Gain inspiration from the sun’s apparent motion.

Winter solstice occurred officially on December 22, marking a seeming momentary pause in the Earth’s oscillation.

Sunrises and sunsets appear to occur at the same times for the next few days before beginning earlier and later, respectively.

Herewith, suggestions for a quartet of cosmic destinations to achieve stasis with the solstice season while savouring the outdoors around Vancouver.

Heart-stirring views are on offer atop Minnekhada Regional Park’s High Knoll. Despite the housing sprawl in nearby Coquitlam, this hideaway at the foot of Burke Mountain feels a world apart; literally turn the corner from where the sidewalks end and pass through the looking glass into a bygone rural era.

Over the past two years, Metro Vancouver Parks has substantially upgraded Minnekhada’s 10 kilometres of walking trails.

When reached at MVP’s central-area office, operations supervisor Ron Wood told jackchristie.com that the pathways are now much wider than before.

“There’s phenomenal hiking in this park that we’ve enhanced with a new gravelled, all-weather surfacing,” he confirmed. “That especially makes the High Knoll Trail more usable, even though some people would have preferred we’d left it rougher. You can now walk side by side without worrying about slipping in wet weather.”

That last remark reflects the relative steepness of the trail’s final pitch.

Don’t worry.

Weighed against the rewards of mounting the knoll, such concerns are trifling, especially as your eyes widen to take in the panorama of peaks, waterways, forests, and farmlands.

Not inspired to make the ascent?

There’s plenty of inspiration to be had merely by walking the figure-eight trails that trace the marshy outlines of two ponds whose glassy surfaces reflect Burke Mountain and the park’s lumpy landscapes—stillness to the nth power.

On outings along North Shore trails, vistas rarely make it onto the menu.

The defining features of the landscape, particularly on local peaks in Mount Seymour and Cypress provincial parks, are towering trees, some a millennium or more old.

Ancient forests give off a sheltering vibe, never more so than when winter closes in.

Strap on snowshoes or slip into sturdy boots and off you go.

Welcoming public trails lead from the parking lots at winter-sports operations in both parks, convenient starting points.

Snow crystals absorb all sounds except the crunch of footsteps and the measured inhalation of pure air.

Pause beneath a massive old-growth tree on Cypress’s two-kilometre Yew Lake Trail.

Take a true measure of the stillness while meandering through the woods and meadows.

For a peek across the mouth of Howe Sound from Mount Strachan’s flank, venture one kilometre past the Old Growth Loop on the adjoining Bowen Lookout Trail.

Achieve that same reward, with plentiful views sprinkled into the mix, along Mount Seymour’s First Lake Loop Trail.

To stretch out a snowshoe ramble and spend more time standing still while catching your breath, head up the seven-kilometre Mount Seymour Trail.

(Snowshoes are available for rent at both Mount Seymour Resort and Cypress Mountain’s Hollyburn Ridge.)

Few natural features stand as solemn and still as mountains.

But even in the coldest weather, nothing runs faster than water pouring off their slopes.

In the Callaghan Valley just south of Whistler, Madeley Creek gushes from its headwaters tucked high above in the glacier-sculpted folds between Mount Callaghan and Rainbow Mountain.

At a small, easily accessible recreation site, Alexander Falls forms in three drops, with the creek currently hidden behind a frozen curtain.

The fact that this only occurs in winter is a shame, as far fewer visitors get to experience the special magic of this spot, where a bench honours a couple who vowed eternal love.

Hold that kiss.

Choose between two approaches: from roadside just prior to the entrance to Whistler Olympic Park, follow an open, unplowed lane that leads downhill to a viewing platform; or a snowshoe trail accessed from the nearby Callaghan Country cross-country ski centre offers a close-up perspective beside the falls.

To get a big-picture perspective on a solstice sunset, head to Iona Beach Regional Park in Richmond, near YVR.

It is quickly accessible from downtown by vehicle, and cyclists can reach the park via the Canada Line to Richmond’s Templeton Station, from where an 11-kilometre stretch of smooth roadway leads to the park’s gates.

On arrival, choose your approach: a four-kilometre jetty lances west into the Strait of Georgia; to the north, an equal stretch of beach fringed with driftwood runs out to distant Point No Point, where the Fraser River meets the strait.

Bundle up; winds knife through all but the most windproof clothing.

Fortunately, two Plexiglas shelters at the jetty’s middle and end points offer islands of refuge for cyclists and determined walkers.

Halt and down a bracing beverage as stillness suddenly reigns blessedly supreme.

ACCESS: Minnekhada Regional Park lies 34 kilometres east of Vancouver in Coquitlam; Iona Beach Regional Park lies 15 kilometres south of Vancouver in Richmond. For information and directions to both, visit www.metrovancouver.org/services/parks_lscr/regionalparks/Pages/default.aspx. Information on trails in North Vancouver’s Mount Seymour and West Vancouver’s Cypress provincial parks is posted at www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/index.html. Alexander Falls lies 6.5 kilometres south of Whistler. From Highway 99, follow well-marked Callaghan Lake Road nine kilometres to the entrances to Whistler Olympic Park and Callaghan Country. For information on Callaghan Country’s Alexander Falls Loop Trail, visit www.callaghancountry.com/winter/snowshoeing

Unrivalled by any other Canadian jurisdiction, this city is blessed with an abundance of municipal, regional, and provincial parks, plus several wildlife sanctuaries.

Thanks to tax dollars and private donations, admission to most of these green spaces comes free of charge—except for parking fees, of course, though those were thankfully rescinded in B.C. provincial parks earlier this year.

Thus, in the category of “best free features in local parks”, the restored free parking in West Vancouver’s Cypress and North Vancouver’s Mount Seymour provincial parks ranks those spots right behind the top three finalists.

Hands down, the winner in this category has to be Lynn Canyon Park’s suspension bridge, just east of Lynn Valley Road on Peters Road.

Don’t confuse this with Vancouver’s top tourist attraction, the Capilano Suspension Bridge, located farther west on Capilano Road.

Unlike its counterpart, Lynn Canyon’s swaying walkway allows access from both banks, between which Lynn Creek tumbles.

Each year, between 750,000 and one million visitors cross the free bridge, which originally opened in 1912 in one of the North Shore’s first public green spaces.

