I had been to Whistler twice previously, both last year. Once in February where I hosted an instameet with @theexpeditioners where we had a number of people come out and join us, for some hiking, winter camping and more fun! I was invited out again in May to host a meet up with @gowhistler with a number of other influencers during May long weekend. We hiked and explored some different lakes in the area, took the gondola up with @whistlerblackcomb and enjoyed the Gofest. Oh and can’t forget about the delicious food we indulged in, in the village!

I was so happy to be back this year, but this time with my boyfriend @mitchirvine13 . We ended our two week road trip with four day/three nights in the area: mountain biking, hiking, eating :p and sightseeing in the area! We spent our first night camping at Cal Cheak campground just a few minutes out of town and then our last two with @summitlodge right downtown in the village.

Our first night at Cal Cheak was awesome, we sat around the fire and bbqd! Chatted about how stoked we were to get out on the hill with @whistlerblackcomb for some mountain biking, in their world renowned bike park. My boyfriend @mitchirvine13 had been talking about this bike parks for MONTHS leading up to our time there and me being a newbie to the sport went along with it. I am a roadbiker/runner and thought to myself, ‘How hard can it really be?’ Welllll I can tell you its definitely different then road biking! But nothing like a good challenge, right?!

I may have been outnumbered in the park 1:20, female to male ratio but hey that’s okay! There are so many different runs, from green, to blue, black to double black… Trails for all levels of riders and I felt very comfortable on the hill. May have took one bad tumble but that’s all part of the sport.  My boyfriend Mitchell was super patient with me and supportive the whole time… Like I am with him when were are hiking :p haha (Which is def more my ‘thing’). As time goes on I will surely become more confident on a bike and perhaps a little more fearless.

The bike park was open 10am-8pm, we got suited up in all our protective gear and got our bike rentals from the shop early in the morning. Full helmet, shin guards, elbow pads, gloves and all! I felt ready to go! Being a Sunday, it was very busy but the lines were quite long but it gave be time to break and hydrate myself after every run. We broke for lunch at 2 at a restaurant patio right before the hill and were able to have a drink and eat some grub as we watched the other riders come down. Not a bad place to be!

We didn’t end up making it right till 8… We were off the hill at like 6 as my hands were cramping, back and rear end after many hours out riding. But soo fun!! Slow and steadily I will get better, I just need to get out more. My boyfriend couldn’t stop talking about how much fun it was. He could sit and watch those riders for hours, or could be out there everyday all day and NEVER get tired of it, then again he grew up riding dirtbikes/mountain bikes!

The next day we woke up and the sky’s were grey and forecast in the alpine was rain and cloud… but we stuck to our itinerary and hit the peak-to-peak gondolas for a day of adventure up in the mountains. We were praying for things to clear up, as we looked up and saw the peaks covered in cloud.  We both had never been on the peak-to-peak 360 gondola before… which ended up being SUPER awesome, even with the crazy weather.

It was also ‘eerie’ as you can see from the photos. We surely made the best of it. We got off at the Rendezvous restaurant, and scouted out some trails. There are over 50km of hiking/running trails available to anyone up there!

We got our rain gear on and headed out on the ‘Alpine Walk‘ trail, which connected to the overload trail, then onto the lakeside loop, where we made our way to Blackcomb Lake! We took photos along the way, made a couple pit stops to just enjoy, and then stopped at the lake for a while!

Despite the rain and conditions we ran into a surprisingly high number of people on the trail! It was great to see so many people getting out and enjoying the trails. We retraced our way back and had lunch at The Rendezvous restaurant, YUM!

We then headed back down and enjoyed the rest of the day in the village. We checked out some shops and explores some of the local paved trails, along the creek and then headed to Brandywine falls! I had been a couple times but Mitchell had yet to see the falls.

After two long days of biking, hiking and sightseeing it was always so nice to come back to a hot shower and comfortable beds at @summitlodge! They provided such great hospitality during our two nights stay and I already can’t wait to be back. Oh and their bath robes – sooooo cozy. We sat out on the deck both nights in them and just enjoyed the view and each others company, chatting about what we had done those days!

I hope its not over a year again until we return to Whistler!