It's summerrrr!

Yesterday was GLORIOUS! Glorious and wonderful and beautiful and HOT and awesome!

Summer FINALLY decided to kick in, and what better way to enjoy it than a hike high above Indian Arm, then a swim and a BBQ with a big gang of fabulous people???

NO better way, that's what!

I did this hike last year, too, and I seem to recall thinking that it was a brutal hike for the first one of the season. Didn't seem to learn my lesson though, as I re-did it this year! It didn't really help that we took the wrong path up and ended up scaling the side of a cliff for what seemed like FOREVER. Seriously. It was steeeep. Like, don't-look-down-or-you'll-get-vertigo kind of steep. But after we hauled our butts to the top, the hike along the top of the ridge was beauteous - ten views (Diez Vistas!) out over the water: Deep Cove, Balcarra Park, various islands, and tiny boats down below zipping around helter-skelter, leaving little white trails of wake behind them.

It was so good to be outside, out in the mountains. The smell of hot dirt and dry moss baking in the sunshine, and damp forest floor and cool breezes along the shaded parts of the trail - it was so good to be outside, far from worries and cares and responsibility.

And of course, every hike needs a little bit of adventure... kinda like taking a wrong turn, stopping to figure out where we were, and seeing a large black bear lumbering through the clearing - coming out from the trail we were just on, and heading back into the bush right where one person had run along ahead to check where exactly this part of the trail led to. Hmmm...

A few tense moments, but all turned out fine, and we carried on our merry way - albeit a little more jumpy every time we heard a twig break or a leaf rustle!

After the 15-18km hike (we're not really sure given all the... er... "alternate routes" we took), we were well ready for a dip in the lake. It being the first Saturday that school was out, and the first hot day in who knows HOW long, the park and lake were teeming with people. We took a quick dip (cause the lake was fuh-REEEEZING) and grabbed our coolers from the cars for a BBQ.

Everybody pause whilst Hillary sighs happily: haaaaaaahhhh!

Hair damp, tummies full, legs tired, and faces slightly sunburned, we packed up as the sun was starting to dip behind the mountain, smoke from dozens of BBQs catching the rays of sunlight filtering though the trees, voices and splashing and laughter still filling the park.

Dessert at Mario's Gelato back in Vancouver was the perfect ending to this day, the gateway to summer.

Here's to many more days like this.....