Last weekend a few friends and I drove up to Squamish and hiked the Chief for the first time. My legs were burning for days.

To me, the perfect hike is one where I can walk through the woods over roots and rocks while enjoying the scenery and getting a bit of fresh air and exercise. The perfect hike is one that gets my heart rate up enough to be a good workout, but not so much that I can’t have a conversation with the people I’m hiking with.

Hiking the Chief is not my idea of a perfect hike. It’s a good one, and I definitely enjoyed it, but basically it’s just scaling the side of a mountian for 4 hours, sweating uncontrollably and trying to breath through the pain, all while super-fit pregnant ladies, children, and elderly men whiz past at breakneck speed.

Seriously. I’m not that out of shape, but so many people passed me it was almost embarrassing.

The view at the top, though, made it all worth it. It was a great reward, getting to the top of a mountain and looking down at where I started. Talk about an achievement. I almost felt empowered. I actually did it. If I can literally climb a mountain, what else can I do?

Parker even came with us! He’s such a funny little dog – he’s only about 13 pounds but he’s turned into quite the little mountain goat, clambering over rocks and bounding through the forest. I think he even liked the view at the top, too. (like he owns the mountain.)

Needless to say, when we finished, we were putty. We kissed the ground, thankful for being horizontal again, and then all went out for food.

Yup, we celebrated by going to eat.

After the hike, the big lunch, and then the drive home, I laid around in the sun for the rest of the day, popsicle in hand. Is there really anything better than a chilly popsicle on a hot, sunny day? Don’t even answer that, because there isn’t.

These chocolate pops are heavy on the chocolate flavour, chewy and fudgy like all chocolate popsicles should be. I found the secret to getting the perfect texture to these popsicles (not too thin, not too “icy”) was to use sweetened condensed milk! It adds a bit of thickness and sweetness that really satisfies.

So next time you achieve something great – whether it be hiking to the top of a mountain or just getting through a stressful day at the office – reward yourself with a chewy chocolate popsicle.

There’s a reason kids are so care-free, they eat popsicles all the time. <– that’s a fact.

