The past long weekend we decided to take a cheap, dog-friendy vacation to Hope for some hiking. We managed to be lucky enough to have one dry day between the crazy rainfall and got in a couple hikes.
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| The view of the town of Hope |
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| playing in the forest |
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| posing in the forest |
The town of Hope
Famous for the film location of the first Rambo, we did our research by watching First Blood with Whiskey in bed. We stayed in a beautiful AirBnB suite with a really comfortable bed and friendly family and had a blast. Hope is a pretty small town and we didn’t really meet any tourists out.
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| the roads around Hope are beautiful, even in the rain |
Mt Hope hike 800m+(incline)10km
The first day we set out early to conquer Mt. Hope, a 6+ hour hike. Unfortunately, Hope recently had a bad ice storm that damaged a ton of trees around the area. The logging road to the start of the hike was hopelessly blocked but we tried to get through anyway to see if it was just a small section (it wasn’t) and found the extent of damage was pretty incredible. This was the ultimate agility course for Whiskey and she was super quick to jump over, climb on top of, crawl under, and find her way though all the downed trees. She didn’t understand why the humans had so much trouble.
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| road is blocked! |
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| yeah…not the easiest to get through |
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| she gets through this mess like a wiggly snake -no problem |
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| ok, time to try something else |
Boston Bar Trail
Next we made a random stop on the highway and found a small section of the Boston Bar Trail. Named after the Americans that had found gold on the Fraser, this is a really old trail that dates back to the 1850s. Now used by ATVs, there was no one out so we just strolled on through, throwing sticks and taking pictures.
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| not too shabby a stroll |
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| weeee! happy dog |
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| little waterfalls everywhere with melting snow and rainfall |
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| Whiskey on the rocks |
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| chasing sticks |
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| a man and his dog |
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| posing for treats |
Hope Lookout Trail (470m, 2.7km one way)
Coming back to town, we next did the Hope Lookout trail, “the Grouse Grind of Hope”. It certainly was a grind and a good workout but with more variation in scenery than the Vancouver one, and much much less crowded. The finish wasn’t at the top of the mountain, but had a cute bench and a nice view of the city.
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| we have a pointer |
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| common slowpokes! |
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| mid hike hugs |
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| hurry up humans! |
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| evidence from the icestorm |
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| up up up |
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| mossy monkey arms |
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| Lion King moment |
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| chasing sticks up the mountain |
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| view from the top |
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| our little mountain goat in her element |
Mt Lincoln (580m, 2.5km one way)
Another short-ish hike because, hey, it’s the long weekend and we wanted to sleep in a bit. We were the only ones on this hike which starts right off the highway. There’s no precursor- it’s just up up up and there are some scrambling parts as well with ropes to help out. The top has quite a bit of ice storm damage but the trail was really easy to follow. I would say that this might not be dog-friendly to small or old dogs because of the incline but any athletic dog would be fine (Whiskey was chasing sticks up and down like it was nothing). Also, since it was a rainy day, I would suggest to make sure you have good traction shoes for this hike. We had the most fun on this one, but be warned- we found ticks!!
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| the trail starts up right away |
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| in lumpy moss land |
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| we gain height quickly |
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| taking a breather |
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| she really doesn’t understand why we are always so slow |
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| a quick peek |
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| a couple ropes to help |
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| Whiskey sits on my lap in the middle of a scramble |
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| top top top! |
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| waiting for me to finish the ropes |
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| This is one gorgeous hike |
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| she races up and down this mountain |
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| until next time |
Ticks
Oh gross oh gross oh gross. I’m not really good with bugs and was really happy to have someone else pull these buggers out. They can grow to enormous sizes and carry some serious diseases (rare) so make sure you check your dog if a hike is known to have ticks. We found 2 well hidden behind Whiskey’s ears and killed them in alcohol (flushing them down does not kill them).
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| a tick embedded at the back of her ear (6 hours) |
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| one dead tick, one headless tick GROSS |
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