenty of fun times were had, there were two standouts:

Mountain Man

Although my recollection is slightly hazy, I believe the Mountain Man competition was devised over some campfire drinks, late Friday night. Through various, ridiculous discussions, the boys determined they should all participate in a competition which would test their feats of strength, and ability to undertake these tasks after sculling a number of cans of beer. Of course the name Mountain Man was derived from the Squamish breakfast Ben and Steven had devoured earlier that day.

Mountain Man involved four participants (Ben, Brendan, Steven and Dave) each undertaking a timed series of consecutive tasks. Each participant had to do the following:

Beach start

Swim out to the pontoon and scull a can of beer

Swim back to the beach

Run 300 metres up around a log pile, collect two blocks of fire wood and run with the fire wood back to the campfire

Split both blocks of wood in half

Scull another can of beer

Run back to the beach and collect the kayak

Kayak down the lake, around a buoy and return to the beach.

Scull another can of beer.

Yes, there were vomits and lots of vomitty sounding coughing from the participants once they’d finished. Yes, it was completely ridiculous but, clearly also lots of fun (for me).

Suze timed and I was the official event photographer. Dave was the inaugural champion and was crowned Mountain Main (he had to wear an empty beer box on his head).

The boys pre-competition - my instructions: "Suck it in!!!"

The boys pre-competition - my instructions: "Let it out!!"

Ben sculls first beer on the dock.

Brendan runs with the logs.

Steve sculls his first beer on the dock.

Someone needs to teach this one how to chop wood. It may have been his biggest downfall if not for...

...the kayak.

The final scull.

Dave is victorious as the inaugural Mountain Man.

Massive Campfire

Eager to get the campfire started after the abundance of pre-chopped firewood we now had at our disposal (!), the boys started it up early Saturday evening. From previous experience at Loon Lake (last year), we were familiar with Dave C’s penchant for playing with campfires. Well, he went to town on this one! Somehow Dave managed to find the biggest single piece of firewood I’ve ever seen – basically it was a portion of a hollowed out tree. With two engineers present, we knew we’d be in for a technical show and it didn’t disappoint. After strategically stacking blocks of firewood to form a base and source of oxygen, the massive hollowed log was placed on the fire pit. It was a spectacle. So much so that it was our single source of conversation for over five hours. I’d say we sat contentedly around the fire discussing it, but I’d be lying. This fire was so hot no one could comfortably sit around it, so most of us spent the night straddling the seats, with our faces and majority of our bodies turned away. After performing a series of ‘scientific’ experiments, and following further research, we found out the fire would have been at least 1500 degrees Celsius (yes, an empty bottle of Crown Royal was completely melted).

Dave has found a beauty... and he knows it!

Green Lake sunset.

Performing important scientific experiments on the fire.

On Sunday afternoon we reluctantly packed up and headed back to Vancouver. On our way home Ben took us all via Purver Canyon for a quick hike and sightsee. It was awesome! While really small, the hike was quite steep so again, another challenging one. I actually got some rope burn on my hands as we descended into the canyon but it was all in good fun. I opted for the bum, hands and feet approach most often which worked well. Conquering Purver Canyon sadly marked the end of our lake cabin weekend. Thankfully for Steven and I, more adventures were just around the corner.

Looking into Purver Canyon ... and we were about to trek down..

Ben further investigates the waterfall ...

Specifically (as most of you would know by now), these adventures included a 10 day trip to Quebec to explore Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and Mont Tremblant, followed by a brief four final days in Vancouver before heading off to Hawaii (the Big Island and Oahu) for two weeks and then returning to Brisbane. Although I am planning (at some stage) to individually blog about these two trips, at present I don't have the time (the beach is calling!) or the inclination to do so. Plus, it would be pointless to bombard everyone with posts they will not read. Instead, my plan is to share one final entry and at a later stage, once I do pen these blogs, I will add them to the Tales.

If you're still interested, once they're done, I'll link them below.

Eastern Canada (coming soon)

Hawaii (coming soon)

Stay tuned for the final installment! x