Strength for Two

I was breathing pretty heavy at the beginning of the hike and was trying not to be too concerned about that. I was focusing on the ground, following Kayla's lead - For me, if a hike was difficult, it was easier to not think about anything other than keeping up with the other person. Our destination was just over five kilometers and, while trying to pace my breathing, I kept telling myself that I've done longer and harder hikes, but really, all I could hear was my heavy inhale and exhales and my heart thudding loudly between my ears.  This is allowed to be hard, I reminded myself. This was the first hike I've committed to being a hundred percent self-sufficient. With both of us having busy schedules (for fun and for work) Kayla and I had committed to hiking Raven Lake weeks ago, and I asked if I could borrow her smaller tent as I would like to try my heart at carrying all of my belongings on my own back. With any overnight hike, I would split the weight of the tent, fuel and the Jetboil, used for cooking, with whoever I hiked with, but this time Kayla and I had two of everything.

Despite the previous getaways and working on house renos, I had been working out and being active on the regular. I committed to gym workouts up at the mine as well as getting 10,000 walking steps in daily, which felt pretty impossible give my sedentary desk job and a 12-hour workday. The trick was to have an audio book and only allow myself to listen to it when walking. There was a trail at the mine that I was walking on in the 5:30PM darkness (thank you winter) and listened to a lot of Kristin Hannah books. I never encountered any wildlife. Or maybe I did and didn't hear it. I was also using our workout room when I was on my weeks at home. I was feeling really good about my strength and my body, and thought hiking Raven Lake with my life fully on my back was a good challenge. 

The trail moved uphill, but also leveled out after each switchback, which provided a welcomed relief. As a distraction, I kept picking, chewing and then spilling out dried up huckleberries. It was a fairly popular trail as there was a new cabin that you could reserve a bed at, and I was looking forward to cooling off at the lake. The hardest part is when the trail started going back downhill, simply for the sake of going uphill again. Finally, with shaky legs and sweaty backs, we saw wooden tent pads. I dropped my backpack and dug around inside of it to find food. Hiking food is my favorite food. It's not something I skimp on in quantity or quality. And the dehydrated meals taste amazing. I don't know if it's due to altitude, exhaustion or replenishing my salt content, but I just can't get enough of those dinners. Tonight was lasagna noodles with dehydrated meat. 

Kayla and I put up our tents - her pole broke, so we used our imagination to get her set up so her and her dog Ryley slept comfortably, and then did some exploring. There was a ridge we could have continued to make our way towards, and I bet Kayla was game (please note, she carried a bigger tent and dog food amongst other things I did not), but I was exhausted and just wanted to take a look around. We followed a trail that meets up with the Grizzly Den trail, where there's another cabin, and Kayla and I started talking about this hiking option this time next summer. We followed the trail and I felt so light on my feet without my backpack, and ended up making our way towards the water. Both of us stripped down and entered the water. It was so refreshingly and wonderfully cold. There is something so cleansing about swimming in ice cold lake water in the middle of the forest after a hard hike. It immediately takes your breath away, but you just can't get out yet. It's rejuvenating, almost like a new second start. We stayed in long enough that the rocks no longer hurt our feet while going to the shore. 

After more exploring and admiring the cabin, we sat down and played Go Fish, the only card game we could remember, while I sipped a hot chocolate (something that it overly sweet at home, but on the mountain, I love). We made our way into each of our tents long before dark where I read and fell asleep bloated and gassy thanks to the dehydrated meals that I can't help but love. 

The following day, after instant oatmeal with artificial and delicious fruit-like flavoring, we slowly made our way back down the hill, chatting about our next hiking trip and catching the views that I seemed to have missed on the way up yesterday, when I was in survival mode focusing on my footsteps rather than my surroundings.

Kayla and I agreed to hiking Mount Robson at the end of September, which is an incredibly well-known multiday hike in Northern, BC. Kayla had hiked the first section, I believe in both summer and winter, that ended at the majestic Kinney Lake, and we were looking forward to seeing the roaring Emperor Falls, which would take about three nights to get to. I had mentally made a list of some other things I wanted to do outside which included getting more into trail running and snowshoeing Livingston Springs come winter.