Earlier this summer, we met District of North Vancouver ranger Tyler Perrier-Ehrlick midway across Lynn Canyon’s 40-metre drooping span.

The first-year Capilano University student said he had the best job in the world, one that dovetailed perfectly with his studies in outdoor-recreation management. “Four hundred people applied for this job,” the 19-year-old recounted. “I was lucky enough to be chosen. Now I’ve got summer employment for at least the next two years while I complete school.”

Perrier-Ehrlick’s boss, Andy Robinson, is North Vancouver’s head ranger and sole full-time park patroller.

Born just up the road from Lynn Canyon Park, the 45-year-old gives credit to the half-dozen seasonal staff members who assist him in the “pretty vast” job of supervising the district’s 152 parks, beaches, and greenbelts.

“We really focused on Lynn Canyon this year, offering public information and safety tips on what to see and where to go,” he said by phone, “especially as the suspension bridge is the best gateway in Metro for adventure tourists.”

That’s no idle claim.

What Robinson referenced is a massive 10,535 hectares of wilderness and semiwilderness that not only encompasses Lynn Canyon Park’s cliff faces, gravel bars, and densely forested trails but also takes in the adjoining Lynn Headwaters Regional Park and Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve.

Asked to pinpoint his picks as the best corners of Lynn Canyon Park to explore (beyond the bridge), Robinson listed 30 Foot Pool for openness, Twin Falls and Corner Pool for serenity, and the boardwalk-covered Varley Trail that follows Lynn Creek into Lynn Headwaters Park for colour.

“In fall, the water is crystal green where the creek has worn native rocks smooth over the years.”

As for the best places to walk dogs off-leash, he suggested south of Twin Falls, where a trail leads past Corner Pool toward Inter River Park.

“In spring and fall, it pays to keep your dog on-leash and out of the water. The swift-flowing current has carried more than a few away. There was nothing the owners could do to save them.”

Robinson particularly regrets that Lynn Canyon Park, including the bridge, is not wheelchair-accessible.

“Unfortunately, it’s hard to even carry strollers on the trails, as you have to always keep an eye on your footing. That being said, this is a great family park. There’s so much to see, looking up into the forest canopy, spotting wildlife, enjoying nature. This is the best of all worlds, so look after it. We welcome feedback. It’s great to hear from people. Speak up for your community.”

One person not shy to pipe up about the best free feature in East Vancouver’s Kensington Park (33rd Avenue and Knight Street) is Wee Wong, proprietor of Auto Repairs R “Wee”.

The long-time skateboarder proudly points to Kensington’s year-old skatepark, informally known as Carver Bowl, as one of the top three destinations for skaters in Metro, along with Bonsar (or Metro) Skatepark in Burnaby’s Metrotown neighbourhood and Hastings Skatepark on the Renfrew Street side of the PNE grounds.

“This is a world-class destination,” Wee told us at Kensington after work, “the first of its kind in North America. It’s a small park but it has everything you’d want in a pool-style design, including a ‘death box’ [a replica pool filter] that’s fun to grind over, but you have to be careful not to get your trucks hung up on it, or you’ll go flying into the deep end.”

Kensington, an instant hit with local skaters, is the latest in a series of Vancouver skateparks, all located on the city’s east side.

To Wong, this poses the question of when a similar facility will be created in an oceanside setting such as Jericho Park.

Meanwhile, the 47-year-old self-described old-school skater is happy to mentor a group of local youngsters, including his eight-year-old son, Rylee. “These kids have improved so much over the past year with this new terrain to practise in. At the annual Jaks competition, held recently in the China Creek Skatepark, all our riders came first in their categories.”

As proof, Wong pointed to the new athletic shoes worn by his “Wee Boys” riders, prizes garnered by their award-winning performances.

In addition to its drop-dead-gorgeous location, Kensington’s skatepark boasts a number of unique artificial features, the foremost being a jumbo likeness of a vinyl LP, complete with grooves and bent at a 45-degree angle, a tribute to Don “Mad Carver” Hartley, who died following a collision with a fellow skater two years ago.

“Don wore his helmet 99 percent of the time,” Wong related. “After a competition, he decided to do one more run, didn’t put his helmet on, and whacked his head. The tiles around the rim of the bowl were painted red, gold, and green rasta colours to honour his talents as a reggae DJ.”

The LP, positioned to frame skaters against a panoramic backdrop of the North Shore mountains, has quickly proven its worth, offering money-shot material for action-sports photographers, gratis.

Nothing reveals hidden wonders of the natural world better than a free bird-watching tour with Al Grass at the Maplewood Flats Conservation Area on North Vancouver’s Dollarton Highway.

The renowned naturalist always draws a crowd.

Thankfully, Grass’s expressive voice carries on the breezes that waft across Burrard Inlet east of the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing.

Whether or not you own binoculars, head there on the second Saturday morning of each month. Come prepared to be astonished at the avian life that appears as if on cue.

Grass felt October’s jaunt may well be the best of the year.

“October is one of the most excellent months, especially if the weather is in our favour. It’s the height of the fall migration, when warblers arrive in waves together with shore birds and raptors.”

Often accompanied by his wife, Jude, Grass leads extended rambles along the extensive network of wheelchair- and stroller-accessible trails at Maplewood Flats.

Spotting telescopes provide close-up looks at osprey nests built atop wooden pilings offshore.

Grass’s keen eye is all that’s needed to spy tiny green tree frogs sitting motionless at the centre of broadleaf maple leaves.

Grass said that sitting still is one of his favourite pastimes, particularly on a bench overlooking the mud flats at Osprey Point adjacent to a butterfly garden, “the best place to feel like you’re away from the hustle-bustle of urban sprawl”.

And, just like the sun, it’s free.

Travel writer and broadcaster Jack Christie’s 52 Best Day Trips from Vancouver is the type of travel book you keep handy and refer to often – and a good thing just got better with the new edition.

The first edition of 52 Best Day Trips arrived on the scene almost 20 years ago.

British Columbia’s parks, lakes, beaches and trails have changed since then and Christie has monitored these landscape shifts, providing updated maps and directions in his latest edition.

He lays out clearly for the reader the many natural adventures available for exploration in the region.

Birdwatching, fishing, kayaking, ice-skating, hiking, biking, swimming and simple trail walks are among the myriad ways to engage with and enjoy our pristine parks.

