Elizabeth Kohler enjoys a close-up look at sea life in Desolation Sound Marine Provincial Park.

Click on Flikr photo galley (home page) to view a portfolio of Louise Christie’s Desolation Sound images

Access: Desolation Sound Marine Provincial Park lies 144 kilometres north of Vancouver on the Sunshine Coast. For details, visit the BC Parks website. In Lund, Terracentric Adventures offers kayak rentals, tours, and water-taxi service. Powell River Sea Kayak also offers kayak rentals and tours from locations in Lund and nearby Okeover Inlet. Detailed maps of the Desolation Sound region include a Sunshine Coast recreation map and activity guide on the Tourism Powell River website, the Desolation Sound and Discovery Island trip planner by Coast & Kayak Magazine and Desolation Sound & the Discovery Islands (Harbour). For information on transportation and accommodation on the Sunshine Coast, visit their website.

A sea-kayak trip to Desolation Sound engages all five senses at once: sniff ocean breezes perfumed by wild rose and salal blossoms; taste salt water on fingertips; listen as the sound of pure silence fills the air; touch granite walls curtained with seaweeds and oyster shells; and watch velvety mountain ridges rise resolutely through clouds to glaciers on high.

That’s just for starters.

Keep track of the bird life that catches your attention during an excursion and be astounded by the final tally: murrelets, kingfishers, hummingbirds, oystercatchers, eagles, mergansers, nighthawks, loons, and gulls framed against a backdrop of golden, moss-covered slopes forested with ramrod-straight shore pines and shimmying arbutus.

It’s enough to overload one’s central nervous system to the point of dizziness.

Whatever your skill level, floating on the Pacific in a sea kayak is always a giddy experience.

No matter how glassy the surface, paddling the inland sea that stretches between the mainland and Vancouver Island feels like resting on a quivering bowl of gelatin.

With practice, the sensation of imbalance gives way to one of gently swaying atop a slumbering giant.

On the rocking cradle off the northern Sunshine Coast, the only sounds that rise above the profound peace are snortings and sighings as an inquisitive group of harbour seals pops up for a better look at brightly coloured ocean craft.

A more magical place to explore while seated would be hard to imagine.

Tap your foot gently on a rudder pedal and glide among them.

With every paddle stroke, equilibrium comes more naturally.

Once you’ve completed a guided sea-kayak trip or two, confidence in setting out on your own grows.

That’s where Christine Hollmann, owner of Lund-based Terracentric Adventures, comes in.

Her water-taxi service offers just the sort of introductio needed by intermediate-level paddlers keen to explore Desolation Sound Marine Provincial Park’s 30 kilometres of rocky, oyster-encrusted shoreline.

It’s fair to say that 40-year-old Hollmann, who grew up in nearby Powell River, knows every cove, bay, island, and freshwater lake in B.C.’s largest marine protected area.

“The park is hugely popular in summer. September into early fall is when you want to be here. The water is bathtub-warm, campsites free up, and the bugs vanish.”

Hollmann’s local knowledge, from when shellfish are in season to the ideal spot to catch sunrise from the door of a tent, is indispensable.

Just because Lund anchors road’s end on the Sunshine Coast Highway doesn’t mean that the fun stops there.

Quite the opposite, especially for those willing to trade wheels for waves.

Pockets of islands provide boaters with a chance to witness what life off the grid truly looks like.

That opportunity drew Elizabeth Kohler and partner Wendy Holmes of Spokane, Washington, to the area.

After the experienced freshwater paddlers kayaked in the Strait of Georgia during a visit to Vancouver Island four years ago, they vowed to return.

We journeyed into the park aboard Hollmann’s water taxi as the duo marvelled at the rain-forest scenery.

With less than a week at their disposal, the one-hour ride into the park from Lund circumvented what otherwise would have been a half-day’s challenging paddle each way.

With help from Hollmann in choosing a campsite, all that remained was settling in and day-tripping to a variety of scenic locales within the park.

Holmes was particularly intent on viewing Homfray Channel, the steep-sided fiord that curves into the folds of the surrounding peaks rising above Toba Inlet.

The best place to accomplish that turned out to be from the shelter of Prideaux Haven, characterized by sailor and author Laurence Yeadon-Jones as the crown jewel of easy anchorages.

Together with his wife, Anne, the couple returns regularly to Desolation Sound to update their series of Dreamspeaker cruising guides.

“Rocks don’t move, ” Yeadon-Jones commented. “Everything else damn well does.”

In the early 2000s, Yeadon-Jones said the Broughton Archipelago off the northern tip of Vancouver Island had become the place to sail.

However, with the rise in fuel prices, Desolation Sound has regained popularity, though it’s no longer the party place it once was.

Boaters seem more conscientious about noise, especially in places like Prideaux Haven, as equally special as it’s ever been since the pair first explored there in the early 1990s.

“Generally speaking, Desolation Sound is a peaceful and respectful destination.”

When viewed from the water-level vantage point of a kayak, the sound’s maze of islands blends seamlessly with the mainland.

To make sense of the landscape, detailed charts are a must.

In advance, consult as many sources as possible to prepare yourself for Desolation Sound’s dizzying natural impact.

Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie

A play spot for everyone from boaters to picnickers, Porteau Cove sits on a 13,000-year-old glacial ridge.

Access: Porteau Cove Provincial Park lies 43 kilometres north of Vancouver on Highway 99. For more information, visit the Government BC’s website or consult the new edition of our 52 Best Day Trips from Vancouver (Greystone Books). Bob Turner’s Geoscape guides are posted at the Natural Resources Canada website.

Look around Vancouver’s landscape.

Ancient stories are written everywhere on its surface.

You can learn to see the signs with fresh eyes, as well as enjoy some rejuvenating fresh sea air, during a visit to Porteau Cove Provincial Park on Howe Sound north of Horseshoe Bay, one of the destinations featured in the new editon of 52 Best Day Trips from Vancouver .

Reading the Earth’s stories is the job of geoscientist Bob Turner of Natural Resources Canada.

On the phone from his Robson Street office, Turner said that, geologically speaking, the most interesting 100 kilometres in Canada lie between Vancouver and Whistler.

“There is more diversity and points of interest than anywhere in the province: landscapes, landforms, waterfalls, glaciers, debris-flow hazards, granite walls—quite an inventory.”

In the mid-1990s, Turner coined the term geoscape, a contraction of geological landscapes.

“Geology is focused on the past,” he said. “It’s a science caught up with invoking imaginary landscapes. Geologists are famous for looking at sandstone formations and seeing rivers. With the Geoscape initiative, we wanted to focus on the landscape today, bring geology home to urban Canada, and tell the stories about where people work and play.”

With this in mind, one of Turner’s early efforts was a 2003 guidebook, Vancouver, City on the Edge: Living With a Dynamic Geological Landscape (Tricouni Press), coauthored with SFU professor John Clague.

When it comes to an easily reached place to play, Porteau Cove fills the bill.

It helps that the diminutive park perched on a shelf of glacial sill—a 13,000-year-old ridge of moraine material where the two-kilometre-thick ice sheet paused—is one of the only places where day-trippers and campers alike can find access to Howe Sound, North America’s southernmost fiord.

Renowned as a hub for underwater diving, the park’s appeal extends just as readily to sailboaters, paddlers, beachcombers, swimmers, picnickers, and those like Turner who simply enjoy contemplating the panorama that plays out between sea level and mountain peaks.

“I want people to take a closer look and dig into what they see when they get there: rub their hands on the polished rock to feel the smoothness of the glacier’s touch and stare up at the ridges and see the remnants of where the glaciers were, sensing the land in a deeper way, in a process I call mental stretching.”

When it comes to stretching your legs along Porteau Cove’s rocky shoreline, sneakers are a better choice than sandals, especially at low tide, when a slippery, shallow outcropping lies exposed.

On a sunny day, the predominantly black pebbles soak up the sun’s rays, which, in turn, warm the slowly rising waters, making for tolerable swimming temperatures.

One of the best stretches of beach in this regard lies tucked in beside the walk-in campsites adjacent to the sheltered cove, where a small settlement once stood in the 1930s.

The cove’s calm waters are a welcome relief for paddlers, who can expect to be bounced around on Howe Sound at a moment’s notice when outflow winds kick up whitecaps.

Porteau Cove anchors a more pivotal location than might appear at first glance.

According to Turner, there are actually three stories on display in this geoscape.

“Porteau Cove is a junction point,” he said. “Stand on the park’s jetty and look towards Squamish. What you see is a true fiord: steep-sided and flooded by the sea. From here west towards Horseshoe Bay, where the embayment breaks up, is a sound. Features such as the rounded shapes of the islands to the craggy, high peaks reflect a landscape sandpapered by ice. Beneath the water is the invisible story of the submarine sill, a shallow, glacier-calving snout of debris that sits stationary offshore, attracting marine life, which, in turn, draws divers.”

To best appreciate Turner’s trilogy, visit on a clear day when landmarks such as Bowyer and Anvil islands are easily identifiable from the shoreline.

Many of the park’s 60 campsites, including 16 walk-in sites, offer panoramic views that stretch from the ocean to the still-glaciated Tantalus Range peaks high above.

Driftwood lines the foreshore, providing secure resting places for kayaks and canoes parked above the tide line, and tent pads find shelter beneath stands of shore pines, Sitka spruce, and western red cedars with bald eagles perched in their crowns.

Although you could launch a boat from the beach, the easiest approach is from twin sloped concrete ramps at the end of B.C. Ferries’ emergency ferry pier, constructed in the 1980s after a devastating debris torrent at Lions Bay blocked traffic on the Sea to Sky Highway for weeks.

Once on the water, stick close to shore, not just for personal safety but also to inspect the scouring effect of ice on the shear-sided walls of the fiord on either side of the pier.

Alternately, on foot, carefully cross the highway and look for the very distinct and extensive glacial polishing and striations—scratches and wavelike grooves—on the granite wall immediately opposite the entrance to the park, one of the few places where the original wall of the fiord is still preserved.

If you can indulge in a little mental stretching by imagining a frozen river of glacial ice slowly flowing past you into the Strait of Georgia basin, Turner will have done his job.

Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie
Original Article

Golden Ears Provincial Park in Maple Ridge was created with both day-trippers and campers in mind.

Here’s a spring day trip taken right out of the new edition of our 52 Best Day Trips from Vancouver

ACCESS: Golden Ears Park lies 11 kilometres north of Highway 7 in Maple Ridge, about 50 kilometres east of Vancouver.

Think you’ve seen every colour of green imaginable?

Think again.

The verdant hues on display in Golden Ears Provincial Park challenge the most panoptic palettes.