At the time of the hike, that was probably the healthiest I have ever been mentally; I gave my notice at the mine because they weren't able to accommodate mine and Mike's schedule, as he started there in July and wouldn't put us on the same rotation, which meant that we would literally never see each other. After three years in camp, I was ready to find a job where I could walk to work and end my workday or at least start my workday, in the sunshine. I was sad to go, but during my time I learned so much in the Human Resources world and I was able to create solid boundaries between my work-life and personal-life. I was in a better place, mentally, with my body, where I wasn't hyper-fixated on what I what I ate. With upping my workouts and being more active, I've been eager to push my body to the limits to see how much I've grown.

August 4, 2025: Two days after our hike had pumped me up, knowing I haven't been in this strong and this healthy since in a long time, we found out some wild and exciting news. 

February 14, 2026: After pushing my mind and body to a whole new level for the past 32 weeks, I've come to understand what my body is truly capable of.

Kirstin

I know that my body is working perfectly.

Slayin' Rainbows

June 20, 2025

We had planned this trip for some time, but I had suggested cancelling. I argued that the pressures of buying a third fixer' upper, which meant essentially purchasing Mike a job, while our black house in Vanderhoof still had some minor finishing touches (who needed closet doors and things like railing for the stairs anyways). I was working a 7x7 rotation in Camp funding two mortgages and everything that went with that. Mike justified continuing said planned adventure because we had already committed to it his Dad and Uncle, who graciously adjusted the annual Father's Day trip to accommodate camp life, so right out off camp, off we went, fishing on Eutsuk Lake.

In 2022, right before we left for Thailand, Mike half-hazardly mentioned that his buddy Burt was selling his old fishing boat. She was an oldy, but a goody and had a hard top that you could suntan on. With very strong rum and coke in hand, Burt took me for a tour of the boat appropriately named Giver 'er Time, and I was sold - well, she was sold and we purchased. Mike failed to mention that his truck at the time wasn't actually big enough to pull the ol' 24 foot gal, and so she lived on my sister's front yard, mere meters from Stuart Lake, the following summer, but that's a story for another time. Needless to say, we've had some really good times on her, and I had no idea I would love owning a boat. With the convenient layout of the cabin, she was essentially a camper on the water. Mike installed a diesel generator for the chilly spring adventures, and finally I felt like I owned a tiny home, which has always been a want of mine.

The fishing adventure began well before the destination as we drove about a coffee fueled hour and a half and then took the Francois Lake Ferry, a 15-minuet sail, to the community of South Bank. We drove an additional hour to launch our boat from Andrews Bay into Whitesale Lake where we met up with the full crew in three other boats containing Mike's Aunt, Uncle and Cousin, Mike's Cousin and Wife and Mike's Parent's and two friends were in the third boat. As we first entered the lake, we slowly kickered ourselves through a maze of rocks that protected us from the rougher open waters, and the excitement of our four-night boat adventure hit me better than any drip coffee has; any thoughts of a third home-buyers remorse, HR Mine Life stressors and Mike and my domestic disagreements over renos became a thing of the past as he lowered the leg of our boat into the water and gave Giv'er Time some love as we pleasantly (and surprisingly) watched the front end of our boat come out of the water, getting us on step, 10 jerry cans of additional weight and all.

While sipping beverages during the hour long boat ride, we had to pay particular attention to this portion of trip, as Alcan's Nechako Revisor is known for challenging conditions, including high winds and 'dead heads': floating debris and drowned trees from intentional flooding in the 1950s to create the revisor. Luckly, weather was on our side and it was a relatively calm day so we could find and avoid any concerns or visible blips in the water, while following buoys, keeping us safe from the drowned tress, which looked oddly like red and green wine bottles floating in the water.

One of the stars of the show included a portage needed to get us and our boats to our final destination. I've heard about this portage many times from the annual Father's Day Fishing Trip, but I was speechless upon seeing the portage itself. There is a land barrier between Whitesale Lake and Eutsuk Lake, which is the beginning of Tweedsmuir Provincial Park - which is where the Pine Beetle takeover bagan - Over 550 meters, which had a cabin, an information area and a couple of outhouses built between each water source. We were expected to move our boat onto a wooden structure on wheels that's fully submerged in the lake. The boat leans against the railing of the structure, and the security of gravity and the weight of Mike and I standing on the edge of the boat are expected to make sure the boat is secured to the railing.  A quad pulls us and the boat 550 meters across land and into Eutsuk Lake. It was the jankest set up I've ever seen, and our boat, besides being our priceless survival mechanism deep in the wilderness, was a single digit thousands compared to the King Fisher Boats that accompanied us, and were expected to take the same, saving grace, half-a-K portage. with some minor slip ups (pun literally intended), all four boats made it successfully across. 

