2.8.10

hiking near our house

chilliwack has easy access to world class hiking and i have been able to take advantage of that this summer. in the past 2 weeks, i have gone into the mountains with our friend steve (and kylie), some friends from work, chris and mike, and with aaron, who we just picked up from the airport, straight off the plane from singapore.
our visit with steve was short but fun. we were crunched for time, but still managed to get up into the woods for a stroll up the vedder ridge trail. there is a beautiful section where you can amble through a magical elven forest.

here is kylie laughing while her baby rolls down the steep rock.


the next day chris, mike and i went back up airplane creek to climb mt stewart and revisit baby munday.

the day was seriously clear and gorgeously sunny. the newly melting serc shined a crystalline blue.



our destination ahead. mt stewart.

climbing the initial spire

a view from the top of the next peaks that beckon, foley and welch.


the view to the north

back down and heading to baby munday. we were boot skiing, so chris is waaay ahead at the end of the snowfield, but we caught up in a minute or two.

some hardy flowers, to be so lush in an otherwise barren landscape.

from this side, the correct route up baby munday was obvious, and it was a quick scramble to the peak.

from the top we had a great view of the other side of mt stewart that we had just climbed.

from baby munday we made our way down into the next col, boot skied down to the waiting trail and pinned it back down the slippery steep trail to the waiting 4runner. two peaks and a loop through the alpine, some hiking, some snow travel and some scrambling. what a great day!

finally, our friend aaron flew around the world from singapore to taipei to vancouver. it is nice that, simply by virtue of living close to canada's gateway to the pacific, we are the default family to gently ease aaron through his jet lag.

we did this by staying up late and talking, and stimulating his mind during the new day (his night) with misty alpine environments.
niko, get off the tunnel! you're going to crush us!



i said get off the tunnel!

i took aaron up lady peak, in the cheam range. it was a beautiful hike that turned into a light scramble. it was cloudy, so the views weren't great, but the mist made for a surreal solitary atmosphere.
niko LOVED ripping around on the snowfields. i was a bit concerned about him sliding down the snowslopes, but i needn't have worried. he has four wheel drive with claws (do you remember "the animal" toy monster truck?)
we did some boot skiing on the snow, but niko preferred us walking and kept trying to stop aaron.

all told, it was great to see aaron again, and to see how much he enjoyed ty. we will get to see him one more time before he goes back to distant asia.

10 comments:

shareen said...

such a sweet picture of aaron and ty at the end...love it. granted, you could take a picture of ty with a giant slug (no offense, aaron) and I'd love it. very excited for kylie and ty to come visit in just over a week!

Mama Bear said...

k, i laughed really hard at the commentary and picture of Kylie laughing and Ty rolling down a rock.

Looks like a busy (and FUN) summer! I can't believe how fast Tyrn is growing!

Anonymous said...

Tyrn is so cute in that last picture! No wonder Aaron adores him so much.
Vicky

Katherine said...

no fair! I want to be the gateway to the pacific and the default family for jet lag. Alas, we are the gateway to MOntreal. I'll have to live with that.
I also liked the picture of kylie and the commentary. I laughed and thought, that sounds like something I would do.
Kylie, we have to skype soon. I'll keep it on tomorrow.

m+K said...

thanks for the comments guys, but let's not lose sight of the big picture here. this was a post about beautiful mountains, not about tyrn. please do not allow the paternally inherited looks of our baby to distract you from the pictures of mountains.

also vicky, thanks for introducing me to aaron, or at least for being a cute girl in his math class, which led to him studying with you, which led to him living with me.

shareen said...

paternally inherited...pshaw...Ty has AT LEAST the lower half of Kylie's face! Look at that nose - PURE Kylie.

Oh, nice mountains. But when the last thing we see before commenting is a picture of Ty (okay, AND Aaron) what do you expect us to focus on?

Anonymous said...

Beautiful post! What a lot of hiking you have been doing Marc!!
Kylie, we like your dunce cap:)
We love the pictures of Ty- especially the one with him holding on to Aaron's neck, and of course rolling- agile boy!!!!
Love,
Mum and Dad

AF said...

he really likes the beard. \

marc you should grow one.

m+K said...

Thank you Shareen, thank you! I did not even notice that Marc had written paternally inherited looks. I think he mistyped p when he really meant m.

Karen said...

Hi Marc & Kylie! I am very behind on reading blogs...months behind. Ty is SOOOO cute!!! Looks like you guys are having a fabulous summer with your new little guy. I have to say the baby pics were seriously distracting me from the beauty of the mountains....he's even cute when he's rolling down a hill! A very belated congrats to you guys!