Quick facts:

• Alltrails link: Grouse Grind Trail. 2.5km distance point to point, 800m elevation per official signage.
• Difficulty: difficult for the steep climb
• Traffic: very busy, parking lot fills up early on the weekends.
• Facilities: washrooms and Starbucks at the bottom of Grouse Mountain skyride. Washrooms, water refill stations, restaurant, and mountain top activities on the top.
• Definitely not stroller friendly
• Views: trees, stairs, people.
• Overall score: 7/10

Let’s face it: Grouse Grind exists as a workout trail. You won’t find peace and quiet here. No rushing streams, no beautiful lakes, no waterfalls. Instead, you will meet lots and lots of sweaty people, mostly out of breath, and all trying to hike up. There’s a sense of competition and comradery here, as people of all ages and shapes nudge each other on and pass each other by on the most famous stair-master trail in Metro Vancouver. You can even buy a Grind Timer and log your start and finish time against the masses.

On the last day of summer break in 2024, Big Bro and I tackled the Grind. I haven’t done this hike for at least 7-8 years, and we weren’t sure how either one of us would fare on this brutal non-stop climb.

After some stretching at the start, Tina and the two younger brothers sent us off. I appreciated the newly upgraded trailhead area, and several sections of the trail were clearly updated as well. There was even a new bridge that I don’t remember seeing before.

An omininously huge yellow Exclusion of Liability sign looms near the start of the trail. We soldiered on.

Big Bro enjoyed the hike tremendously. We started with several groups of hikers, and we soon left many of them behind. Another boy of a similar age to Big Bro were well matched in speed, so we took turns taking the lead. It turned out that this was his first Grind too. His mother prepared lots of M&M’s and were giving him a treat every time they pass a trail marker (there were 40 small distance markers and 3 big quarterly elevation markers).

I kept wondering when Big Bro’s energy was going to run out and we would have to switch to the dreaded push-and-pull mode to keep him going. But the switch never came. He just kept pace, and only took breaks when I had to take breaks.

Close to the half way mark, he even asked “Are you sweating? Cuz I’m not.” The little man wasn’t even breaking a sweat!

As we hiked higher, we got a lot of compliments from the other hikers. I was very proud. We finished the hike in 1 hours and 37 mins, and I was quite happy that I felt less exhausted than when I did the hikes previously when I was 7-8 years younger.

We joined Tina and the gang on the mountain and caught the lumberjack show.

We then capped the day off with some fun at the Kids Tree Canopy Adventure before taking the tram down. Yes, Big Bro had too much energy left after hiking the Grouse Grind! Downloading on the tram cost $20 per adult and $10 for kids 5-12.

With Big Bro successfully and happily finishing a 800m climb, I am now looking forward to tackling many new hikes with him. But first we need to train up the rest of the Outdoor Fam crew…