A Trail for Lions

[A little side-note to this Lions Trail tale: before moving to Canada I thought 'going on a hike' was a fancy way to talk about taking a long walk. I'm ready to apologise - hikes are real things, and shame on my naive pre-hike self]

Last week a group of us set off early on a crisp morning along the Lions Trail hike, a route based over in West Vancouver. The trail began with a slow incline. So lovely! So relaxing! We then hit a steeper incline, followed by climbing and scrambling and tumbling over big rocks and gnarled curly tree roots up a giant hill for 8km. It was tough, and tough on the legs especially, although the dog we had with us was having the best time ever running up the route like a little mountain goat with a big smile across her face.

There are some beautiful view points along the way which looked out over the sea and back at the city and the surrounding areas, and we were lucky that the day was fairly mild and clear with just the perfect amount of blue sky. Every single angle looking out over the world below was just so beautiful, and when we reached the summit we had a 360 view of the different parts of Vancouver, and the cargo ships and sailing boats look so pretty dotted on the water. 

Totally awesome hike. Long at 16km! I'd say it is definitely one for anyone with a love of vertical up-ness. I nearly fell to the floor when I got out of bed the next day with jelly legs, but totally worth it.