Nicknamed "Mother Nature's Stairmaster", the Grouse Grind is a very famous hiking trail located at Grouse Moutain, where it gains close to 800m in elevation in about 2.5km distance. In other words, it is a very steep trail that just keeps on going up and does not really have any flat or downhill sections for hikers to rest while moving; a challenging trail. Hikers often get humbled by this trail if they are out of shape, or think that they are in shape and try to push to fast in the beginning. Due to it being very popular, the narrow trail is often very crowded during peak hours and downhill travel is not recommended / prohibited. Instead of hiking down, hikers hike up one way and take the gondola down from the Ground Mountain Chalet. Due to the trail being too steep and that it crosses a few areas with avalanche risk, it closes down during the winter months and is usually only open in late April or May, until October. I used to hike this trail about once a week from 2013 to 2015 (so 3 years in a row) during the months that the trail is open. Due to not wanting to run into crowds and wanting to speed run the trail, I usually start at 6:30am and would finish the hike in time to catch the first gondola down at 7:30am. Eventually, I stopped going because I started going on morning walks/hikes with my friends and it interfered with my Grouse Grind time slot. Also, my friends were not very in shape, so we never attempted to challenge the grind, but I had always said that one day, we should really give it a try. That day still haven't arrive yet.

When searching for photos of the hike, I realize that I had done this hike more than 70 times but had not taken the time to take photos of the hike. I had only pushed for a better time and had been treating it like an exercise routine, but had never really stopped to take photos of the trail. I'm only able to find some photos of this hike taken by my wife when we hiked it back in September 2021. I went on the hike with my wife, as she wanted to see what time she would achieve after being in better physical shape from doing more exercise. We went on this hike when we first started dating way back when we were both still in college, and it took her about 2.5 hours to complete. She had always dreaded this hike ever since; and had never gone back until 15 years later, during which she completed the hike in 1hr12mins. We also saw a deer in the bushes when walking around the trails near the chalet. Then we took the gondola down to complete my wife's Grouse Grind revisit.

Trailhead.

They have a RFID sensor for hikers to "tap in" at the start and another one to "tap out" at the finish to get an "official time" from Grouse Mountain management group.

Sign at the 1/4 mark. The ones that do not stay humble while hiking this trail are usually gassed at this point. The trail has 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 marks.

Many stairs going up steeply, earning the trail the nickname "Mother Nature's Stairmaster".

They have a sign for you to put your time and take a photo. Also view at the chalet.

We saw a deer in the bushes when walking on some trails around the chalet.

Taking the gondola down.

Check out my previous hikes: