http://VrienDuineN.tripod.com
http://VrienDuineN.tripod.com 
Hiking in the Canadian Rockies is an amazing experience. The beauty of the mountains is overwhelming. Of course, it's also incredibly strenuous, but that's just part of the fun!
We met up with Sarah and Aron Zuidhof, two of the coolest people we know, and spent a month hiking and camping with them. Mt. Robson (near Edmonton, Alberta) was our first hike (5 nights). Cold is the word that comes to mind when we remember that experience. If that scares you, just check out the pictures below and you'll be convinced, as we were, that enduring the cold is well worth the sights you get to see. That, and just remember to bring along your toque (Canadian word for winter hat)
Tonquin Valley was our next hike. Mosquitoes come to mind when we remember this one - they were bad, really bad (for those of you who now will never go there, we have to say that we did pick one of the "most heavily mosquito infected" weeks to go). But, once again, the sights made our hike an incredible experience - we'll do it again in a flash!
Before, after and in between these two hikes, we did several day hikes around Jasper and Banff and could have easily spent another month just exploring. A big highlight was meeting another hiker, Jeremy, who decided to hang out with us for a few days.
We drove to Vancouver (Sarah and Aron's home) after these adventures, cleaned up and got more supplies and then joined up with some new people and drove to Vancouver Island's Cape Scott for a 4 days hike. Joel (Deb's brother), Niels (Joel's friend from the Netherlands, an adopted brother of the Vriend family), Julia and Jochem (Sarah and Aron's Vancouver friends), and Jonathan (Aron's brother) were great additions to our little hiking fellowship.
Our six weeks of hiking was so fun that we were ready to return to Holland, MI, refreshed and ready to resume our "normal" lives. However, it was only the beginning...
