Meg's & Lon's Magnificent Adventure: Day 10 Whistler

Day 10

The plan was after all our research was to get up early and be in the Village by 9ish to go snow shoeing. Unexpectedly, we had a very social evening the night before and finished chatting to our new friend (fellow Caboolture Teacher Micalah) at approximately 2am…. This followed by a very later breakfast/brunch which all was more social than planned with four of us nattering away for 3 hours. Hence we arrived in the village around 2pm.

After a quick visit to the information centre to get directions to Lost Lake and the Cross Country Ski and snow shoe hire. We completed the brisk walk in very cold windy conditions with precariously icy walkway. We arrived safely – no spills or slips – what can go wrong?…….

Step One – hire snow shoes. Check

Step Two – sign your life away (indemnities are really popular here).

Step Three – collect map and short induction on easiest to hardest trails

Step Four – attach snow shoes and a quick warning from staff “Just don’t get lost”

Which trail……

Red beginner – which we were having never worn snow shoes before … can’t be that difficult?!?

Blue intermediate with some hills – but wait the orange is only 2km longer – we can do that no worries.

Orange it is – find the right sign/flag and off we set on photo opportunity adventure. We did not cover any great distance in the first hour, we took an incredible amount of photos though. Make sure you check out our amazing action shots. Finding it very relaxing in the forrest with a break from the bitingly cold wind and the hustle and bustle of civilisation, we found a look out spot with a dedicated seat to some other ‘like’ soul and lived in the moment for a while……. about 20 mins.

Elona typing

Whilst enjoying the views and the zen of it all…we decided that a quick look at the trail map might be called for and just as well really….hhhmmmm….we actually hadn’t gone that far and had about 5 km’s to go. This is at 3pm ish: this is the time the sun starts to mosey on down. We moved on…took some more photos, a little video and then all this nature got to me; as did the Chai Latte I had before I left and didn’t have a wee break before heading off. We again looked at the map…all good there is an out house just round the next bend ish….that ish was many bends and about 2km out of our way- this is when I decided that I was going to be one with nature…very zen; and peed behind a tree. There were many yellow areas around trees; this obviously could be evidence of people like me OR the dogs that share the trail??!! Anyway my ass cheeks will never forgive me!!!! Oh my god it was cold BUT did you know the stream makes a perfect little whole with no run off – how cool is that?!?!

On we go…”Isn’t it pretty with light going down!” hhhmmmm…..oh crap the light is going down get that bloody map out again – “How far do we still need to go?” I ask. We were about half way – fabulous. Such seasoned travellers as ourselves we had water and head lamps – NOT. Crap again and when it became impossible to find our footing in the forrest we decided it was best we stick to the cross country lit runs. Oh this is much better – quite a few people as this was half price night skiing…much better UNTIL “Let’s look at that map again – what’s the quickest way?” Just as bloody well we looked as we were going in entirely the wrong direction and had to retrace our last half an hours worth of steps.

Megs Typing

Steps retraced, location, a place called ‘The Warming Hut’, excellent maybe we can get directions. We traipsed up the stairs in our snow shoes (not an easy manoeuvre), Elona unbuckled snow shoes and went in to investigate. Hey just a bunch of 10 year old children – fantastic!!!!!! Elona skipped down the stairs and slipped back into her snow shoes whilst I navigated the stairs in snow shoes (up the stairs was not easy and down the stairs was just ridiculous). Right- do we admit defeat and call the hire place from the public phone outside? Maybe we would have if they had thought to put their phone number on the map instead they had the phone numbers for other companies they were advertising for – NOT clever.

Back to the maps…must have looked a wee bit perplexed as a couple of cross country skier stopped to ask if we needed help. Then gave us dubious instructions – joke on us. We did stop to consult the map at one point and Elona in her very trusting way, was adamant to follow the previously given instructions. Again we walked a little (only about 300 metres) in the wrong direction. We were put straight by a lovely lady (really I think she was trying to get our snow shoes off the groomed runs – fast) and off we set, in the right direction for the last 1.3 km to the hire place.

Arriving safe and sound and just a little dehydrated we purchased Powerades paid for our hire equipment and park ticket: $25 each – which was really good for 4 hours and a fun afternoon followed by an even more precarious walk back to the village. Seriously these people need to invest in more salt on their pathways – I think this is probably where most accidents happen – not on the mountain!

Arrived back, cooked a lovely dinner and settled down to another social evening of hilarity with Nick and Micalah. Not a late night though early to rise in the morning as we had organised to go Zip trekking with Micalah tomorrow.

Photos