For our third training hike we drove out to the Fraser Valley and hiked a very popular Elk and Thurston Mountain trail. It was a steep, hot day but the youth did a wonderful job taking it all in stride. What a beautiful scene below us with the Fraser River valley and its communities to one side and the rushing waters of the Chilliwack River and its forested valley to the other. Thanks to our wonderful volunteers of the day – Miyuki who applied her skills as a Registered Massage Therapist, Crystal our ever dedicated Streetfront volunteer, Kili participants dynamic duo Jesse and Sean. Thanks to our Britannia school administrator and Street2Peak team member Dr. Andrew Schofield for his assistance as well. [gallery_bank type=”images” format=”masonry” title=”false” desc=”false” responsive=”true” display=”all” sort_by=”pic_name” special_effect=”grayscale” animation_effect=”bounce” album_title=”false”...

As usual this group of 15 Chile hopefuls hiked a pretty quick pace covering the 15 km’s and 1,400′ (426m) in elevation gain in a respectable 5 hours with breaks. Yours truly had forgotten the camera at school but Hai was kind enough to lend me his image maker to grab a few shots. Thanks Hai and thanks also to our other fantastic volunteers for the day – Jesse, Sean and Crystal.       [gallery_bank type=”images” format=”masonry” title=”false” desc=”false” responsive=”true” display=”all” sort_by=”pic_name” special_effect=”grayscale” animation_effect=”bounce” album_title=”false”...

Today we kicked off the series of training hikes that will be used in part to select the 15 or so youth who will join the 2nd Street2Peak Project trek to the Patagonia region of Chile in March 2017. Do these youth have the dedication, the tenacity, and the physical ability to become a strong Chile team member and reap the rewards of hard work? Well if today is any indication we had 14 awesome youth right here who had a great hiking pace and demonstrated they want the opportunity to backpack in Torres Del Paine National Park and possibly a side trip to Easter Island (Rapa Nui). Well done all! Thanks goes out to our great volunteers – Jesse, Sean (former S2P Mt. Kilimanjaro participants) and Hai from Britannia Community Centre who help support the youth and Streetfront staff. Thank you. [gallery_bank type=”images” format=”masonry” title=”false” desc=”false” responsive=”true” display=”all” sort_by=”pic_name” special_effect=”grayscale” animation_effect=”bounce” album_title=”false”...