Hiking the Chief

Once again this summer we hiked the Squamish Chief except this time we went to the 2nd peak. I had never been there before. We made one mistake though.

Our mistake was eating a whole bunch of food we bought at the grocery store...

...right before trying to hike up to the top of this.

It was a little crazy. My stomach felt like there was a giant stone in it.

We had to stop for a break. Rob's ass was dirty cause he was wearing a leaking camelbak and then I guess he sat down somewhere.

At a later break spot Rob climbed up this rock.

I also climbed the side of the rock but I used my knees which scratched up my legs a bunch.

On the way up the 2nd peak there are a couple narrow parts where some chains offer help.

People were coming down so we had to wait for them.

Here's Adam waiting waaay below.

Here's Rob after hiking through the next narrow section ahead.

The view was just an awesome from the 2nd peak as the 1st.
Also, you can get a good view of the 1st peak.

At the top there were some skinny chipmunks and one
ran right across my back while I was looking down at the view.

Rob and I hiked a little further along the peak to look down from the other end.

Everyone but Adam ran out of water by the peak,
so we hiked down pretty quick to the stream and then took a break.

From there we were pretty quick to get to the parking lot too.
Perhaps next year we will tackle the 3rd peak.

Family events in July

So as usual I am behind on blogging. One excuse is that my camera just spent a week at Murray's house. Anyways, at the end of July most of my family was over here so we got together.

We went to see the fireworks in English bay when Mexico was putting on the show. As usual the beaches were completely covered with people.

That's why we watched them from the grass. Our area still got quite crowded but not until the hour before the show. I biked to Vancouver from school and it took me a couple hours. They also had all their bikes there from biking around Stanley park during the day. We walked over to a Panago and a grocery store and bought some pizza and chocolate milk.

My youngest sister bugged us for about an hour to go swimming with her. In the end, she went for a swim by herself.

The fireworks were the best I have ever seen. There were many different kinds and they all matched the music. I didn't get any really good photos though.

They had times where they shot up lots of golden ones that joined into a giant cloud of glittery gold dust. Getting home after the fireworks was the usual pain in the ass. We walked our bikes to the van that wasn't far away, but then we waited in a lot of line-ups to reach the highway.

A few days later on July 31st was my mom's birthday.

We spent the day at lake Sasamat, where we ate a picnic lunch and relaxed on the beach reading books, playing cards and playing Robo Rally.

My youngest sister, my mom, and I also went for a swim all the way across the lake. After a bit of a rest we then swam back. It was very good exercise and a good idea before the feast that night.

Back at my grandmas we had a big birthday dinner followed by multiple desserts. Rebecca and Eric brought a variety cheesecake which had slices of New York cheesecake, raspberry cheesecake and turtle cheesecake. I had a piece of the turtle and it was amazing. My grandma made an angel food cake to balance things out.