Friday July 21 - Sunshine Coast to Whistler
We left the Painted Boat resort around 10:45am for the 1 hour drive to the ferry at 12:15 - fortunately we left early as we got stuck in a traffic jam on the way. From the ferry (Horseshoe Bay) we drove to Whistler arriving around 4pm after a futile stop in Squamish to do some shopping - I did get a new hair dryer though. Before checking-in to the Embarc resort (fka Intrawest) - we had stopped at the IGA and liquor store to stock up for our final 4 days. Since it was already quite late in the day by the time we settled in, it was time for happy hour and dinner at home.
Saturday July 22 - Whistler
Our first full day at Whistler was cool and drizzly so we opted to spend the morning looking for new hiking boots for me - alas no suitable boots were to be found due the limited selection and everything I tried on was too narrow. We also collected our summer season passes - mine was included in my 2017/2018 ski pass which I had bought a couple of months earlier and Dieter’s cost $70 !!! He needed to wait until after his birthday in January to buy his 2018 ski pass as he will then we eligible for the super senior rate. We had agreed on check-in to attend an Embarc “update session” at 1pm for which they gave us a $150 gift card. The update session was of course a sales pitch to buy more points which we declined - the whole process left us feeling worn out. We walked around for the rest of the afternoon (going over to the Lost Lake trail) then had dinner at The Grill Room at Chateau Whistler - excellent.
Sunday July 23 - Whistler
It was a great day - fairly warm and partly sunny (up to 23℃ in the village but of course much cooler on the summit). We set out at 10am (as soon as the Wizard lift opened) - the village was already busy with a market on the road to the lift and all sorts of activities on offer - aimed at all ages and levels of fitness. We headed up to Blackcombe to do a major hike - the Lakeside + Overlord + Decker tracks - 4+ gruelling hours - congratulations team. The wild flowers were in full bloom - an amazing site. The only wildlife we saw were 2 marmots right at the Rendezvous. Back down in the village we stopped at Milestones for happy hour then stayed home for dinner.
Monday July 24 - Whistler
A totally sunny and warm day - high 20’s. At 10am - we took the Wizard and Solar Coaster up Blackcombe - right under the Solar Coaster I spotted black bear - just grazing on the abundant wild flowers - Dieter did not have his camera ready so all he got was a bum shot. From Blackcombe we took the Peak-2-Peak over to Whistler then a short hike to the Peak Express chair (which only opens at 11am). The people were steaming up as this is the highest point you can reach in summer. From the top the vistas are amazing. Dieter was “keen” to do one of the major hikes from the summit but it was only partly open (ie there was a detour) with some snow cover - after consulting with one of staff we elected not to do it (the estimate was 5 hours with a number of very tricky sections). There was still and amazing amount of snow up on Whistler - some snowbanks were more than 3 meters high. So we just took the trail back down to the Roundhouse (ie where the P-2-P ends) - about an hour and a half. Since it was now 12:30 we tried to go to Steeps for lunch but it was closed for a private function - instead we took the P-2-P back to Blackcombe and had lunch at our old favourite, Christine’s. In the past 2 years Christine’s has gone more up-market and is now quite exxy - we still had an enjoyable light lunch. We had planned another walk but changed our mind and took the P-2-P then the Whistler gondola back to the Whistler village for happy hour at the Dub Lhin - another old favourite. While riding the gondola down we realised where all the bikes were - they were streaming up and down a large network of bike trails - some looked very advanced. Back over to Blackcombe I stopped at CanSki and snagged 2 Bogner polos at about 70% off.
Tuesday July 25 - Whistler to home
We left Whistler by bus to the airport - the trip took a lot longer than expected due to heavy traffic. We checked-in for our 11:50pm AC flight home then took the train to the city for a final dinner at Cin Cin - due to our late arrival at the airport it was all a bit rushed. We had an uneventful flight home - trying mainly to get some sleep.