The weather in Eutsuk Lake was gorgeous and calm, especially for early spring. It didn't take long before we were reeling in rainbow fish, larger than I've ever seen in person, let alone caught. The lake is well known throughout North America for having large rainbow, 10lbs and larger. From what I recall, my biggest fish during the trip was 8lbs 7oz, but Mike's cousin Becca, was over 9lbs. 

The evenings were spent with four boats on shore, resting on tiny orange pebbles as we shared stories and beverages around a campfire, each family retiring to their own boat in the evenings. There was Pondosy Bay Cabins further down the lake, but something about pit toilets and old firepit rings at our boat access campsite was so much more desirable. There was a short, but steep hiking trail close to where our boats sat ashore, where the view of the water and four boats side-by-side made me, once again, appreciate the group of people in my life who became my family when I became Mike's. 

Those uninterrupted fishing days were wonderful, and probably my favorite adventure on our boat yet. On one of the days out fishing, Mike and I jumped in the glacial fed lake and I very quickly washed the grime off as it was impossible to catch my breath in the icy water or feel my toes for the mere minuets it took to rinse off the suds. With the dopamine of essentially polar bear swimming combined with the buzz of craft beer and spring sunshine, we reeled up our lines and headed of the middle of the lake, to allow us some time for the boat to float in gentle circles as we wordlessly decided to try a third time for tiny human. 

Kirstin 

Happiness is a big fish (and a witness!).

Vancouver, you have my heart

When I think of Vancouver, I think of the only place I ever spent time at: the Vancouver International Airport. I have a regular routine of walking the long terminals from end to end of A, B and C. I avoiding the escalators to get my steps in before boarding whatever long-ass flight I'm waiting for. If open, I'll check out the Lululemon pop up shop (and buy nothing, because Lulu new is too expensive for my blood). Finally, I'll order a latte with a spinach, feta wrap from Starbucks and find a quiet area to do yoga. Any other time I think of Vancouver, I think of unaffordable and insane housing prices and a concrete jungle of skyrises and busy, dirty streets, perhaps with only slightly more greenery than Calgary, which, after living there for 10 years, I don't have much love left for the city. Or any city, really.

The only time I saw Vancouver in a positive light is when I came across a video clip that I sent to my friend Kayla and her sister Kandus on our group chat about an array of hikes, one of which included the Vancouver's infamous Grouse Grind. Below the clip, I messaged them that I want to hike it. In true Kayla fashion - ever the planner - she asked us when the best time to go was, and suddenly flights were booked and a hotel was reserved. Kayla once told me that if we don't commit immediately, everyone will only talk about it and the adventure would never happen, and I agree, talk is cheap. As a fellow planner who regularly checks off life-list trips, I was ecstatic to have someone else to organize, and who rather enjoyed taking her and her partner weekending in Vancouver, so she had lots of recommendations for our own weekend adventure.

I mostly travel solo, so it was a relief to go somewhere that I didn't have to prepare mentally for (traveling isn't always fun and often it can be stressful), since other people were familiar and comfortable with the surroundings, and because I only have a handful of friends in the Vanderhoof area (as a very introverted person, I have a small, close circle of people in my life, other who are close to my heart are often far away), it was extra exciting to go somewhere with two of them. I've also come to realize that for me, traveling means being outdoors, and often hiking. (For Mike, traveling means the ocean and snorkeling). So, since I had my one adventure planned: hiking the Grouse Grind, my cup was full and I was excited to enjoy whatever else someone else planned.

Our hotel was downtown and just off Davie Street, which is the city's primary gay village, so it was rainbow sidewalks and good vibes all 'round. With seeking out restaurants and sites, that stretch became so familiar to me that it became a comfort to find the street after a long day of exploring. The first thing Kayla and I did was walk to and then around Stanley Park. With the old growth trees and beautiful greenery everywhere, it felt impossible that we were still inside a city. Cedar trees are something I always appreciate. Sometimes I wish we lived west of Vanderhoof, perhaps in Terrace, where hiking paths are plentiful and cedars are everywhere in the old growth forest. That tree scent highlighted by sunshine you come across deep in the forest is my favorite smell; if I could bottle that scent, I would. We came across a rose garden, although a bit more sparse than usual given the time of year, we walked around the various types of roses snapping photos and smelling the different colours, trying to determine which gave off the nicest scent.

