When Allan and I first started dating about 2.5 years ago, we spontaneously decided to go on a road trip to La Push, Washington. At the time, all Allan knew was that it was a fabled surfing destination. We really didn’t know anything else. So with a car, surfboards, camping gear, and a trusty old map (I didn’t have Google Maps on my phone back then), we set out for La Push with no plans, no accommodations, and no idea of where we were going to end up.

It was an exciting adventure, and was the first step towards us really getting to know each other, and figure out what it was like to travel together. It is funny when I look back on those times… how it was such a romantic trip… and I look at how we are together, today. I’m grateful that we are still adventuring together and exploring new places.

It was about a 7 hour drive down there. We took ferries, crossed many bridges, and eventually found our way to the right road.

La Push was a small fishing village at the time. Today if you go there, it’s completely Twilight-itized. When we visited 2 and a half years ago, we had never heard of Twilight and neither had the town it seemed. It’s funny that when I was reading the Twilight books I was relating many moments in the book to our experiences a couple years ago. I’m sure it would be a very different scene today.

We surfed (well, I surfed for the first time in my life), we stayed at the Quilete Reservation there, we explored the beaches and the forests…

We traveled up to Hurricane Ridge and saw snow at the lookouts and tons of deer, tried the mineral hot springs in the Olympic National Park, and went on many nature walks.

Allan and I considered that trip to be the mark of our relationship, so we still use the date of that trip as our anniversary. I have to admit I feel a bit sentimental looking back on these photos. It would be great to visit that region a few years from now, to see how it has changed and to share that special place again together.

We hit up Mount Baker on Sunday for Opening Day. A big storm had finally given our coast the snow we needed to get back on the hills.

I tell you — Baker on Opening Day is a good, good thing. Especially when it snows 20 inches just before you arrive.

I put together a quick video of our day. It’s not great in terms of editing since I threw it together in about 45 minutes so I apologize for the quality. It’s not at all indicative of the HD snowboarding movie I’m working on, but it was fun to do. I apologize for the shaky cam and focusing. I’m still getting used to using the camera. I’m hoping after a few more sessions I’ll have the hang of it. ENJOY! Click the image above to watch it on Vimeo, or you can right-click save as here to download the original movie. (You will probably want VLC Player to watch it.)

We woke up at 6 AM and were off by 6:30. It was still snowing when we left the apartment building. It was nice not to have to deal with many slow Vancouver drivers in the snow at that time, too. A bit of a wait at the USA border (and no Nexus lines at the Sumas crossing, BOO!)… and we were on our way.

We got to Baker just shortly after the first chairs went up. Everyone in the line of cars we were in turned off at the lower parking lot, so we continued up to the upper parking lot… we had our doubts if it was open, but sure enough it was! There was no waits for the chairs, and only 1 in 4 chairs actually had anyone on them.

It was pretty much untracked when we got up there. The area under the chairlift (see picture above) had a few lines, but everywhere else we hiked it was completely untouched. Awesome!

Our first turns of the day, we hiked for about 15 minutes to a spot on the Pan Dome face. This was where we decided to drop in.

First turns in powder were a little shaky for me, but Allan tore it up pretty good. What a feeling to not ride over anyone’s tracks!

Of course, I decided to turn on the GoPro camera on that run and lost it in the powder. I was so upset. I spent about an hour climbing up the face where I had ridden, digging and searching for the camera. Allan met me at the top and we spent another couple hours looking for it. No luck. Yup. You heard me. I freaking lost my new camera! I don’t know what I’m going to do now.

Well, we still had a great time. We stopped for lunch in a half empty cafeteria and then got a few more runs in that day. Legs were burning and tired, but it was exhilarating to be out again!

Can’t wait to go back to Baker. We’ll see where we hit up next! Tomorrow, I go to Trevor Linden’s Retirement Game… *sniff*.