Hurry out to Maple Ridge while the spring spectacle lasts—specifically, along the twin trails that follow Gold Creek’s course.

Take your time.

Though still soggy in places, the hour-long stroll along Lower Falls Trail or its companion, East Canyon Trail, is a marvel and suited to all ability levels, ideal for celebrating B.C. Parks’ 100th anniversary.

That’s where the likes of Eiichiro and Katsuko Ochiai head.

Since returning to Vancouver after 25 years in Pennsylvania, the retired chemistry professor and his wife have journeyed to the park time and again.

“We had to come back to Vancouver, no question,” they said. “This is our fifth visit to Golden Ears and the first time we’ve been here in spring. The greens are really marvelous. We don’t travel as much as we once did, when we took our kids to Banff each year,” said the hot spring–loving duo. “Now we prefer to go on day trips.”

Golden Ears was created with both day-trippers and campers in mind.

Logged and flooded in the 1920s, devastated by a fire in the 1930s, levelled by a typhoon in the 1960s, and on life support since B.C. Parks’ budget was gutted in the 2000s, the park continues to put up a brave face, a tribute to its incomparable wilderness attributes.

Jade-hued liverworts and mosses cloak massive cedar stumps and carpet a forest floor jackstrawed with blowdowns. Grassy witch’s-hair lichens drape the boughs and trunks of evergreens like fishnets.

Most striking of all is the creek’s deep-emerald tint, a reminder of what makes both gems and wild spaces precious.

Locally, groups such as West Vancouver’s Friends of Cypress Provincial Park have attempted to counter the double whammy of increased public-land responsibilities—B.C. Parks currently has an inventory of almost 1,000 parks, protected areas, ecological reserves and conservancies, from one hectare to almost one million hectares in size—coupled with decreased government spending.

In its spring 2011 newsletter, the FCPP estimates the system is currently running on 25 percent less funding and 30 percent less staff with 35 percent more parks and protected areas to administer than a decade ago.

Insufficient funds to maintain trails in Golden Ears is a case in point.

A notice posted at B.C. Parks’ website states that there is currently no time frame to replace a bridge on the Golden Ears Trail and that hikers should be prepared to wade in order to reach the twin peaks.

Given the current depth of the alpine snow pack, that’s a chilling summer prospect, indeed.

Better to put such thoughts aside and visit the park’s Lower and Upper Falls while the spring freshet is in full force.

Pack some cake and come celebrate.

Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie
Original Article

A trustworthy map is essential when exploring B.C.’s snowy wonderlands, especially now that spring touring season is here.

Advance research, particularly if you’ve got backcountry adventure in mind, is just as critical.

In 1983, John Baldwin published his influential primer Exploring the Coast Mountains on Skis.

Given that the 2009 edition weighs a kilo, it’s unlikely to find one in a rucksack.

Baldwin’s partner, mountaineer Linda Bily, quipped: “You could take the book with you, but then it would offset all that featherweight gear.”

Bily, a long-time telemark skier, now alternates with lighter alpine touring equipment.

“Every ounce counts when you’re ski touring. That’s what kept me from changing gear until now.”

(In 2005, Bily and a fellow skier saved the lives of two North Shore Rescue members pinned down by hurricane-force winds on Mount Logan, Canada’s tallest peak.)

“As well, safety concerns—the need for releasable bindings—is driving me to AT [alpine touring], but I still like feeling different on my teles.”

With less weight in mind, Baldwin’s three new offerings—topographic backcountry-route maps for the Duffey Lake corridor north of Pemberton, ski and hiking trails off Highway 5 around the Coquihalla Summit, and the Shames Mountain ski area near Terrace in northwestern B.C.—more than fill the bill.

“After I did my Whistler backcountry map 10 years ago, I always thought that Duffey Lake would be perfect.

A lot has changed about mapmaking since then.

Now you can download government topographic maps from National Resources Canada free of charge.

The catch is you still have to pay about $30 to print one.

My maps are a composite of as many as four overlaps from various topo maps.

They’re printed on a synthetic material called YUPO. I

t’s so waterproof, you can hold it over your head in the rain for protection if you need to.”

Mount Seymour's Rowan Gloag makes sure the Discovery Trails system is clearly marked and easy for beginners to follow in all conditions.

ACCESS: Detailed snowshoe-trail maps as well as information on shuttle-bus service to Mount Seymour from both Lonsdale Quay and Parkgate Mall are posted at www.mountseymour.com/. For a schedule of snowshoe outings with Storm Fitness, visit stormfitness.ca/.

Be resolute.

Be very resolute.

Put one foot in front of the other and stride into the New Year on snowshoes.

According to personal trainer Michelle Ricketts, co-owner of Storm Fitness in North Vancouver, even after centuries of popularity in Canada, snowshoeing is a sport that has yet to reach its full potential.

“When it comes to fitness, snowshoeing has so many things going for it: you get a cardiovascular workout; you sweat a lot while breathing fresh air; and it strengthens muscles, especially in the legs.”

Not surprisingly, Ricketts typically sees a surge of interest in snowshoeing at this time of year, starting in December and lasting well into February.

“It’s the perfect mix between exercise, great scenery, and friendships. My client profile is mostly active women in the 25-to-35 age range who are already extremely fit. That being said, snowshoeing is not just for those who are already fit, but it’s a good way for anyone to get moving. My clients like it because it’s not something they would do on their own.”

The 30-year old Ricketts, who earned an outdoor-recreation diploma from Capilano University, knows whereof she speaks.

“I’ve been snowshoeing since Brownies, when we used to do snowshoe tours on the North Shore. My motto is ‘get living’. Why just exist when you can live? I encourage everyone to get outside and get living.”

When it comes her favourite places to be active, Ricketts gravitates to trails in either of the North Shore’s two provincial parks: Cypress in West Vancouver and Mount Seymour in North Vancouver.

“The fact that trails are open to the public is the big attraction of provincial parks. You’ll find there’s a good mix of challenges in both Cypress and Seymour without having to buy a pass.”

During a recent visit, the Christies took the opportunity to weigh the advantages of exploring both the Mount Seymour Provincial Park trails and Mount Seymour Resort’s adjacent Discovery Trails network.

Both options lie within steps of a common parking lot and are accessible by either car or shuttle bus.

From twin trail heads at 1,020 metres—the highest base elevation on the North Shore—the privately run, 10-kilometre snowshoe trails spread downhill through the forested lower bowl around Goldie Lake, and an equally lengthy and more challenging series of public trails begins at the B.C. Parks kiosk adjacent the Mystery Chairlift and ascend toward either First Lake or Mount Seymour’s summit.

More than a decade ago, when lightweight aluminum designs first sparked a renaissance in snowshoeing, Mount Seymour Resorts created the Discovery Trails system to complement the long-established public pistes originally tramped out by members of the Alpine Club of Canada in the 1920s.

When tracked down while clearing snow from the expert-rated Cougar’s Pass route, the resort’s trail-maintenance supervisor, Rowan Gloag, recommended that neophytes and families with young children should check out the Discovery Trails first before venturing farther afield.

“Given the atrocious weather the North Shore can experience, a lot of what my crew and I do is staking poles so that trails are well marked. We want to make our trails extremely comfortable for beginners and intermediates to come out no matter what the weather. The fluorescent-coloured poles are installed specifically for cloudy days.”

As Gloag spoke, shafts of sunshine pierced through groves of snow-caked evergreens.

With white drifts mounded on all sides, strategically placed poles helpfully outlined the intermediate single-track loop trail around Goldie Lake that led away from the much broader Ole’s Pass trail, one of six introductory routes.

Metal teeth, or crampons, mounted on the undersides of the rubber-decked snowshoes made easy work of both ascending and descending the otherwise slippery pathways.

These are the same routes visited by grade-school students on field trips conducted here throughout the winter.

“Over the past five years, our business has grown from running educational programs to a broader range of recreational trips,” Gloag observed. “The sport is steadily catching on. This year I’m seeing a lot more people showing up with their own equipment.”

After a snowfall, if you choose to head off on the B.C. Parks routes, be prepared to break trail through the old-growth forest that cloaks the steep-sided slopes of Mount Seymour.

Other than distance markers placed at significant intersections, signage on these trails primarily consists of red metal markers affixed high on the trunks of mountain hemlocks.

Spotting them is not difficult.

By the time most trekkers set out on the First Lake Loop Trail, which leads to several viewpoints of the city below, chances are good that a path will already have been packed down.

If you are exploring these trails for the first time, a clearly visible track is crucial.

The terrain proves particularly challenging on the roly-poly approach to First Lake, though less so on the more straightforward ascent on the seven-kilometre Mount Seymour Trail.

No matter which trails you choose to explore, the common experience of a snowshoe workout is similar: the crunch of snow underfoot abetted by the ambient sound of streams gurgling down into the ponds and lakes that dot the mountainside.

Why wait?

Now is the perfect time to get living.

Surrey road and track rider Cody Campbell hopes to wrap up a stellar season at the year-end Burnaby 4 races.

UPDATE: As racing wrapped up at the Burnaby Velodrome on December 30, Cody Campbell finished in the points with a respectable 9th place overall in the elite men’s standings, well ahead of better known and more experienced riders. Well done!

ACCESS: For details on the Saputo Burnaby 4, see www.burnaby4.com. The Burnaby Velodrome is located on the north side of Burnaby Mountain on the Barnet Highway (Highway 7A), 1.5 kilometres east of Vancouver. It can be reached by taking the 160 bus, which runs between Burrard Station and Port Coquitlam Station.

Round and round the cyclists go at the Burnaby Velodrome.

Frankly, it’s enough to make anyone’s head spin, particularly when it comes to watching the year-end Saputo Burnaby 4 track-racing contests.

But this isn’t the usual weekly matchup.

From December 27 to 30, an international field of pro elite riders, including Olympians and world champions, will saddle up at the Harry Jerome Sports Centre’s velodrome, which has served as the Canadian national track-racing training centre since 2009.

The incentive?

Cash, of course, but just as importantly valuable International Cycling Union points, which determine riders’ rankings in their season-long quests for overall supremacy.

“Outside of the national championships, this is the first time in Canada in 20 years that there will be ICU points awarded for track races,” said event organizer Jeremy Storie, the person largely responsible for the success of the centre’s Learn to Ride program for youth and adult cyclists.

When we visited earlier this month, Storie was putting a dozen Burnaby Velodrome Club elite riders through their twice-weekly paces.

The sports centre’s ribbed white inflatable dome is a nostalgic reminder of similarly shaped B.C. Place’s roof prior to its industrial-strength make-over.

Once through the doors, the rumbling sound of rubber on wood filled the air.

Storie explained that the lower-than-average turnout was attributable to a world cup race in Cali, Colombia, that had lured many local riders, such as North Vancouver’s Zach Bell, who has already won two world cup races this year including November’s season-opening event in Australia.

“The reason we got funding from Heritage Canada for the Saputo Burnaby 4 is that we’re providing Canadian athletes a chance to race at home against a topnotch field,” Storie emphasized, “without having to travel.”

One of the club riders present was Cody Campbell, whom we first interviewed several years ago when the now-20-year-old was still attending North Surrey Secondary.

On hiatus from classes at SFU’s campus atop nearby Burnaby Mountain, Campbell said he’s currently focusing exclusively on his career as a member of Lance Armstrong’s Trek-LIVESTRONG under-23 continental road-racing team.

“I’ve met Lance at several of our training camps,” Campbell said. “He’s a real inspiration to my dream of representing Canada at the Olympics and riding in the Tour de France. It’s going to take a lot more hard work to get me there.”

Although Campbell has switched from track racing to road racing, time spent at the velodrome abets his loftier ambitions.

“Track riding makes me a better road racer. Because there are no brakes on these bikes, I learn handling techniques at high speeds. It’s as simple as bike racing gets and teaches you tactics. Plus, the track is covered, so it gives me a cozy place to train at this time of year.”

If you’ve ever watched a road race during the annual B.C. Superweek in July, such as the Tour de Gastown, you know the thrill of seeing riders whiz past before disappearing from sight.

As much as Storie said he admired the weeklong road-racing extravaganza, he claimed that Superweek couldn’t hold a candle to the talent that’s been attracted to the Burnaby 4 spectacle:

“No disrespect intended, but there’s so much buzz surrounding these four days. Unlike road racing, at the velodrome you’re never more than 50 metres from racers like our own Svein Tuft and Washington state’s Tyler Farrar, who are coming off outstanding road-race seasons. Sarah Hammer from California is the reigning world champion in pursuit, as well as the Pan American Games champion in the Omnium. Best of all, watch out for Tara Whitten from Edmonton, double gold medallist in the ICU points race and Omnium at the 2010 ICU World Championships.”

Just as ski cross competition has emerged as the new kid on the slopes at world cup venues over the past three years, Omnium racing has taken centre stage at track races leading up to its official Olympic debut at the 2012 Summer Games in London.

Storie described Omnium as “the decathlon of cycling. It comprises all the skills required on the track. Riders take part in five events in one day. It’s a mix of sprint and endurance races. The longest race is a 100 laps/20 kilometres for men and 80 laps/16 kilometres for women. The shortest is the flying 250-metre sprint.”

Three evenings of races precede the daylong Omnium that crowns the Burnaby 4.

“This really is far more than just a series of races,” Storie said. “It’s an event modelled on similar multiday, wildly popular competitions in Europe that are more like watching Cirque du Soleil with a bike race going on at the same time. Entertainer Eugene Ripper kicks things off with a performance on the first night. We’ve got trials rider Ryan Leech from Port Moody putting on his show the next evening. There will be food and microbrew and lots of opportunity for local track racers to show their stuff, including an Alley Cat Scramble for bike couriers, along with two hours of pro elite races each night. A light show will transform the dome into a party atmosphere. Check out videos of the Gent 6 Day posted on YouTube to get an idea of what we’re aspiring to bring to the velodrome.”

Wrap your head around that.

Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie

Laurella Gabert guides visitors through the towering stands of old cedar near Prince George.

Here’s our first winter adventure feature of the 2010-2011 season  and it’s a sweet one, especially now that early  snowfalls have blanketed the Anciet Forest Trail with champagne powder.

Access: For details on snowshoe tours in the ancient forest, visit tht Outdoor Life Adventure website. Find tourism information on Prince George and northern B.C. at the Hello BC website.

Prince George is B.C.’s bull’s-eye.

Not only does the timber capital anchor the centre of the province, it’s also a point of convergence for winter adventure in the north.

On offer is a smorgasbord of recreational options: speed skating, dogsledding, Nordic and alpine skiing, and snowshoeing.

Small wonder that “PG” will host the 2015 Canada Winter Games.

Last January, the Outdoor Life Adventure Co. guided us on a snowshoe trip through an ancient forest.

In a region with forests devastated by mountain pine beetles, it was wonderful to discover pockets of ancient cedars that rival those on Cougar Mountain in Whistler or the slopes surrounding Chilliwack Lake in the Fraser Valley.

Neither of the latter offers quick access from a major thoroughfare, as does the grove east of Prince George adjacent to the Yellowhead Highway.

“We’re just discovering the significance of this area,” David Connell said while tramping beneath cedar boughs heavily laden with fresh powder snow.

Since 2007, the professor in the University of Northern British Columbia’s school of environmental planning has studied the community and economic benefits of non-timber use of this former cut block in the inland rain forest.

“There’s a sense of ‘being’ here that you won’t find elsewhere—the sense of appreciation for who we are as human beings,” he observed. “Tourists tell us that one of the highlights of a trip here is the sense of discovering a place that’s not very well known or publicized. This is one of a dozen such unique sites in the world.”

Numbers tell the tale.

Since its official opening in 2006, the Ancient Forest Trail has grown hugely in popularity, from an initial visitor count of hundreds to almost 10,000 in 2009.

