Access: 1,001 Steps Park lies south of Vancouver in Surrey’s Ocean Park neighbourhood. Travel south on Highway 99 to Exit 10, then west toward Crescent Beach on Crescent Road, then follow 128th Street south to Kwomais Point Park, located at its intersection with Marine Drive. Park there and walk north three blocks along 126A Street to 15A Avenue and 1,001 Steps Park’s trailhead. For information on both 1,001 Steps Park and the Christopherson Steps, visit the City of Surrey website.

Just like a palindrome, 1,001 Steps Park offers the same experience whether approached from the top down or the bottom up.

With salmonberry bushes in pink bloom, early spring is the best time to appreciate this Surrey pocket park before leaves curtain the steep hillside.

Right now, there’s nothing hidden about the views that stretch west across Boundary Bay to Point Roberts’s green stronghold, where sandstone cliffs mimic the slopes that fall away below Surrey’s Ocean Park neighbourhood.

The sound of a rhythmic cadence of waves rises through the skinny-limbed alder forest, summoning one foot to follow the other.

When reached by phone at his office, Surrey manager of parks Owen Croy fondly recalled his childhood days exploring the 1,001 Steps on visits to his grandparents’ home.

“In the 1950s, neighbours developed the first set of earthen-and-board steps,” he told me.

“We used to clamber up and down on them, shouting: ‘There’s one thousand and one steps!’ As if we could count that high.”

Croy said that in the 1990s, Surrey built the current staircase as well as a companion set (farther north, toward Crescent Beach) that was once also referred to as “1,001” but is now called the Christopherson Steps.

“Although small in size, we treat Christopherson like a park too, since both approaches get people to the wild part of Boundary Bay, a place that doesn’t actually fall under our jurisdiction but is, in fact, provincial land.”

According to Croy, the stretch of coastline between White Rock and Crescent Beach boasts the sunniest, warmest microclimate in Metro Vancouver.

“A visit to Crescent Beach offers everyone the chance to step back in time to a beach community that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the Lower Mainland.”

Croy also offered these words of advice: “As the foreshore area is considered part of the Pacific Flyway, where millions of birds pass through each year, we ask dog owners to keep their pets on leash so as not to harass the wildlife.”

One glance at the rock-and-boulder-strewn portion of the shoreline around the steps is enough to persuade most owners to look elsewhere for a place to exercise their pets, such as a new stretch of greenway that extends between Surrey’s recently acquired Kwomais Point Park and the top of 1,001 Steps Park.

Another suggestion for both two- and four-footed walkers is the quiet back street that leads several blocks east of Kwomais Point along 13th Avenue.

Watch for another staircase, one that traces an up-and-down, 168-step route along the bluff above Semiahmoo Bay, where a viewing platform offers a lookout across into Washington state.

A harmonious sense of convergence awaits those who follow the freshly surfaced pathway from the bottom of the 1,001 Steps (in truth, there are only 228 treads) to the beach via a small underpass beneath the railway tracks.

Offshore, ocean currents wash through three straits—Haro, Georgia, and Juan de Fuca—and two bays, Boundary and Semiahmoo.

A wealth of marine life calls the intertidal zone home.

Time a visit to coincide with low tide, then gently tip up a smallish stone or two at water’s edge to uncover hidden marvels.

During a visit in early April, I witnessed families whooping with excitement at the discovery of ribbon worms as much as a metre in length, eel-like black pricklebacks, and purple shore crabs.

A more exotic menagerie is hard to imagine.

Be absolutely sure to merely watch—not handle—the creatures, and gingerly replace those few rocks in their original position, as the exposed life depends on them for shelter from the elements and predators.

An added advantage of exploring when tides are low comes into play with extra room to walk around the southern headland, Kwomais Point (a half-hour walk from the steps), where winter storms have all but eroded the shoreline.

Although it may be tempting to climb up from the beach and walk a short distance along the tracks, be warned that both freight and passenger trains roll through unannounced.

Instead, pick your way with downcast eyes on the uneven rocks that abut the railway bed, a challenge that would test the balancing skills of a gymnast. Remember to pause occasionally to look around.

On the Boundary Bay side, a parade of peaks marches from Mount Elphinstone above Gibsons Landing on the Sunshine Coast and blends seamlessly with Black Mountain and Hollyburn Ridge on the North Shore.

Step around the point to the Semiahmoo Bay side for one of the most impressive shoreline panoramas in Cascadia, one that rises from sea level to Mount Baker’s 3,286-metre summit accompanied by a succession of snowcapped North Cascades peaks.

Sweep your gaze southwest to the Olympic Mountains, where Hurricane Ridge presents a glaciated wall, then northwest to the chain of Vancouver Island mountains that leads off toward the distant Comox Glacier.

