Words by: Brent Hillier   Photos by: Brent Hillier & Eli Relke

Eli Relke and I had set our sights on a big trip for the season, or perhaps a more accurate way of describing it is that I had convinced him it was a good idea. Never the less we decided to get our feet wet with another trip first. So we headed to where many mountain bikers had gone before, the Elfin Lake Hut. Situated in Garibaldi Provincial Park at 1470m, the upper most parking lot is at 950m, which in the winter makes it a very manageable ski tour. In order to give ourselves more of a ride we decided to start our adventure from the city of Squamish at 40m above sea level. We began our climb at about 8:30 and worked our way through some of Squamish's expanded climbing only trail network. At the top of the new climb we hike-a-biked up Cakewalk and saved some time by cutting out a switchback on the road. After a quick lunch we were back to climbing up the road towards the upper parking lot. From there the climb to Red Heathers was slightly more difficult then in the winter with skis. Something both Eli and myself had exclusively only done in that area.

Words by: Brent Hillier   Photos by: Brent Hillier

The concept came while drinking coffee one day at my favourite little spot in Lynn Valley. The End of the Line Cafe has always been a sanctuary from the rain and cold on those wet and miserable North Shore. The type of wet day that by the end of August I’ve come to realize I not only don’t mind but start to miss. While drinking my coffee and letting my mind wander I realized the North Shore was lacking in elevation. Something that when I first moved here 8 years ago I never would have thought. Especially if you asked me that while I was panting at the third switchback on Mountain Hwy.