Christie’s words evoke tranquil escapes, and a solution to city life cabin fever during any season.

Christie’s 30 years of day tripping in the Lower Mainland have been well documented in his contributions as a columnist for the Georgia Straight and on Shaw TV’s The Rec Report.

Refreshingly, this 300-page resource does not read like a tourism brochure.

Christie delivers from his deep well of knowledge in a way that leaves you feeling like you’ve just conversed with a trusted travel guide about the secrets of each B.C. day trip destination.

Christie’s lush prose flows between useful facts and figures about local history, the wilderness, secret vistas and roadside picnic picks.

Reflecting on a visit to PoCo and Coquitlam Dike Trails, Christie writes, “So calm is the surface of the Pitt River that it exactly mirrors the surrounding mountains in all their glory. On a clear day, your vision, under a pale-blue sky, is of a world so impeccable that it will erase all of the smudges and fingerprints left on your mind by the cares and concerns of everyday life.”

And that’s just one trip to a PoCo park.

The veteran travel writer supplies detailed season-by-season info nuggets about each park and region.

Who knew, for instance, that the Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C. restocks Deer Lake with rainbow trout each spring to encourage urbanites to “toss in a line?”

The revised edition highlights fast facts in the introduction to each area.

Before diving into pages of location details, the reader can learn at a glance the distance from Vancouver, detailed directions by car or transit and a quick hit of top activities.

Colony Farm Regional Park and the Sea to Sky Trail are new additions to Christie’s guide, as well as details about dog-friendly parks and wheelchair access.

52 Best Day Trips from Vancouver is a delightful, compact volume packed with Christie’s insights and knowledge.

Here’s a new idea for travellers who’ve already explored southern Vancouver Island, including Victoria and Duncan, with our best-selling guide book Best Weekend Getaways from Vancouver

ACCESS: For details on the Pacific Marine Circle Route, visit www.th.gov.bc.ca/circle_routes/pacific_marine.htm. For tourist information on the route, including accommodation and dining, visit www.vancouverisland.travel and hellobc.com.

If you’re the kind of traveller who doesn’t like to retrace your steps, B.C.’s network of circle routes is for you.

Whether you have a day or several weeks at your disposal, eight scenic byways spiral either north from Vancouver to the Yukon Territory or east from Vancouver Island to Alberta.

The most recent addition, the 255-kilometre Pacific Marine Circle Route, invites explorers to traverse the coastlines of southwestern Vancouver Island and the mountainous spine between them.

Along the way, it passes through Victoria,  Duncan, Lake Cowichan, Port Renfrew, and Sooke.

At the time of the Pacific Marine’s inauguration, in 2005, Lake Cowichan’s then-mayor Jack Peake, one of the route’s most ardent proponents, was quoted as saying: “Today is Christmas for me. This is the day, folks. I want to see some of those tour buses coming in here. There is no way of defining how valuable this is for the community.”

Four years later, with the blacktopping of a formerly rough stretch of logging road between Lake Cowichan and Port Renfrew, the route really came into its own. No longer were drivers faced with a jarring jaunt across a narrow, pothole-dimpled backroad.

Four years later,  Lake Cowichan’s current mayor, Ross Forrest, confirmed that the circle route was, indeed, having the desired impact on his town.

“We’re starting to see the effects. Last summer, our info centre had 20,000 people pass through its doors. Forty percent of visitors were asking for details on the route. The road seems particularly popular with motorcyclists. It’s twisty, so I guess that appeals to them. I know when our family entertains visitors, it’s a treat to take them to see the big tree at Harris Creek to give them an idea of what’s there—or at least what was there before the logging. It’s also becoming a hot spot with geocaching groups.”

When asked to describe his community, Forrest—who was born and raised in Lake Cowichan, where he has resided for 55 years—said, “In one word: beautiful. Our clean lake and river resources are second to none. The town doesn’t have the economy like it had decades ago, when we were a forestry centre and everyone made pretty good money. Since local mills at places like Youbou have shut down, we’ve transitioned to tourism or as a bedroom community for Duncan and even Victoria.”

Farther west, Port Renfrew Resorts owner Perry Heatherington said by phone that the opening of the Pacific Marine Circle Route had produced “quite drastic changes” for the village best known as the southern terminus of the West Coast Trail. “We have motorcycle groups of 60 to 100 riders showing up, plus lots of day trippers from Nanaimo and Duncan. We never saw this before. The route is wide open for them. Before they paved the road, you had to really want to be here. Now if you want to come for lunch, you can.”

An hour west of Victoria in Sooke, an oceanside community currently undergoing rapid changes, Lorien Arnold, owner of Sooke Mountain Cycle, said that having the circle route has produced some unexpected results.

“It’s a little bit of a weird thing. The recreational route draws folks of all shades of adventure. Not only are people visiting the beaches, they’re also going out into the rain forest, finding big trees and trying to protect them. One example is the large Douglas fir in Avatar Grove beside the road just north of Port Renfrew. I was just out there with my young daughter. It’s an amazing thing to witness. Surf and rain forest together are becoming a big deal. I was at Sombrio Beach two days ago and there were a hundred wave riders. The locals aren’t stoked, but you can’t keep a secret forever.”

When Arnold bought Sooke Cycle and Surf seven years ago, he dropped the shop’s long-time involvement with board sports to concentrate on serving the burgeoning mountain-bike community. “With surfing going so big, I guess I’ll have to get back into it.”

Long before Tofino became identified as B.C.’s big-wave hot spot, beaches along Highway 14 between Port Renfrew and Sooke—such as Sombrio, Mystic, China, Jordan River, and French—lured a nascent group of board aficionados.

When winter storms kicked up swells, members of the Jordan River Surf Club gathered to test their mettle in bone-rattling conditions.

In the 1980s, the tightly knit clique evolved into the West Coast Surfing Association. Today, the club’s funky wooden sauna still stands, padlocked, on a point of land overlooking the broad beach.

When we stopped by in January, a friendly attendant manned the beach’s now-gated entrance. For a modest admittance fee, visitors can park, enjoy the view across Juan de Fuca Strait to Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula, or even head out into the swells if so inclined.

On this day, a stiff breeze confined surfers to shore but hardly deterred their windsurfing compatriots from skimming along.

Among the many sights on offer along the circle route, this iconic West Coast image still presents the most compelling reason to journey here.

]]> http://www.jackchristie.com/2011/03/circling-the-coast/feed/ 0 http://www.jackchristie.com/2011/01/674/ http://www.jackchristie.com/2011/01/674/#comments Mon, 03 Jan 2011 19:51:15 +0000 Jack Christie http://www.jackchristie.com/?p=674

Jade Humble prepares for a day of ski touring at Golden’s Kicking Horse Mountain Resort.

UPDATE: Congratulations to Greg Hill on achieving his goal of skiing 2 million vertical feet in 2010.  Check out his website for the final count.

ACCESS: Golden lies 713 kilometres east of Vancouver on Highway 1. For information on Kicking Horse Mountain Resort’s Dawn Patrol, call 1-866-754-5425. For information on Purcell Helicopter Skiing’s heli-ski touring program, visit or call 1-877-435-4754. To view Greg Hill’s exploits, visit greghill.ca/.

There’s no sound like skis sliding across snow, according to Katie Campbell, a customer-service representative with Purcell Heli-skiing in Golden.

“Ski touring in the stillness of the outdoors in winter is meditative,” she said . ” I cherish the sound of my own breath and the crunch of snow. I’m prepared to walk uphill all day to earn my turns.”

Such sentiments help explain a growing trend among younger skiers in search of new ways to explore the white world.

Campbell remarked that potential ski tourers—including snowboarders equipped with split boards—should be at least moderately fit with intermediate- to high-level snow-sliding skills.

“Ski touring is a small-group activity—usually four or five at most—where you take on the challenge of learning how to move safely in the mountain environment.”

It helps that her home in the Columbia Valley is surrounded by range after range of Rocky and Purcell mountain peaks.

“Touring turns the typical concept of downhill skiing on its head. You’re not chasing any vertical record for descents in a day. It’s the experience of being out there that counts.”

As with any new activity, the question is where to start.

This season, both Purcell Heliskiing and its neighbour, Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, are rolling out innovative new ski-touring programs to meet the demand.

As Campbell pointed out, “Rogers Pass is getting crowded, if you can believe it.”

Although the historic pass in the heart of Glacier National Park, midway between Golden and Revelstoke, has a long-standing reputation for mountaineering, in recent years ski tourers such as Greg “Million-Foot Man” Hill have begun documenting their exploits on video and posting alluring accounts of the region on the Internet.

In turn, that publicity has fuelled a bonanza of interest in self-supported exploration of Glacier’s snow fields.

To do so is to share in a tradition established by Swiss guides who settled in Golden at the invitation of the Canadian Pacific Railway more than a century ago. Former Swiss national ski team racer Rudi Gertsch, who launched Purcell Helicopter Skiing in the 1970s, is one of the more recent arrivals.

A day of helicopter skiing is expensive. For example, Purcell Heli-skiing charges between $709 and $849 for three- or five-run packages.

Because heli-ski touring only requires one or two drop-offs and pickups, the cost is more affordable, varying from $375 to $550, though that doesn’t include equipment rental.

When cutting tracks through the dry, fluffy powder found in B.C.’s Interior, wider-than-average skis are a must. These help trekkers glide across rather than sink knee-deep in what locals, such as Kicking Horse’s mountain host, John Parry, refer to as “hero snow”.

On fat skis or a snowboard, the feeling is akin to floating in eiderdown.

When it comes to a resort with as much open terrain as Kicking Horse, and where conditions can easily change from blue skies to a whiteout, the most sensible approach is to team up with a knowledgeable local like Parry. Upon retirement five years ago, he and his wife moved west, from Quebec to Golden.

One look at the former phys ed teacher’s ruddy complexion confirms his claim of spending as much as a hundred days a year on snow.

Each morning, Parry gathers visitors around him in front of the resort’s Big Mountain Centre, gauges the group’s ability level, and then leads them onto the nearby gondola for a 20-minute ascent to the top of Dogtooth Ridge.

From that aerie, views stretch out across adjacent ranges stacked in rows like static waves. Ropes helpfully define the limits beyond which skiers and snowboarders venture at their peril.

One look at the vastness of the patrolled and avalanche-controlled terrain reveals enough in-bounds opportunities to satisfy all but the most vagabond spirits.

To see beyond the boundaries into an untracked wilderness rife with endless possibilities is to understand the allure of ski touring.

If would-be adventurers are undeterred by the potential dangers of exploring the backcountry on their own, guides at Kicking Horse have decided this season to offer courses in ski touring.

Over the span of a day’s outing, the Dawn Patrol program educates small groups in how to ski big mountains.

Specifically designed to teach first-time tourers how to cross steep terrain, training takes place in the expert-rated back bowls accessed from the top of the appropriately named Stairway to Heaven chair lift.

Thanks to a partnership with several ski and snowboard manufacturers, as part of the $449 group package, up to five participants are outfitted with the latest backcountry gear featuring reverse-camber technology, as well as the entire kit of avalanche bells and whistles, shovels and probes.

As informed and choosy as one might be in the backcountry, when it comes to assessing danger, there’s no way to eliminate the risk factor outright.

One can only manage the danger within acceptable limits, a fact worth keeping in mind constantly in the beckoning silence, whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned pro.

Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie

Life-size storybook-themed mannequins like Little Miss Muffet twirl around a stage in Victoria’s Butchart Gardens’ holiday display.

ACCESS: The VanDusen Botanical Garden’s Festival of Lights runs through January 2 and is open daily except December 25 from 4:30 to 9 p.m. The Butchart Gardens are located in Brentwood Bay, 23 kilometres north of Victoria and 20 kilometres south of B.C. Ferries’ Swartz Bay terminal. The Magic of Christmas runs through January 6. More information on Butchart Gardens is included in our travel guide Best Weekend Getaways from Vancouver.

The calendar may be divided into four seasons, but as most celebrants know, Christmas is a fifth season all its own—a time of inner reflection that basks in the uplifting prospect of renewal.

Although nature may be throttling back on growth for the next few months, at least the sun begins to strengthen and days lengthen in response.

As a way of celebrating the winter solstice, VanDusen Botanical Garden director Harry Jongerden glories in the annual Festival of Lights mounted by his staff.