As Outdoor Life Adventure Co. owner-operator Laurella Gabert sees it, there’s a good reason for that: “There aren’t that many places for tourists to stop along Highway 16 [Yellowhead Highway] in the Robson Valley, so a lot of them pull in here to break up their journey.”

Unlike many recent arrivals who offer similar reasons for having settled locally—blaming the SDG, or Some Damn Guy/Girl, syndrome—Gabert lays claim to deep roots.

“In the early 1900s, my great-grandparents got off the train in the middle of nowhere, cleared bush, and started a mill.”

Today, Via Rail service between Jasper and Prince George still drops visitors at her family’s doorstep in what are now the twin hamlets of Loos and Crescent Spur.

“The railway runs right through the middle,” she said. “It [Crescent Spur] is a strange little community of perhaps 37 people. My husband, Trevor, and I moved here with our kids seven years ago after the forest industry shut down.”

With Prince George and McBride just an hour or so away, Gabert insisted that she enjoys the best of both worlds.

“Trevor and I have been in the outdoors forever. When we arrived in Crescent Spur, one of our neighbours was a long-time member of the Caledonia Ramblers, a Prince George hiking club. Talking with him led us to explore the rough footpath that the club had cleared through the so-called ancient forest, which at that time was designated a cut block and slated for logging.”

Thanks in large part to lobbying efforts by club members and local biologists like Connell—abetted by a provincial government reassessment of the tourism benefits of maintaining a visually pleasing landscape along Highway 16—the Ancient Forest Trail, then in McBride-based TRC Cedar’s timber licence, and an accompanying route on nearby Driscoll Ridge were set aside as a recreation trail and interpretive site.

“Lots of old-growth cedar in the Robson Valley is still designated as cut blocks,” Gabert related. “We lucked out that all this change was happening while we were starting our business.”

The Robson Valley spreads roughly east-west between Prince George and Valemont, and is home to endangered herds of mountain caribou.

The valley’s prime characteristic, along with the Fraser River, is its lush interior cedar-hemlock forest.

Much of the valley is classified as rain-forest wetland, which accounts for the numerous stands of western red cedar.

Whether you’re making tracks on foot or by snowshoe, no matter how many times you stand beside one of these behemoths, the scale of so much biomass on display brings you up short.

In winter, the silence that imbues the stand, aside from the occasional branches creaking in the cold, is rare refreshment indeed.

Time and again, Connell and Gabert stopped to examine distinguishing features, such as cedar trunks patterned with gold-dust lichen, which they said indicated the trees were at least 250 years old, the benchmark for ancient-forest designation.

In the years since the Caledonia Ramblers first brushed out the trail, a multitude of improvements have been added, including wooden bridges, staircases, and boardwalks, plus interpretive signs that make a snowshoe trek there not only a pleasant physical workout but a highly rewarding introduction to the intricacies of the forest environment.

“The valley is more than a location or destination,” Gabert said. “It’s a place steeped in history, rich in wildlife, rivers, mountains, and lakes that B.C. is so famous for. We’ve been exploring for years and have yet to find an equal match to its unique beauty in any of our other travels.”

Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie

Brian Murfitt's dog Kali leads the way along a West Vancouver trai.

Even during this season of occasional snowfalls, hiking and dog-walking trails on the North Shore maintain a magical charm, none more alluring than in West Vancouver’s upper lands.

ACCESS: Take Exit 4 from the Upper Levels Highway and follow Westport Road a short distance west to the trail-head parking lot. For a detailed map, as well as dog-walking regulations in West Vancouver, visit westvancouver.ca/.

In the run-up to the 2010 Winter Olympics, highway construction around Horseshoe Bay left noticeable changes in West Vancouver.

Foremost in many minds was the destruction of an ecologically sensitive area at the foot of Black Mountain to make way for the bypass connection toward Squamish and Whistler.

One puzzling aftereffect of the reconfigurations was the sudden appearance of vehicles—now regularly parked—along the south side of the Upper Levels Highway near Nelson Creek.

In a quest to unravel the mystery, we recently enlisted the aid of a local resident, architect Brian Murfitt, who frequently explores trails on the North Shore’s upper lands with his dogs.

Thanks to directions from Murfitt, it turned out that the cars tucked into the modestly sized, treed space belong to visitors bent on exploring an extensive section of the Trans Canada Trail with links to both the Baden-Powell Trail and West Vancouver’s recently completed Whyte Lake Trail.

A portion of funds earmarked from the Sea to Sky Highway project financed the new hiking trail.

Despite Whyte Lake Trail’s popularity, as attested to by the numerous cars in evidence on a weekday morning, many residents view the legacy as a sop for the obliterated land, a decision that at the time drew vigorous opposition from citizens.

How does the new trail stack up?

Despite the creation of 300 metres of boardwalk, a wooden bridge, strategically placed staircases, an elevated A-frame outhouse, and a floating dock on the shore of Whyte Lake, Murfitt felt that portions of the rock-and-roots trail left much to be desired.

“During rainy season, the drainage is awful,” he said. “The puddles get so large, I stick to the Trans Canada Trail, which is really a shame, since Whyte Lake is otherwise a lovely, moody part of the forest, especially at this time of year.”

In silent assent, spokes of sunlight burned through a stand of unlogged Douglas-fir forest, illuminating the ground cover of sword ferns.