On one particular venture we found a breakfast place called Portraits that had the best Latte I've ever had in my life. Shamelessly I went there for the next few mornings to get my caffeine fix. They also served a Turkish style breakfast that had a green yoghurt base with poached eggs and spicey chorizo, surrounded in baby tomatoes and drizzled in spicey chili paste. I've actually made it at home a few times, with crusty sourdough bread and it's quite satisfying.

My friend Lisa, who full circled back to the Vancouver area (she's a Surrey girl now, but was raised in Victoria), after living in Prince George and Montreal for multiple years, came downtown to visit me. I've missed her terribly since she's relocated to a place that makes her heart happy. It was a bit of a revelation when, after so much time struggling to fit into places she was too small for, she quit her job, ended her lease a month early and walked away from her personal life and moved back to where she belonged. It was great getting caught up over sushi; Despite regular phone dates, nothing makes up for face-to-face life pondering conversations.

Kayla, Kandus and I also rented bikes to ride the seawall, where never have I enjoyed something so touristy in British Columbia. We were surrounded by other people while zooming down the cement paths and still truly enjoyed the ride that took us through the beauty of Stanley Park, along many bays and gave us a daunting view of the Grouse Grind. The sunny views and breeze made for a great time. 

We got up early the following morning and stopped at Starbucks to grab the initially mentioned breakfast and beverage, enjoying breakfast as the Uber drove us to the beginning of the Grouse Grind. In all honesty, I was pretty nervous; it's a 2.5km Grind with an 800 meter elevation gain. Essentially, the hike is immediately all steps: wooden strips of lumber transition into uneven natural rocks with unsuspecting roots, which feel more common as time goes on. The amount of people surrounding me was a lot, as this is quite naturally a popular trek - some people incorporate it in their work out and do it daily. But, it was surprisingly nice to have company during the struggle as people passed me forever or we leapfrogged each other to the top. at one point I could see the city through a silhouette of trees. It was uniquely beautiful. Kayla Kandus and I hiked our own Grouse Grind, so we met up again at the top, all sweat and smiles. Afterwards we went to a petty high end Italian restaurant Kayla was raving about, and I had my fill of well-deserved fancy pasta, contently eating in my sweat and salt-stained hiking clothes.

I finished the hike in two hours, and the accomplishment in itself was enough to not feel the need to do it again, but I plan to return to Vancouver. Mike and I talked about a weekend escape a couple of times, but during the winter I'd rather stay up North and enjoy the snow, rather than endure the rain. There are so many other hikes I'd like to do in and around Vancouver. The only regret I have about going to Vancouver is that I never swam in the ocean, and easily, I could have. Adventuring with Kayla and Kandus in the city was a great life choice.

Kirstin

Now is the right time for an adventure.

East Coast Adventuring

May 21, 2025

My mum mentioned on our group messenger between her, my two sisters and I that she had a West Jet buddy pass that was expiring soon, so I jumped on it. The last time I went on a trip with my mum, it was when Megan, mum and I went to Hawaii in August, 2022. I thought it would be fun to explore Eastern Canada where we could spend some time with my high school best friend, Carol, who lives in Nova Scotia and who my mum knows quite well, as well as visit my friend Laura who lives New Brunswick.

I was researching and getting ideas of places to visit from friends and people who both visited and previously lived in Eastern Canada, and when I asked my mum if she had anything specific, she wanted to see or do, she happily she was up for anything and that she'd just go with the flow. So, my goal of the trip was to spend as much time outside as possible.

This is one of the few times I've traveled having my own source of transportation, and what a luxury it was to stop and go wherever we pleased, instead of being restricted to what we saw due to proximity of location or someone else's schedule (aka public transit). After a night at an Airbnb close to the airport, we left Halifax, without ever actually going into the city since the airport is located outside of it, which I thought was no love lost, and went on a walk around Scots Bay, which was a 7KM path we followed that enclosed us in trees, but gave us a preview of some of the gorgeous views we would see over the next few days in both provinces, as there were lookout areas that gave us views to the water. This was the first of many trekking adventures on our trip.

On our way to Carol's, we drove through several towns that all seemed to blend into one another or were separated by large plots of lands for vegetable crops come summer and orchards of apples and other fruits. The houses had character that you rarely see in British Columbia, being that they're so much older and have the Victorian style rather than the contemporary repeat box styles. 