“People look at me quizzically when I say lighting up plants is a good way to enhance nature,” he told us. “Yet this is the time of year when plants tend to get ignored. To decorate them with lights is to be reminded of their abiding presence.”

After an eight-year stint as head gardener at the Stratford Festival in Ontario earlier in his career, Jongerden admitted he has a background of sorts in show business.

Yet VanDusen is his first experience with light shows.

“I’ve arrived to discover this is a big event that brings in sufficient revenue to support the garden year-round.”

Jongerden pointed out that Stanley Park’s yearly Bright Nights event is put on by members of the B.C. Professional Fire Fighters Association Burn Fund, and VanDusen’s festival is the only such civic affair entirely staged by Vancouver park board employees.

“It gives staff the chance to display the artistic talent of gardeners while at the same time heightening the garden’s reputation with the public.”

As much as the Festival of Lights appeals primarily to families, Jongerden observed that the month-long gala is just as much a couples’ activity.

“It’s a date night. I see an awful lot of visitors strolling hand in hand.”

With the wintry romance of Christmas in the air, VanDusen’s team of garden elves lobbied Jongerden to add more variety to the festival’s Dancing Lights musical presentation.

To that end, tunes with “a jazzy, dreamy feel” now accompany one of the twice-hourly performances of choreographed lights centred on Livingstone Lake.

And such lights!

The saturation of colours is an enchanting display that not only enrobes bushes and tree branches but also fires up drifts of ornamental glass tulips that glow defiantly with the prospect of spring.

The cumulative effect is magical enough to cleanse even the most die-hard skeptic of humbug.

Once the high-octane advent of Christmas crescendoes, take time to bask in the afterglow.

Tradition prescribes a well-earned break.

In the Middle Ages, the 12 days of Christmastide were ones of continuous feasting and merrymaking.

Much like VanDusen, Victoria’s Butchart Gardens do their best to sustain the Yuletide enchantment as long as possible.

Over the past two decades, the privately owned, family-operated garden has mounted the Magic of Christmas, with displays of storybook-themed mannequins throughout much of the 22-hectare property.

The garden’s public-relations director, Graham Bell,  said that “next to the late-spring-to-early-fall season, the month-long celebration is the second-biggest blip on our radar. The amount of preparation is massive. In June, we start making the bows that we use to dress up the trees. By October, while the gardeners are planting bulbs, we’re stringing lights and suspending the big glass balls at the entrance.”

Given that many of the displays are mounted in the garden’s lakes and ponds, an early start to preparations before ice forms is a must.

When it comes to lights, few displays outperform VanDusen’s intensity.

By the same token, Butchart’s amusing decorations are presented on a scale unmatched elsewhere.

As visitors stroll along pathways that lead through sheltering forests and old quarries similar to those in Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Park, larger-than-life tableaux modelled on images from the carol

“The Twelve Days of Christmas” appear.

The more familiar you are with the lyrics, the quicker you’ll pick up on the humour.

For example, three French hens sip espresso in a café.

Farther along, four toucans perched on spreading branches make calls on mobile phones.

You get the picture.

Entirely unexpected are the nine life-size—and lifelike—dancing feminine figurines lifted from the pages of children’s storybooks, such as Cinderella, Little Miss Muffet, and Snow White, who twirl around an outdoor stage mounted beside a towering sequoia grove.

In the midst of the seasonal displays is an equally enthralling menagerie of 30 carved wooden animals mounted on the Rose Carousel.

Watching bears, horses, orcas, and ostriches circle inside the domed Children’s Pavilion is enough to trigger a dizzy spell.

Step outside for some fresh air, where the aromatic scent of cedars further enhances the esprit de Noël.

Yet after making the rounds of the garden, don’t be surprised if you have a nagging sense of having missed something.

Where are the 12 drummers drumming?

As you head home from this land of make-believe, look up.

There stand a dozen toy soldiers beating out a mute tattoo among the stars.

And to all a good night.

Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie

Fraser Island’s attractions include the shipwreck of the luxury passenger liner S.S. Maheno.

ACCESS: Fraser Island lies 300 kilometres north of Brisbane on Queensland’s east coast. For details on day trips and extended island tours, visit www.fraserexplorertours.com, www.frasercoastholidays.info, and www.queenslandholidays.com.au. Daily ferry service to Fraser Island destinations, including Kingfisher Bay, departs from River Heads, Hervey Bay, and Wanggoolba Bay. For details, visit www.fraserislandbarges.com.au/.

Crikey!

Queensland’s Fraser Island is one big sand pile.

In fact, the 123-kilometre/74-mile-long strand ranks as the biggest sand island in the world.

For those familiar with B.C. sand islands, such as Savary near Powell River—surely one of Canada’s, if not the world’s, smallest examples—no visit to Australia’s east coast would be complete without a journey to Fraser.

Quick access by ferry from the mainland makes for a relaxed day trip.

For those with enough time, the Fraser Island Great Walk leads the length of the platypus-shaped island, with rudimentary campgrounds strung along the way.

Much of the easy-to-moderate route traverses hard-packed beaches.

Budget a week.

Australians are big on long-distance walks, hardly surprising for a nation steeped in the Aboriginal tradition of walkabouts.

Tens of thousands of backpackers each year journey to Fraser to experience the natural wonders of the island’s ecosystem; therefore, reservations for walkers’ camps are a must.

Water is in short supply, and trekkers must be fully self-sufficient.

One galling aspect of Fraser Island is that although surrounded by warm Pacific Ocean waters at the southern extremity of the Great Barrier Reef, swimming in the sea is emphatically discouraged.

Tiger sharks lurk in the swells that pummel the shoreline.

To stay out of reach of the sharks, the dark-hued manta rays float as far forward in the swells as possible.

Profiles of their white-sided predator kin can be glimpsed offshore in the walls of breaking surf.

Kite-shaped rays are easily spotted from elevated perches, such as the seat of a tour bus.  That’s where we met guide Murray Wessling.

A resident of Fraser Island for 35 years, the former fisheries officer became a tour guide five years ago “because I wanted to make people happy rather than hassle them”.

Wessling had a lifetime of harrowing experiences to relate, from surviving an adder bite to shark and jellyfish encounters.

At one stop, he dipped his hand in the surf and drew out a tiny blue-bottle jellyfish, or Portuguese man-of-war.