Wow, to the 10th power.

When it comes to stepping out in this neck of Surrey, it’s strictly a numbers game.

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 formation of Canada geese passes over Tavistock Point in Brae Island Regional Park in Fort Langley (Louise Christie photo)

Access: The historic village of Fort Langley lies 56 kilometres east of Vancouver. For information on the town’s adjacent Derby Reach, Brae Island, and Glen Valley regional parks, consult the latest edition of our best-selling guide book 52 Best Day Trips from Vancouver.

Forged in Fort Langley, yet another link in the chain of greenways between Hope and the Pacific Ocean now extends farther west, almost to the Golden Ears Bridge.

Pioneer trailblazing around Fort Langley has been going on for almost two hundred years.

At the current rate, the pattern shows no sign of slowing.

The forward-thinking “landbanks” planning concept of Metro Vancouver Parks comes into its own in the riverfront town’s Derby Reach Regional Park, site of the original fort built in 1827.

You could say it’s part of a “buy now, play later” scheme.

When reached by phone, Wendy Dadalt, east-area manager for MVP, told us that much of the landscape through which the new Derby Reach to 208th Street Trans Canada Trail Connection passes was originally forest cleared by settlers for farmland or timber.

“The S & R Sawmill lands were purchased in 1996 by the GVRD and province as part of the Lower Mainland Nature Reserve. We’ve land-banked them since then until opening the extension in July, which we designed as a drive-through farm,” Dadalt said.

Although much of the new 2.8-kilometre route, a western extension of the Township of Langley’s existing 11-kilometre Fort-to-Fort Trail, runs through green pastures, a short stretch of two-lane blacktop, Allard Crescent, leads past the home and barns of the Normand family, proprietors of Craigentinney Farm for 93 years.

The road has always cut through the Normands’ front yard.

According to Dadalt, that’s the way the family patriarch wanted it.

“I questioned Fred [Normand] why the road goes where it does on their property,” she recounted. “He said his dad was asked where to put it and he said, ‘Right through.’ ”

These days, more cyclists and hikers pass by than vehicles along this quiet back road.

The accompanying pathway constitutes part of a larger plan to establish a new route for the Trans Canada Trail that MVP undertook with the Township of Langley and Trails B.C. for the Experience the Fraser initiative.

On the day when we cycled the trail, fresh produce was for sale on the front porch of one of the farm’s outbuildings adjacent to a barn full of bawling dairy cattle.

Sandy Normand told us her family planned to open a proper retail store this summer.

“Seeing as how many people are passing through the property now, we’re renovating one of the barns. We didn’t need [visitors], but the authorities said they were going to put a path through and there was nothing we could do about it,” she said with the resigned tone of someone who already had enough work to do.

There’s not a lot of wiggle room between the broad Fraser River and commercial cranberry fields on the south side of Allard Crescent.

The Fraser forms the watery northern boundary beside which the Fort-to-Fort Trail winds.

To do a quick inspection of the new extension, park at the trail’s 208th Street entrance just north of Allard and begin exploring from there.

Start or finish a visit by cresting the Golden Ears Bridge, with its elevated overview of the Fraser and the Golden Ears’ captivating alpine display above Maple Ridge: a must-ride experience.

The bridge’s wide spiral ramp, well separated from vehicle traffic, is a place of calm.

Dadalt said that a final section of greenway to replace the short stretch of municipal roadway currently in use between the trail and the bridge may be completed as early as 2012.

“The momentum is there,” she said, “and we’ll keep seeking funds.”

As the trail winds east through groves of black cottonwoods and red cedars, then crosses fallow fields, opportunities to approach the Fraser and appreciate its steady rolling pace appear at strategic places.

One is Muench Bar, one of a number of such fishing bars dotted along the Fort-to-Fort Trail that offer much-needed public access along a shoreline otherwise laced with log booms.

The bars provide picnic tables and washrooms; the largest, Edgewater Bar, at the eastern end of the new extension, features seasonal drive-in campsites and a generous-sized off-leash exercise enclosure for dogs.

Sculptures highlighting Experience the Fraser themes, such as First Nations and the environment, are installed along the extension (including a life-sized iron profile of a farmer and cattle where signs caution visitors to respect working farms and keep quiet).

For added effect, a heady whiff of fresh manure permeates the air where the trail skirts a milking parlour.

The challenge when exploring the trails around Fort Langley is when to call it quits.

On a sunny day, cycling the Fort-to-Fort Trail may not be enough for some cyclists.

In that case, tack on a ride out to Brae Island Regional Park’s Tavistock Point opposite the village, where a newly completed loop trail offers an unexpected thrill guaranteed to get your whoop on.
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie

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.

