On the day we arrived in Vancouver we basically did nothing, so I won't really go on too much, except that I can't believe how many sex shops there are. We spent most of the afternoon relaxing at the local bar, and just unwinding from the frenzy of sightseeing that was New York.

The next morning we embarked on our Moose tour of the Rocky Mountains. We knew the guy picking us up was the right guy, since he had a hat with moose horns attached. This was going to be a fun trip, that was apparent from the outset.

We headed out of Vancouver and our first stop was a lookout on Cypress Mountain, which commands amazing views of the city of Vancouver as well as Vancouver Island. From here we headed further up the to Shannon Falls.

The locals call Vancouver "Hollywood North", due to the burgeoning film and TV industry there. On our way up to Shannon falls, we passed the hole on the golf course that was home to the scene in "Happy Gilmour" where Gilmour has a fight with Bob Barker. Pretty cool, and we also passed the abandoned mine that was used in several episodes of the X-files.

Shannon falls are the 3rd highest in Canada, at 355m, which obviously makes them pretty spectacular. After scoffing a bit of lunch here, we were back on the road and cruised past Stawamus chief, a hunk of granite second only in size to the rock of Gibraltar. It is a bit of a rock climbing mecca, and was apparently used in that woefully ordinary film "Cliffhanger".

The next stop of the afternoon was Brandywine falls, which is just about Shannon falls, and weighing in at 66m. We went on a pretty nice long walk through the national park, all the while sticking together and talking to ensure against company from Bears, because they might look cuddly, but you wouldn't want to meet one. Seriously. Anyway, the final destination of the walk was a suspension bridge above a deep gorge where some of the nutters from our trip (including the tour leader, Des) went bungy jumping.

After the hour or so hike back, we made the short trip to Whistler. Whistler is supposed to be the number 1 ski area in North America, and the town itself is, as you can imagine, pretty commercial. We stayed in the gorgeous Alta Vista inn, which is a high priced ski resort in Winter and a $25/ night hostel in summer. It was a great place, complete with Spa, ensuites and comfy couches galore.

Whistler is a ski town in winter, but in summer it turns into mountain bike Nirvana. It is home to the Whistler mountain bike park, where crazy guys with dreadlocks pilot their basically engineless trailbikes down impossibly steep slopes. It also has plenty to offer the cross country mountain biker, with over 130 trails easily reachable from the town.

Des, our tour leader and the sort of guy you see on that show "Planet X", took a few of the more keen mountain bikers in our group (myself included) for a trip on his favorite trails.

In a nutshell, it was wild. You probably need to be a mountain biker to understand, but the trails are amazing! They had it all, tricky singletrack, tight switchbacks, many obstacles and eye popping scenery. I know I have crapped on about the scenery a fair bit in different places of the world, but let me tell you the Rocky Mountains is the champ. I have posted the photos, have a look for yourself.

Unfortunately though, this was where 8 weeks off of the bike and on the good holiday food really started to show for me. Des is a pretty fit guy, and riding with him on those trails was bloody hard work. My legs were screaming by the time we got back, but sitting in the spa with a few rums looking at the snow capped mountains went a long way to make them better.

On our second night in Whistler, we went to check out the local nightlife, and visited a couple of the pubs in the Village. It wasn't a late one though, after all, its been a while since I did 5 hours on a pushbike.