Carol is how I got into running. Most of our time in high school together was spent jogging throughout our hometown in Greenwood, BC, or walking uptown. We completed our first half marathon together when we both when to university in Calgary. She also chose me to be her maid of honor when she married her husband. We spend a couple days at Carol's house, and we got caught up on each other's life. It was so wonderful getting to know her three tiny humans with snippets of conversations and painting nails. Carol and her husband moved to Novia Scotia where she matched for her residency and has since become a General Physician. This province is now their home. Getting caught up with Carol was good for my soul; She knew so much about me throughout high school and university, it was nice to see how far I've grown from my youth. When asking questions about Mike, as they have yet to meet, she reminded me that Mike has crossed all the things off of my No List: no marriage, no house, no children. It made me laugh about how sure I was about myself when I was 18 and even 29, the year before Mike and I met.

This trip was also focused on food: we enjoyed popular local apples, which were huge and crisp. We also tried the famous crab bun, which is locally caught snow crab smothered in dill-mayonnaise and put into a hoagie style bun - amazing. While waiting to catch our ferry to head over to New Brunswick, we ate large local sea scallops in Digby. They were really good, and I couldn't resist sending a picture of our meal to Mike (his favorite seafood), but honestly, my favorite part of the meal was the Waldorf salad.

Our last stop before getting catching the ferry was Annapolis Royal, scoring great lattes and then purchasing the coffee beans from that cafe, and walking around this historical site.  The history of Novia Scotia is incredible, as it's so much older than the Westcoast. The town of Annapolis Royal was known as Port-Roal in 1605. In 1613 it was seized by the British and then in '32 was restored to France by treaty. Acadia was ceded to Britain in 1713, and Port-Royal was re-named Annapolis Royal. They used the natural contours of the land to build trench like areas and the water sources was a perfect was to view and take down boats. It then served as the centre of military and administrative operations for the new British colony of Nova Scotia until 1749 when Halifax became the provincial capital. I'm really big into reading historical fiction, specifically WWII, so to see how much Canada has been through was a gentle reminder to think about our own history and our concerning future. 

Laura's house was a lovely old white farmhouse with a wraparound porch situated on a few acres of land on a remote backroad - ironically a few hundred meters from a brewery and pizza place.  With two cats and two dogs, the inside of her house was anything but the quiet and calm that the exterior of the house gave off, it was pure, happy chaos, with the best of vibes. I met Laura that time I spent a ski season in Golden, BC when I was 27, as my upstairs neighbor for all of 30 days (both of us relocated to different rentals), she asked me to look after her and split the costs of wifi. After that, we spend many a days driving red wine, discussing feminism and politics and eating homemade mac and cheese. In Golden, my work life was awful, but my personal life was never more fun, between the nurse friends I seemed to have accumulated and the weekends of cross-country skiing and snowboarding. No only did I meet Laura's pets, but I met her husband. With ciders in hand, reminisced over our Golden Days, and discussed the current events of the world. I forgot just how much I had in common with my red headed friend, and how much I missed having her in my life.

We continued on stopping at a hike that I had found on google maps called Eye of the Needle where there was several trekking and walking paths in the area. There was an information booth nearing the ending stages of renovations, but an employee came out in a state of concern when we mentioned wanting to complete this hike. The sight of my mum and I in our burks and leggings sans coats made him leery about providing us directions to the trail head, explaining that the difficulty of the hike and the unpreparedness of the hikers have lead to more hele-vacs that he'd care to count. We laughed as we slowly made our way down the trail, as the gradual slopes became ever steeper, where we were offered ropes and chains to hold onto, and the sounds of running water became less distant.  The moss-covered scenery was beautiful, certainly my favorite hike of the handful of adventures we went on that week. We followed a creak that ebbed and flowed as the volume of the water increased at times. Finally, we came to some warning signs as the path lead right into the water. Apparently being "up for anything" did not include rock hopping through a river in order to get to the end of whatever the Eye of the Needed meant. Mum was a complete trooper as we make our way back to the car, which meant climbing the steep accent where the slippery rocks were makeshift stairs and you left with no other option of going onto all fours to make your safely up the incline. 

Slowly we made our way back to the took the long way back to New Brunswick where we drove the roads that parallelled the Bay of Fundy and the beautiful views that it held. I had a great time exploring Canada with my mum and completely recommend my BC and Alberta peeps to go east on their next adventure. Canada has so much to offer, and vacations don't always have to be Mexico bound. I plan to return to hike parts of the East Coast Trial in Newfoundland. Maybe mum will be up for coming on that trek. 

Kirstin

There's no time to be bored in a country as beautiful as this.