This BC (British Columbia) Day long weekend I explored Whistler by bike. I am normally a wuss when it comes to heart pumping adrenaline but luckily I found a way to escape the gruelling hills!

I began my journey from the Westin Whistler & Spa (you might remember my stay from last time) where there are bike rentals available for about $24 per 2 hours.
I made my way down towards Alta Lake on the advice of a local then decided to keep going towards Rainbow Park then deciding to head towards Lost Lake to make it back to Whistler Village.
You’ll see some amazing things along the way from rock carvings, inukshuks (aka inuksuk), to snow capped mountains set against a meadow.

The nerd in me imagines the settlers traversing the terrain with great difficulty. Studying Canadian art history I remember the accounts of artists hired to capture the beauty of the landscape purposely omitting the dense forests prospective settlers would have to hack their way through. Now it is peaceful and paved more importantly. I imagine Whistler as well as all of British Columbia seemed like the wild Canadian Machu Picchu – the last untamed province to be discovered, hidden by treacherous mountains that still scare my family from Saskatchewan today. But the fact is I wouldn’t live anywhere else in Canada. I love the mountains and find myself shrugging at a flat landscape devoid of them. I love the fact that I live in what was once considered the horrific yet gorgeous sublime as the European art world painted it. It’s full of culture both ancient and new. It’s West coast wild yet refined. It’s home.

Here are a few hidden Whistler teasers that I didn’t see last year.

 

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