“These blokes are often confused with jellies,” he drawled. “Blue bottles are actually a colony of four kinds of highly modified marine invertebrates joined together as one. Despite their minute size, their stings cause painful welts that last for days. Be careful where you step. Even when dead, they’ll still burn you.”

Wessling said he’d been stung so often that his skin was immune to the venom. To demonstrate, he held the “bluey” long enough for it to inflame his palm, then he deadpanned: “Despite what you may have heard, urinating on a sting actually makes it worse, not better.”

Wessling’s firsthand knowledge, combined with cautions regarding potential dangers—such as snakes that look like fallen leaves and spring tides capable of overwhelming SUVs—would prove invaluable to first-time visitors who might otherwise be tempted to rent a four-wheel-drive vehicle and head off to Fraser Island on a camping trip, the favoured approach of many Australians.

Aside from endless beaches and a plentiful food supply, Wessling cited equally compelling reasons why the indigenous Butchulla people named the island K’gari’, or paradise.

As he drove uphill and inland from the beach along rutted sand tracks scoured by recent rains, a startling azure expanse rose into view.

Perched among bleached columns of eucalyptus trees—Fraser is the only place on Earth where towering rain forest grows in sand—Lake McKenzie is the most impressive and easiest to reach of more than a hundred such dune lakes that freckle the island’s subtropical environment.

To further heighten the effect, white silica sand collars the foreshore. You can shine up silver or gold jewellery with silica—instant lustre renewal.

Rub some on your skin to achieve a tingly effect.

Fraser’s wonderland extends beyond the lake to sacred streambed birthing places at Central Station, a former logging camp that now serves as a peaceful sanctuary for both trekkers and day-trippers keen to learn more about the island interplay between nature and humans.

Water filtered through sand is some of the cleanest in the world, and here it provided an antiseptic medium in which the island’s indigenous women once delivered children.

The last group of resident natives left Fraser for the mainland a century ago.

Treaty negotiations have recently seen ownership of a portion of the island returned to the Butchulla.

Newly installed bronze totems along Central Station’s boardwalk trail, sculpted by aboriginal artists, silently witness the reclamation.

Ferries constantly shuttle across the Great Sandy Strait between the Queensland coast and Kingfisher Bay, the major port of call for Fraser Island tours as well as one of two island locations offering overnight accommodation.

Passengers are welcome on the bridge to chat with the captain during the one-hour crossing.

Crew members are prime sources of insider information on geographical details and the best chances of sighting marine wildlife such as humpback whales, considerable numbers of which frequent the strait from July to November.

Seems like all creatures great and small gravitate to Fraser Island.

Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie ]]> http://www.jackchristie.com/2010/11/exploring-australias-fraser-island/feed/ 0 http://www.jackchristie.com/2010/09/with-dahlia-show-garden-missions-ferncliff-gardens-celebrates-90-years/ http://www.jackchristie.com/2010/09/with-dahlia-show-garden-missions-ferncliff-gardens-celebrates-90-years/#comments Sun, 19 Sep 2010 22:05:20 +0000 Jack Christie http://www.jackchristie.com/?p=844

Santiago Morales enjoys the views of Mission and the Fraser Valley from Westminster Abbey.

As featured in our guide “52 Best Day Trips from Vancouver”

ACCESS: Mission lies 80 kilometres east of Vancouver on Highway 7. The Mission Visitors’ Guide, with detailed street maps of the area, is available from the Travel Info Centre on the north side of the highway. Information on Ferncliff Gardens is posted at FerncliffGardens.com. The Dahlia Show Garden is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. until October 3. Neilson Park lies just north of Ferncliff Gardens. From the gardens, turn left on McEwen Road, then immediately right on Edwards Road and follow the signs to the park. To reach Westminster Abbey from Highway 7, take Stave Lake Road to the Dewdney Trunk Road. Turn right and go east just past Goundrey Street.Despite a widespread inclination to write off the sunny season come back-to-school time, rest assured that there’s still plenty of time to follow Virgil’s advice: “If thou art wise, lay thee down now and steep thyself in a bowl of summertime.”

This month and next, there’s no finer bower in which to comply with the Roman poet’s advice than the Dahlia Show Garden in Mission.

Now in its 90th year, Ferncliff Gardens, which hosts the display in the north Fraser Valley town’s Hatzic neighbourhood, was originally planted by proprietor David Jack’s grandfather, Milton.

When contacted, Jack explained that during the past 44 years, he and his wife, Sheila, have carried on the family tradition.

Although they cultivate other varieties, such as irises and peonies, the couple’s first love is dahlias. “It’s our favourite flower,” he enthused. “Unlike irises, which only last two weeks, these bloom for three-and-a-half months throughout the summer and into October. No other flower can boast lasting that long. And the shapes, sizes, and colours are extraordinary. The only shades they don’t come in are blue and green. Dahlias don’t emit a perfume, either, so [they] make up for it in other ways.”

Currently, the Jacks have 150 varieties on display, which gives visitors a chance to see a full array, including several new ones. “Over the years, I’ve developed about 30 varieties. These days I usually put out five or six new ones each year, such as a purple one I named Ferncliff Mystique and two yellow ones, Sunbeam and Moon Mist. Dave likes yellow,” he added self-referentially.

Earlier this summer, the Christies  stopped at the Jacks’ Tudor-style farmhouse, which sits sheltered behind a cedar hedge; the main barn and show garden lay just beyond, at road’s end.

Rows of irises were all but finished in the fields.

Although the Jacks still market irises to buyers across the continent, flagging interest means they no longer open their garden to the public in spring as they once did.

“Iris sales are down,” Jack said. “The generation below us isn’t gardening as much. At $6 to $8 a root, dahlias give you more bloom for your buck.”

Meanwhile, on the skyline above Ferncliff Gardens rises Westminster Abbey’s bell tower.

The abbey’s well-tended grounds offer a pastoral place to enjoy a panoramic view that not only takes in nearby Hatzic Lake but also the Fraser River as it carves through the valley, with Mount Baker’s distinctively shaped snow cone rising in Washington state to the south.

Santiago Morales, a Chilean foreign-language student visiting the abbey, commented the sight was reminiscent of his home at the foot of the Andes.

