Trail work, alpine running, and the Chief

Sometimes injuries are a good thing. For instance, in the last 3 days I have been out and done things that I know for sure I would not  have taken the time to do if I were still able to ride a bike.
On Thursday, Gareth was asked if he wanted a free ride in a helicopter in exchange for doing some trail maintenance work....obviously he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity, especially as it involved using pickaxes etc. I decided to walk up the mountain the trail team were getting dropped off on and meet them as they were coming down. It was a ridiculously hot day but the majority of the walk was in dense forest so out of the full force of the sun. I really enjoyed the (steep and long) walk up, moving at a swift pace which was hard work after 3 hours of relentless climbing, but the feeling of being completely alone on a big mountain was great. I did get a bit scared at one point as I remembered that Rainbow Mountain supports a large population of Cougars, and the general advice is not to go hiking alone in areas of known Cougar activity...so I started singing....any big cats that were stalking me would definitely have been scared away at that point! I eventually met up with Gareth and the other Ticket2Ride trail team and turned around to start the equally long walk down...a long but satisfying day!

Friday brought another hot sunny day, so whilst Gareth headed into the bike park with a group of friends, I decided to explore some of the alpine trails with a run. It was only 12km so shouldn't have taken long, however I hadn't realised quite how stunning the views would be! I pretty much stopped every 10 minutes as I came across the next photo opportunity (It was a good excuse to catch my breath too as running uphill at 2000m is definitely harder work than a quick jog in the Rivelin Valley!)
Due to the huge amount of snow this Winter, the alpine trails are only just becoming accessible, and the alpine meadows are like multicoloured carpets of the most amazing flowers, photos really can't do it justice. I finished the run on a huge high, I like running in the mountains :o)
Alpine run pics

Saturday was truck picking-up day...yippee! It all seems to be running well and we are pretty pleased with our purchase :) Instead of wasting the day I persuaded Gareth we should walk up The Chief in Squamish on the way back to Whistler (amazingly he agreed....I think he was looking at it as training for long walks to get to climbs in Yosemite!)
It was AWESOME! The chief is one of the biggest granite monoliths in North America, and it overlooks the beautiful Howe Sound. Again the weather was unbelievably hot and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The top of the chief consists of 3 peaks, and most people only go to the first one. We left this until last and almost had the place to ourselves. Each peak is a huge expanse of rolling granite slab, and the way up to some of them is pretty interesting, involving ladders, chains and generally a lot of scrambling that is quite difficult with only one working hand! Needless to say we took a lot of pictures, so they can be seen (hopefully) on this web album for those that want to.
The Chief

That's all for now, a relaxing day of sunbathing by the lake lies ahead....see ya!