The air rang with splashing sounds as Whyte Creek channelled a course downhill through a narrow cleft on its way to merge with the even more boisterous Nelson Creek.

Another trait of the new trail that Murfitt found puzzling was its designation as an on-leash dog zone.

“This is makes no sense to anyone, especially as the Trans Canada and the Baden-Powell trails are both off-leash.”

On the day we visited, though, no one on the single-track Whyte Lake Trail made any attempt to harness their pets.

In order to discover the rationale behind the ruling, we contacted the municipality of West Vancouver’s senior manager for parks, Andrew Banks.

“When we were constructing the Whyte Lake Trail two years ago, we decided that because this is an environmentally sensitive zone, people access was okay but dogs had to be on-leash. In general, when we build a trail—and there are now over 100 kilometres of trails in West Vancouver—the default is on-leash, much like the speed limit for cars is 50 kilometres per hour unless otherwise posted. Right now, we’re focusing on Ambleside and the waterfront area, where we’re installing new signs in response to requests for clarification from dog owners. At the moment, there’s not a defined policy for every trail on the upper lands.”

The North Shore upper lands are honeycombed with trails.

When well marked, they’re a godsend to hikers, whether in the company of canines or not.

Even on the dampest days, dense canopies of evergreens capture the majority of raindrops or snowflakes.

Few routes are level.

Count on experiencing an elevated metabolism and dopamine count as soon as you set out.

Dress appropriately, hike with two-footed companions, and you’ll enjoy one of the most exhilarating year-round outdoor experiences on offer in any urban setting.

One noticeable change in West Vancouver since the creation of the Whyte Lake Trail and expansion of the Trans Canada Trail has been much improved signage, particularly at intersections with the far older Baden-Powell Trail, a 48-kilometre route that links Horseshoe Bay with North Vancouver’s Deep Cove at the foot of Mount Seymour.

Whether you opt to wear flip-flops, waterproof boots, or a happy medium, Whyte Lake makes a satisfying two-hour roundtrip trek via the broad Trans Canada Trail, which offers a welcome to all comers.

For decades, bean-shaped Whyte Lake lay within the municipal watershed and remained off-limits.

That’s no longer the case.

From the parking-lot trail head, the approach passes beneath the Upper Levels Highway’s concrete struts, then climbs a slope near the old Inter-Provincial Bridge—a slice of the past well worth a look—which curves over Nelson Creek.

Carry on uphill to the first of several route choices at the entrance to Nelson Canyon Park.

The well-marked turnoff to Whyte Lake occurs about one kilometre east along the Trans Canada Trail.

Alternatively, hikers and off-leash dog walkers could just as easily follow a more level portion of the TCT west past Nelson Creek and connect with the two-kilometre Seaview Walk Trail in Horseshoe Bay.

Take your pick.

No matter which direction you choose, unleash your curiosity and off you go.

Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie

Redwood Park contains a replica of a tree house where the founders of the park once lived.

Tiny Redwood Park in Surrey rates high on the list of undiscovered gems in our best-selling 52 Best Day Trips from Vancouver. Here’s why, including an update on its innovative and universally-accessible  children’s playground.

ACCESS: Redwood Park lies 35 kilometres south of Vancouver. Follow Highway 99 south to the King George Highway (Exit 10) in Surrey. Go south on King George to 16th Avenue, east to 176th Street, then north to 20th Avenue and east one block to the park’s main entrance. Alternatively, enter at the trailhead and small parking area on the north side of 16th Avenue just east of 177th Street.

To reserve the tree house, contact the Surrey parks and recreation office, 604-501-5050.

For information on Hazelmere Organics, visit the company’s website or stop by their produce store on the west side of 184th Street just north of 16th Avenue beside Redwood Park.

A palpable peace hangs in the late autumn air.

With the fall harvest now all but complete, it’s time to reflect on the natural bounty that surrounds Metro Vancouver.

One such place to experience these offerings lies in South Surrey.

Even long-time residents  are still amazed to discover hidden corners of this semirural landscape.

Visitors will heartily agree with a quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson on one of the park’s interpretive markers.

“It’s not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim on men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air, that emanation from old trees that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit,” declared the Scottish novelist and travel writer.

A century ago, twin brothers David and Peter Brown were given adjacent acreages by their father on the logged hillside above Hazelmere Valley, where they dwelled until 1958.

Over the years, the twins set about reforesting the slopes with 32 species of trees native to North America, Europe, and Asia.

Among the most successful was the giant sequoia, or coast redwood, from which the park takes its name.

Other evergreens, such as incense and blue Atlas cedars, also thrived and attained sizable proportions.

At the moment, chestnuts, maples, and elms are displaying the final touches of fall colour, mimicking the squashes in bordering fields cultivated by Hazelmere Organics.

One of Redwood Park’s recent additions has been a play space custom-designed for children with mobility challenges.

Surrey parks department operations manager Tim Neufeld told us that  over the past five years, the focus on Redwood Park has been to meet universal access standards.

“We’ve improved the trails with better grades and made accessible picnic shelters; we’re slowly evolving the park into a destination for those with special needs,” he said.

The Browns probably would have approved of the inventive playground as much as the replica of a tree house where they once lived and which Surrey rebuilt in the 1980s for use by school groups, Boy Scouts, and Girl Guides.

The bachelor brothers were driven to build a cabin in the boughs of a Douglas fir after fire destroyed two previous dwellings.

