Off-Trail Hiking Like a BOSS (Vancouver, BC)

[Cutebug]

So my friend and I decided to drive to Shannon Falls (3rd highest waterfall in BC, Canada) and do the Upper Shannon Falls Trail. It's supposed to be a 5-hour hike with an elevation of 450 meters. Sounded pretty awesome.

So we got there and saw a little deer-trail like path off to the side of the "tourist area." We were like hell yeah off-roading!

So we started climbing the mountain in the forest, down this little winding sort-of-trail (there were markers so we knew we were actually on a trail, though probably unofficial.)

It started getting freaking steep. Like scary. So we decided to just go over the next hill. Well, to get over that hill we had to do a bit of impromptu rock climbing then we both thought we might die getting down from the rocks. It was awesome. After, not during haha

We decided it would be too hard to go back the way we came cuz it was insanely steep, so we wandered off into the bush. We climbed down the side of a mountain, in the mist and light rain, with no trail. We got soaked, mega dirty, sore and were sweating rivers. It was probably the most fun I've had on a hike in years. I felt so freaking accomplished when we didn't die and didn't get eaten by a bear and didn't get any injuries. Srsly. We were freaking BEAST!

So here are some pics of our adventure:

And here is the view of the waterfall from the tourist area:

[illc]

What a gorgeous locale. You Vancouverites are spoiled beyond belief!

[rix]

This is so amazing - I wish I had hills/mountains that high or that steep around here. We got exactly none.

But I love hiking, too, and by October I'm moving to the mountainous south of Germany.

Way to go with your hiking!