We spent most of our time in Bellingham doing laundry, eating a whole pizza (and most of the lucky charms at the continental breakfast) and getting the windshield replaced.
We crossed the border near Vancouver but our only stop was Costco, where we found out that Canadian Costco only takes Mastercard (this was very disappointing). We did pick up 30 california sushi rolls with some CAD and moved on.
Our campsite was at Nairn Falls, just north of Whistler. It was a nice campground, so we decided to try to stay for three nights to address a gap in our itinerary created by the Jasper fire. We ended supremely lucky because our exact site became available for a third night.
The first hike in the area was to Iceburg lake, which was quite pretty but apparently the bugs thought so too. We took an additional connector trail that brought us to another lake and some nice meadows before turning into an annoyingly inefficient mountain biking trail.
We were not aware that the most popular trails in the Whistler area require parking reservations, so this limited our options for day 2. Despite being a little tired, we decided to do the Wedgemont lake trail. This was aggressively uphill – more of a rock and root scramble than trail – but absolutely stunning. We went past the first lake to a second higher lake and then up to a glacier and an ice tunnel. Rocks were steadily falling due to the melting ice, prompting us to head back down.
This area pleasantly surprised us. It was very accessible for day hiking, but we know there is huge area that is less developed and would be perfect for longer backpacking trips. Had we known the extent of the smoke and fire conditions near Kootenay we probably would have stayed another night.
Not Sew Fancy Travels 