UPDATE: Reports from last weekend’s Slow Food Cycle Sunday indicate the “pelaton of pleasure seekers” [see below] numbered as many as 4,000 this year under blue skies. Well done!

Access: Pemberton lies 153 kilometres north of Vancouver via Highway 99. For details on Slow Food Cycle Sunday, visit www.slowfoodcyclesunday.com/.

Spud Valley ain’t what it used to be.

For almost two centuries, nutrient-rich volcanic soil in the Pemberton Valley north of Whistler has yielded annual crops of potatoes.

First came ladyfinger potatoes acquired in the 1830s by local Lilwat First Nations traders from the newly established Hudson Bay Company post in Fort Langley, followed by a host of white, red, and yellow varieties cultivated by European immigrants.

More recently, spurred on by a rising demand for niche market produce, valley farmers have diversified into a spectrum of garden goodies to complement Pemberton’s staple crop.

All it takes is a day trip along Pemberton Meadows Road to witness the shift firsthand, particularly during Slow Food Cycle Sunday (August 21), a pedal-powered tour of local growers.

Anna Helmer of Helmer’s Organic Farm pinpointed the month of May, 2005, as pivotal to a new sense of purpose for local growers.

On a break from field work, Helmer, whose great-grandparents homesteaded in the Pemberton Valley in the early 1900s, explained that she and freelance writer Lisa Richardson attended an information session hosted by Vancouver-based railway tour operator Rocky Mountaineer.

They talked about potential opportunities for small communities like ours to interact with passengers during the train’s daily layovers in Whistler.

“That planted the seed that Pemberton wasn’s giving people a reason to come visit despite our proximity to the resort.”

Together, Helmer and Richardson agreed that a signature event could be a bike ride through the valley with up to a dozen select farms open for tours.

“We figured that would foster an insight into not only our tasty produce but also soil science, the rationale for crop rotation, and the value of preserving family farms to promote food security.”

Since relocating from Vancouver with her parents to the family farm in the 1980s, Helmer increasingly noticed that as property values in Whistler exploded, the Pemberton Valley began attracting urbanites in search of rural recreational getaways.

The meadow’s road is level, paved, and much of the fallow land looks like it’s not being cultivated, thus open to redevelopment.

“It was beginning to feel a little daunting up here. We needed all the help we could get. A secure food system needs experienced farmers, and we need to keep them happy.”

Within months, the duo had organized the Lower Mainland’s original Slow Food Cycle Sunday.

To their amazement, 400 attended, something Richardson characterized on the phone as “mind-blowing”.

Helmer credited Richardson for the turnout.

“Lisa’s such a good marketer, we were almost too successful, especially the second year, when more than twice as many showed up. That caught everyone off-guard.”

Not that the steep-sided Pemberton Valley hadn’t previously been a destination for bike riders, especially the 25-kilometre stretch between the hamlet and the north end of the upper meadows, where mountains and the Lillooet River converge, a route detailed in our Whistler Book.

The serendipitous timing of the inaugural Slow Food Cycle Sunday with the popularity of The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating, by Vancouver authors J. B. MacKinnon and Alisa Smith, drew far greater numbers of pedalheads than ever previously seen on one day.

That trend progressed geometrically.

Last year’s ride, in which the Christies participated, attracted a record 2,159 registrants; officials estimated they probably missed another 300 who slipped by. Although sign-up for the free event takes place in the heart of the village, riders may just as easily join up anywhere along the route.

“The favourite part of the event for me, besides the beer garden, is seeing the happiness on the faces of the riders who’ve done the entire 50-kilometre round trip. For them, it’s like completing a marathon,” Helmer said.

For most riders, Slow Food Cycle Sunday more closely resembles a peloton of pleasure seekers.

Picture a world in which bicycles rule the road, where fresh air is a given, where refreshment waits at every turn, and where adults play with the innocence of tykes on push bikes.

That image neatly defines the spirit of the volunteer event, one that Richardson defined as “a mini-farmer’s market at each stop, coupled with entertainment. Visitors discover the network of relationships that have blossomed between our growers and chefs from Whistler’s restaurants.”

Although there will be plenty of prepared food and produce for sale, Helmer cautioned that, in the spirit of self-reliance, participants should pack along a bike tool kit, backup food, and plenty of liquids, especially because valley temperatures typically soar to higher heights than on the coast.

Along the route (50 kilometres/30 miles return, for the whole trip), water pistols deliver welcome shots of cool refreshment, as do eclectically designed shower fountains crafted from garden hoses and bike wheels by local sculptor Martin Dahinden.

Hang a basket from your handlebars.

You won’t leave empty-handed, guaranteed.

Original Article
Text CR Jack 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

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.

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