Neufeld said the cabin could see better utilization, and plans are underway to use it to stage interpretive programs highlighting the park’s heritage and arboretum.
Original Article
Text CR Louise Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie ]]> http://www.jackchristie.com/2010/11/south-surreys-redwood-park-is-a-forested-enclave-of-calm/feed/ 0 http://www.jackchristie.com/2010/11/delta-nature-reserve-gives-the-public-a-peek-at-burns-bog/ http://www.jackchristie.com/2010/11/delta-nature-reserve-gives-the-public-a-peek-at-burns-bog/#comments Fri, 05 Nov 2010 22:48:28 +0000 Jack Christie http://www.jackchristie.com/?p=853

Burns Bog Conservation Society's Katie Bianchin (right) leads students from L.A. Matheson Secondary on the annual Shoreline Clean Up in Delta Nature Reserve.

We’ve covered the Burns Bog saga for almost 20 years. Here’s our most recent report that compliments a more extensive write-up in our guide 52 Best Day Trips from Vancouver

ACCESS: To reach the Delta Nature Reserve, take the River Road exit at the south end of the Alex Fraser Bridge, turn right on Nordel Court, and park beside Planet Ice at the end of the road. Follow a paved pathway east from the south side of the building that leads beneath a highway overpass and beside Davies Creek to the reserve’s entrance, a 10-minute walk.

Most Vancouverites would never guess that they live beside the largest undeveloped urban landmass in North America.

If the North Shore’s Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve springs to mind, guess again.

Burns Bog, apparently, takes the cake, at least according to information posted on the Corporation of Delta’s Web site.

Perhaps that claim should be further qualified with a notation that the bog, like much of the LSCR, is also a relatively inaccessible piece of urban geography.

Since being acquired by a consortium of four government agencies in 2004, principally Metro Vancouver, the 2,042-hectare wilderness—featuring the largest raised peat bog on the west coast of the Americas—has been kept off-limits to visitors.

Metro Vancouver Parks spokesperson Mitch Sokalski, chair of the Burns Bog Ecological Conservancy Area scientific advisory panel, related why. “In 2007, our panel identified the highest priority as raising water levels in the bog. Opening the bog to public tours is our lowest priority and probably won’t happen for at least 15 to 20 years.”

Sokalski’s reasoning irks the likes of Delta South independent MLA Vicki Huntington, said that “Nahanni [Northwest Territories] and Gros Morne [Newfoundland] national parks have boardwalks that run through their bogs. There are a lot more visitors there than here. People need to get to the heart of the bog to appreciate and protect it.”

As one of the most outspoken proponents of preserving the bog from development since the 1990s, the former Delta council member knows whereof she speaks.

Actually, a small portion (60 hectares) of Burns Bog—Delta Nature Reserve, located on the northeastern corner of the bog—is open to the public and well warrants a visit, whether to explore on foot or by bike.

Over the past year, Sarah Howie, urban environmental designer with Delta’s engineering department, has been studying the bog’s forested transition zone, formally known as a lagg, or ecotone.

When I contacted her  the doctoral candidate said her research has focused on whether or not the ecotone can be restored.

“One way is looking at other natural bogs in B.C. to compare them with what logging and peat mining have done here. I’m examining the broad landscape—the hydrology, chemistry, and ecology—but not current anthropogenic influences, such as the South Fraser Perimeter Road.”

Although construction of the controversial highway—part of the provincial government’s ambitious Gateway Program intended to link the Delta Container Terminal at Roberts Bank with the new Golden Ears Bridge—is two years behind schedule, its impact on the bog’s delicate hydrology is still squarely on the minds of scientific advisory panel members and visitors to the Delta Nature Reserve alike.

Katie Bianchin, the Burns Bog Conservation Society education development officer, told me that on guided tours she often fields questions about the impact of the new road.

“The bog occupies 40 percent of Delta,” she noted. “A lot of people don’t realize when they cross the Alex Fraser Bridge that the massive green patch they see is Burns Bog.”

Throughout the year, Bianchin introduces school groups—from elementary to university levels and drawn from as far away as the U.K.—to the bog’s unique ecology.

Several times each month from April to October, she also guides public tours of the Delta Nature Reserve.

A recent graduate of UNBC’s environmental-studies program, the outgoing Bianchin said that leading tours fits perfectly with what she likes to do.

“I grew up in Richmond and remember visiting the bog on a field trip in elementary school. Fall is a great time because the wet season is here and, after dry summer months, visiting the reserve becomes a truly boggy experience again. Mushrooms are popping up and there are still plenty of salal berries to taste.”

Remember to bring your rubber boots, she cautioned.

As soon as you enter the reserve at one of four entrances along a 2.8-kilometre network of boardwalks, the landscape immediately transforms.

No comparable environments in Metro Vancouver spring to mind.

A ground cover of evergreen Labrador tea thickly blankets the spongy forest floor, intermingled with salal bushes heavy with fruit.

The boardwalk rarely follows a straight line for long, as it zigzags between stands of stunted pine.

“This is a globally unique ecosystem,” Bianchin observed during the annual shoreline cleanup earlier in September.

“The bog’s size is the reason most people have heard of it, even if they haven’t actually been here. Our tours are highly interactive. We bounce on the moss to make the trees shake, visit old bear and fox dens, stop at a sunken tractor—a big hit with boys—and touch, smell, taste bog plants.”

Come along and get tuned into the ecotone.

Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie
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