“It’s the only mountain around Vancouver that looks like a volcano,” he said. “This beautiful location makes me homesick. But there’s also nothing like this that I’ve ever seen before, either in Chile or here in B.C.”

Although the interior of the abbey’s chapel is off-limits except during afternoon choral vespers services, visitors are always welcome to stroll the pathways that loop through a forest dominated by tall rhododendrons and that lead to one of the valley’s most commanding viewpoints, high above Mission.

As well as being home to an order of Benedictine monks, the abbey is also a working farm; its produce and livestock supply the mostly self-sufficient monastery with much of its needs.

As summer days arc towards the autumn equinox, here’s another suggestion: pack a picnic and head east to Mission for a different local attraction.

As the Lougheed Highway enters the north Fraser Valley, it passes a few of the remaining cedar mills that once dominated the local logging industry.

Before or after a stop at Ferncliff Gardens, seek out nearby Neilson Regional Park, tucked away on the western shore of Hatzic Lake. (Note: no pets allowed.)

A wide swath of grass runs downhill to the lake, where there are several picnic tables in a shaded grove.

If you’ve brought a canoe or kayak along, launch into the waters of the warm, shallow lake that stretches north toward the folds of the Coast Mountains.

Views from out on the water surpass those in the 10-hectare park as the abbey’s signature bell tower appears yet again.

If you’re there mid-morning on Sundays, you’ll be treated to the ringing of the tower’s 10 bells.

To further steep yourself in bounty, continue east to Agassiz, where you’ll discover an abundance of fresh produce and artisan cow and goat cheeses on sale at local shops and farms, including the popular Sparkles Corn Barn.

Endless summer, indeed.

Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie

2010 UPDATE: On August 6, 2010, a massive avalanche on Capricorn Creek, the second-largest such natural event in Canadian history, swept down into Meager Creek and pushed its way along into a portion of  the Lillooet River.

Road access into the hot springs, the Lillooet River campground, and Upper Lillooet Provincial Park, is now completely cut off and seems  likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.

A selection of photos of the devestation around Mt Meager and Meager Creek is posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbsteers/with/4869549959/ To read the photographer’s account, visit  thetyee.ca/News/2010/08/12/MeagerLandslide/

Note: The Lillooet River Forest Road is closed at kilometre 9.

Pemberton’s  Slow Food Cycle on Sunday, August 15, is scheduled to go ahead as planned. Visit for www.slowfoodcyclesunday.com for details.

2009 ALERT: During heavy rains on Sept 18 + 19, 2009, a mud-and-debris slide washed out the Capricorn Creek Bridge and covered the Meager Creek/Lillooet Forest Service Road three kilometres downstream from Meager Creek Hot Springs. The mud is waist deep in some areas and some of the large boulders that came down with the slide could shift due to slope instability. The Sea to Sky Recreation District says the bridge will liely be replaced in spring, 2010

2008

When you’re looking for a little sanctuary, a wilderness hot spring does it every time. And there’s nothing like bathing in the most geologically active corner of Canada to up the adventure ante.

Such is the case at Meager Creek, where raincoast weather often adds even more frisson to the hot springs north of Pemberton. In October 2003, heavy rains triggered massive flooding in the Pemberton Valley. Fed by swollen tributaries such as Meager Creek, the Lillooet River, which charts a crooked course through the heart of the valley, jumped its banks. From the air, the scene looked more like the Gulf Islands than prime agricultural land.

The force of rapidly flowing water overwhelmed a 70-metre-long wooden bridge that spanned Meager Creek, cutting off road access to the hot springs located a short distance upstream on the west side of the creek. Thanks to an injection of $900,000 from the Provincial Emergency Program, which covers damage to high-value recreation sites such as the hot springs, a new steel-and-concrete structure was eventually installed. On August 1, the Meager Creek hot springs officially reopened, to the acclaim of local residents and Pemberton tourism officials alike.

In early September, I visited the springs to assess changes in the frequently volatile region. The bridge washout was only the most recent in a long history of cataclysmic events there that stretches back to 400 BC, the date of Mount Meager’s most recent volcanic eruption. That earth-shattering episode spewed ash as far as the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. An inventory of similar incidents includes an avalanche on Mount Meager’s companion, Pylon Peak, that covered a glacier over which Pylon Creek continues to bubble. Nearby stands the jagged remnant of another volcano, Devastator Peak. In 1975, a substantial rockslide on Devastator buried a party of geologists and partly blocked the flow of Meager Creek. The creek’s waters backed up, creating a small lake that took several years to drain. Geologists predict that a resumption of volcanic activity is likely to occur within the next several centuries. With these events in mind, sobering roadside markers were just installed along the Meager Creek Forestry Road. They direct travelers to refuge areas in case of emergency.

The sweeping grandeur of the peaks is enough to momentarily take a visitor’s mind off the prospect of suddenly finding oneself in the midst of chaos. The upside of all this geothermal activity is the presence of B.C.’s hottest and most voluminous hot springs, which percolate on an open terrace above Meager Creek’s silt-grey waters.

“Creek” doesn’t do justice to Meager. Even at its lowest annual level, this is not a stream to be trifled with. Still, as you soak beside it in a near-scalding thermal pool with the wild sounds of cascading white water in your ears, there’s no more relaxing place to be. Just ask Dave Edgington, chief administrative officer of the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District. On the telephone from his office in Pemberton, Edgington said that having bathed in the springs himself, he believes there is no finer restorative, holistic experience to be found within the SLRD’s purview. He was quick to credit not only financing from PEP for the restoration but also the Ministry of Forests crews who rebuilt the bridge, as well as funds from the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts that paid for a complete cleanup of the pools, change house, and pathways at the recreation site.

Although the hot springs are situated on provincial land, the site and nearby campground are managed by the local Lil’wat Nation, with the Lil’wat Business Corporation’s Creekside Resources in partnership with the Tourism Ministry. When contacted by telephone at his office in Mount Currie, the corporation’s general manager, Larry Miller, said that work crews spent months rehabbing the site prior to its reopening. “We cleared blow-downs and installed picnic tables as well as put in culverts and ditches to prevent Hot Springs Creek from undermining the access trail.”

