Howe Sound Crest Trail

My last week in Vancouver, 2 of my roommates and I decided to head into the mountains for an overnight hike. This hike was honestly the best overnight hike I've ever done, and these 2 were the best company I could've asked for. The day got off to a bit of a rough start, Maggie and Sam both slept in so we were running a bit later than we planned and then we ended up on the wrong bus with not much of an idea of how we were going to get up to Cypress mountain. So we ended up paying a 40 dollar cab ride from the sea bus station in north Vancouver, up the mountain. Finally, after an hour and a bit of messing around of transportation, we began the hike! It was raining, but thats pretty usual for Vancouver so we ignored the weather and went on anyways. About 45 minutes in, the trail was getting really muddy and than the clumsy person that I am slipped and face planted right on my nose into a puddle of mud. They both quickly made sure I was okay and then we all stood there for 10 minutes laughing so hard we couldn't breath while I tried to get myself together and continue on. This was only the beginning of the series of misfortunate events that happened to me on this trip. As we were a little behind schedule and kept stopping for little breaks because 1. the hike was actually challenging and 2. because the views were just go insanely beautiful, you just had to stop to appreciate them. We ended up hiking around the edge of the Lyons, which are two of the mountains that you can see from the city everyday, it was so awesome. We told embarrassing stories from our pasts and laughed for hours straight, again taking more breaks because we were laughing so hard we couldn't breath. The sun was starting to go down now, we stopped and enjoyed it though because we knew we were going to hike in the dark either way. Our plan was to stay at a little red cabin in the middle of the trail that night and according to our map we thought we had like 2 hours left of hiking left at this point. Turns out we have no idea how to read a map, and we ended up descending the hardest, steepest mountain in the dark with our head lamps whist slipping in mud and hanging onto trees for life support. It was honestly an adventure. We finally arrived at the cabin around 10pm, about 4 hours later than we predicted. But the cabin was a blessing after peaking 6 mountains that day. We made dinner on our little camping stove, and set up bed in the loft. We played cards and laughed until we fell asleep. The next morning, was also a bit of a slow start. Turns out we really like our sleep. So after filling our water bottles by the river, and cooking oatmeal over the stove, we descended down the mountain. Suddenly views of the howe sound was in full view and again we were taken away by the breath taking beauty of this place. We passed an alpine lake about half way down and decided to stop for a swim, we all jumped in and instantly felt refreshed to carry on. About an hour or so later, we found a waterfall but the view from the trail wasn't very nice. Sam saw a dead tree that has fallen and it looked to be big enough and sturdy enough to stand on, so he ran out to get a better view. Maggie and I decided to follow. She lead the way, accidentally slipped down the hill but still made in onto the fallen tree. Just behind her, I hear her streak and throw off her sweater, as I'm trying to figure out whats going on I also slip in the same spot. Suddenly feeling stinging all over my legs, I look around me and theres wasps everywhere. We both just slid into a wasps next. I quickly ran up the hill trying to escape them, resulting to 8 wasp stings to my lower body. Maggy got stung once on her back, and Sam enjoyed the waterfall sting free. After all this excitement and pain, I wobbled my way down the mountain again trying to ignore the stinging with every step. It became bearable after awhile, and we enjoyed the rest of the hike down. When we got to the bottom, we laughed about all our mishaps and reflected on all the great moments as well. But soon realized were standing on the side of the sea to sky highway at Porteau Cove an hours drive from the city with no plan on how to get back. We contemplated hitch hiking, but we all stunk so bad and were covered in mud and the only way was to stand on the side of the highway which was not at all safe. So maggie called a friend for a favour and she thankfully came and picked us up. As we waited we made tea in the trail head parking lot, and then got our ride back home. We ordered indian food when we got home and took showers and shared stories of our trip with our other roommates. I couldn't have asked for a better last week in Vancouver.