The Final Countdown

G'day all,

So the end is almost near but we have trying to make the most of our last few weeks and have been doing trail runs on the North Shore in Vancouver, Marty went Mountain Biking with friends in Squamish, Erin went away for a Cabin weekend with friends and Marty went to Washington State for a 50 km trail run.

The first 2 weeks of May were quiet, just doing small hikes and trail runs on Vancouver's North Shore, working and organising our trip. Then midweek, after some creative scheduling at Marty's work, Marty and 3 of his work friends from Reckless went Mountain Biking in the trails around Squamish, about an hour from Vancouver.

On a sunny Thursday morning, Marty and three of his bike shop co-workers, Lee, Hywel and Gordo, went off to Squamish for a day mountain biking.  With sun out we made the most of the dry trails and long days and rode until 8pm before heading to the local brewery for burgers and beers.  The highlight of the day was Marty's first bear siting on the side of one of the access roads on the mountain.

It's a Bear!

Concentration is the key

The next weekend Erin took the Saturday off from work and headed to the Sunshine Coast of BC to stay at a Cabin in the woods with friends from work. The Cabin belonged to someone from work and is on a lake near Egmont, BC. It was such a beautiful place and Erin and 6 friends and Cleo (the dog) sat around and had a relaxing weekend in the forest. The cabin had a fire pit by the water and we spent the first night sitting around the fire and relaxing. Most of the Saturday it rained so it kind of put a dampener on things but we still had a lot of fun, food and a few beverages.

Cabin in the Woods

 

North Lake near Egmont, BC

 

The next weekend was the May long weekend for Victoria Day and it saw Marty head to Winthrop in Washington State with two friends, Nick and Hannah, to do the 50km Sun Mountain Run.
After a 2hr border crossing and then a beautiful drive through the Cascade mountains we arrived in the town of Winthrop, which closely resembled the set of an old western movie. Saturday evening involved setting up camp, burger and beer dinner (I feel there is a pattern here!), and taking photos of the buildings and the young buck that was having a wander through the town as well.

Winthrop, WA

Young Buck

Race day arrived and after a leisurely morning the race started at 10am under beautiful blue skies. The first 30km went quite well, before I started to lag a bit and was having trouble taking in any more food and water.  Hannah, Nick and myself all found ourselves running together for the 30-35km section before Hannah started to put some distance between us.  The big climb of the day was 37-41km and really took a toll, but that left us with a (mostly) downhill run to the finish.  In the end I finished with a time of 5h10min which I was quite happy with. Hannah finished with an excellent time of 5hrs and Nick was only a minute or 2 behind me.  We all left Winthrop quite satisfied with our fun (and tiring) weekend.

I look better than I was feeling

The 2nd last week of May had Erin and Marty both finishing up their jobs and packing and cleaning up to leave Vancouver. Erin finished work at ALS on the Friday after having a farewell lunch and cake in the few days leading up to her last day. (I had a lot of fun at ALS Vancouver and have made so many good friends. The time I had here I thought I could only dream off, it was amazing). Marty finished at Salomon on the Friday as well, after buying a few more pairs of shoes (he now has 6 pairs of Salomon runners). Marty's last day at Reckless Bike Store was on the Sunday.

That Saturday night we had our going away party at Cats Social house Granville Island. We had people from Erin's work, both of Marty's work and Marty's Running Club. We had a very good time and were very happy so many people came out to see us off. We really have been very privileged by the people we have met here in Canada and are already looking forward to returning someday.

The ALS WQ Girls

The next part of our adventure involves a 7 night Alaskan Cruise (leaving May 29th), a 2 week camping trip through the Canadian/American Rocky Mountains, a week in cities on the east coast (Toronto, New York and Boston) followed by 6 weeks through Europe (Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, England, Scotland and Ireland).

We are super excited for the next part of our trip but are also sad to be leaving such wonderful people in such an awesome place. We will always consider Canada, particularly Vancouver, as our second home.

We will keep up with our blog while on our travels.
Cheers, Erin and Marty