Creekside Resources, which manages a network of recreation sites within Lil’wat traditional territory, has no elaborate plans to develop the hot springs beyond their current “rustic” status, but Miller hopes that a series of interpretive signs will be installed next year to explain the site’s geological and cultural history. “The Lil’wat have millennia of legends about the use of the springs, from poaching fish in the hot water to revering the springs for their natural healing qualities. We look after the place to demonstrate our ownership.”

Over the decades since a road to Meager Creek was built by B.C. Hydro in pursuit of geothermal-power production, the springs have been a magnet for both families and party animals. To preserve the peace and ensure that yahoos and dogs are kept away from the springs, a Creekside Resources caretaker monitors activity, including weather conditions, at the site. With good reason, “if in doubt, bail out” is the operative motto there.

Access: The Meager Creek hot springs lie 205 kilometres north of Vancouver via 52 kilometres of paved and gravel roads from Pemberton. Opening hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. A day-use fee of $5 is collected at the springs from those 12 or older; a night at the pleasant campground on the Lillooet River Forestry Road is $10 per site. The hot springs officially close for the season on October 31. From then until snowfall shuts the Lillooet River Road, access to the springs is on foot or by bike from the gated entrance to the Meager Creek road, seven kilometres west.

View a Larger Map

Text CR Jack Christie

Photo CR Louise Christie

View Original Article here.

In Deep Cove, Rachel Greenwood takes out her standup paddleboard, which is longer than most surfboards, but easier to ride.

There seems to be a special bond between humans and shaped wooden boards, one that over the past century has evolved to rival that of people and pets.

First came skis and surfboards, followed by skate, skim, and windsurfing boards, and, more recently, snow and wakeboards.

Riding the latest wave are standup paddleboards, or SUPs, poised to break big this summer thanks to a growing fan base.

One of Vancouver’s first SUP proponents was adventure athlete “Super” Dave Norona.

North Shore-based Norona, who, by his own account, has participated in over 400 adventure races, became interested in SUPs after his passion waned for surf skis—sleek, open-cockpit racing kayaks.

“I got a little burned-out on racing in general,” the professional motivational speaker admitted.

“The thing I like about SUPs is that you can only go about five to six kilometres an hour, which means that when I’m in an event like MEC’s Big Chop [Summer Paddle Series], I’m always at the back of the pack with the fun people instead of out front thinking, ‘I can’t let him beat me!’ ”

If you’ve ever seen a vintage photograph of wooden Hawaiian surfboards that tower over the likes of Duke Kahanamoku, the father of modern surfing, it won’t be a stretch to wrap your mind around the size and shape of an SUP.

Wider and longer than most surfboards in vogue today, they allow a rider to balance upright while propelling the board forward with a long-shafted paddle.

Norona pointed out that the best part is that SUPs are far easier to master than regular surfboards.

“You catch every wave, and because the board is longer, you catch them earlier. Using a paddle to move forward is also much easier on the arms, which is otherwise so hard when you’re just starting to learn to surf.”

Norona highlighted the sport’s secret: “The reality is that you don’t have to be fit at all. It’s like being in a double sea kayak without knowing what to do. SUPs are like the cruiser bikes of boards. The more you do, the fitter you get.”

One sign that SUPs are stoking interest at local beaches is the appearance of locally made boards.

In the past year, Pemberton-based Andy Lambrecht and his gleaming wooden boards have been featured nationally in outdoors magazines.

When reached at his studio beside the Lillooet River, Lambrecht was at work on one of the half-dozen boards he shapes each year, which sell for $2,000 and up.

“I started making fibreglass surfboards seven years ago, but in 2007 I stopped doing foam because it’s so toxic,” he said.

“Besides, once a plastic board is done, it’s done. There’s no recycling them. I love the green aspect of wood. One of my boards will last 10 to 20 years, whereas in the same time pattern four or five foam boards would get tossed into the landfill.”

Lambrecht, who works full-time for Whistler Blackcomb as a carpenter in summer and a ski patroller in winter, switched to making smaller, hollow wooden surfboards.

“They’re a third heavier than foam,” he explained. “I use recycled wood from unusual sources, so they already come with a story.”

Last year, he crafted a four-metre, hollow red-cedar SUP for professional guide Norm Hann, who paddled the waters off the Central Coast’s Great Bear Rainforest to test the feasibility of multiday SUP tours in the Hartley Bay region.

In May, in an expedition dubbed StandUp4GreatBear, Hann piloted an SUP 380 kilometres between Kitimat and Bella Bella to raise awareness of the potential risk to the Central Coast’s delicate ecosystem from oil tanker traffic from Kitimat, designated as the terminal for energy giant Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline linked to the Alberta tar sands.

On the phone from the office of his Squamish-based expedition company, MountainSurf Adventures, Hann said he’s enjoyed surfing since coming to the West Coast in 1999 from Sudbury, Ontario.

“I saw Hawaiian surfer Laird Hamilton on an SUP and I knew right away I wanted to get one, though I had a tough time finding a board,” he recalled.

“I rented one from a guy on the North Shore, and after the first outing I begged him to sell it to me. The potential of the sport is clear to me. I’m excited about what you can do and where you can go in a different way.”

Hann foresees exploring inland lakes and rivers on SUPs having more nationwide appeal than surfing.

“It’s got the coolness of the surf industry coupled with paddling, which is in Canadians’ blood.”

With the likes of Norona and Hahn as the apostles of SUP, this summer Vancouver-based water sport companies Windsure, EcoMarine Kayaks, and the Deep Cove Canoe and Kayak Centre are set to minister to novitiates by offering lessons and rentals at their respective locations at the Jericho Sailing Centre, English Bay, and Deep Cove.

Four years ago, Jeff Hunt, manager of EcoMarine Kayak’s SUP program, brought one back from Hawaii.

“I tried to convince the owner to offer rentals last year but he was tentative as to how it would take shape. This year we’re in.”

As a longtime board rider, Hunt finds paddling an SUP a good way to stay in surfer shape.

“I come from a competitive gymnastics background, so now I look for any tool to keep me out of the gym. I like to change things up to avoid lifting weights. Once people try an SUP it becomes another great way to get out on the water, appreciate the natural environment, and become an advocate for causes such as the Dogwood Initiative which our company supports.”

There seems to be a growing connection between SUPs and expanded environmental consciousness.

Not only is this the dawn of a new sport, it’s yet another way to save the planet.

Hop on.

Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie