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 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

Here’s one of our favourite destinations for a spring day trip

Matsqui Trail Regional Park lies 40 kilometres east of Vancouver.

To get there, take Highway 1 to Abbotsford, then Highway 11 north toward Mission. Watch for the green Metro Vancouver Parks signs that point the way to the park, the main entrance for which lies beneath the south end of the Mission Bridge on Riverside Road. For information, visit http://www.metrovancouver.org/services/parks_lscr/regionalparks/Pages/MatsquiTrail.aspx

Have you ever stopped and shivered just because you were looking at a river?

The Fraser River makes that kind of impression on people such as Doug Petersen, park-operations supervisor of Matsqui Trail Regional Park in Abbotsford.

On the phone from Metro Vancouver Parks’ East Area office, Petersen explained that exploring the Fraser between Yale and Fort Langley has been one of his paddling passions.

“Do it in bite-sized pieces,” he counselled, “probably spread over three days, with stops in Hope, Agassiz, and Brae Island. It’s not for novice flat-water paddlers. The river has strong eddy lines that can easily catch up a canoe.”

The thought of being caught in the grasp of a river as mighty as the Fraser is enough to make anyone’s adrenal glands flutter.

Conversely, walking, wheeling, or horseback-riding beside the river as the spring season freshens is enough to arouse shivers of delight in the dourest of souls.

Spring has a way of doing that, especially when you detect its scent on the wind where the Fraser Valley begins to widen and flatten around Abbotsford.

This month, breezes bear a decidedly floral fragrance as they waft down from the daffodil fields surrounding nearby Bradner, a welcome counterpoint to the odours from local farmyards.

European settlers on both sides of the Fraser used to tremble when the river began to rise.

High-water markers at the Dyke Crest Gauge mounted beside Matsqui’s main trailhead illustrate the heights that flood waters reached over the past two centuries, including the record eight-metre mark in 1894, as well as lesser inundations in 1948 and 1972, and, most recently, in 1999, all of which prompted refortification of the dike system.

As you explore the main trail, look down to see evidence of modest, earlier levee-building endeavours that predate the existing barricade.

When queried about an extension to the riverside trail below the dike, Petersen explained that Metro Parks had acquired more access to the Fraser, thanks to a land purchase.

A one-kilometre trail now links with the main route to form a loop.

In particular, parents of young children will appreciate the improved path, as it provides easy access to sandy stretches of the riverbank, where kids can toddle or practise their casting.

Cyclists will also enjoy the riverside stretch, especially on breezy days when the dike trail acts as a windbreak.

Matsqui Trail appears deceptively short, but there’s more here than meets the eye.

Decide at the outset how much of its 14-kilometre length you’re game to tackle.

The park’s main jumping-off point beside the Mission Bridge lies midway between the Fraser Valley Regional District’s Sumas Mountain Park to the east and the City of Abbotsford’s Douglas Taylor Park on the western perimeter.

There are advantages to exploring in either direction.

Petersen’s favourite portion is a 4.5-kilometre wilderness corridor that leads west from rolling farmland through Matsqui First Nation territory into a forested setting above the river before dropping down into a marshy area bisected by a small creek.

“This is a spectacular transition with a little bit of everything,” he enthused, “created during an expansion done in 2000. Do this section on one visit; next time, head east to Page Road at the foot of Sumas Mountain. As a benefit to runners, we put up kilometre markers along the way.”

Petersen has witnessed sturgeon breach a metre above water offshore of the trail’s eastern extremity, where the Fraser bends around Strawberry Island and a sense of wild, natural rhythms governs the landscape.

“Depending on the time of year, there are snow geese in the fields and eagles in the cottonwoods. There are lots of First Nations connections along this stretch for traditional fishing rights as well.”

A plaque affixed to Matsqui Trail’s info board acknowledges the influence of the Fraser Basin Council on shaping the park’s current identity.

Bob Purdy, external relations and corporate development director with the Vancouver-based council, pointed to a report his group published in 2000 that detailed how park planners, Matsqui First Nation members, and a myriad of local citizens’ groups began the process of creating a greenway beside the Fraser from Sumas Mountain to Fort Langley.

“Valley bottoms are where 85 percent of species live,” Purdy said. “You build environmental resiliency by creating connections. You minimize fragmentation by maximizing the ‘connectiveness’ of green fragments. When climate change hits, these corridors will be critical for survival.”

If you long to be awoken by a dawn chorus of songbirds returning to the Fraser Valley, consider camping at one of Matsqui Trail’s four modest riverside sites, which will soon reopen for the season.

With the exception of hot summer weekends, Petersen said there are usually vacancies.

Many people who camp here are cycling the Trans Canada Trail, of which Matsqui Trail is a well-forged, spirit-shivering link, indeed.

Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie

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

We’re just back from a ski trip to four big B.C. mountains, including Revelstoke Mountain Resort and Fernie Alpine Resort. Here’s the lowdown on one of the best – Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in Golden.

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 “Two-Mill” 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 seven 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, KHMR Mountain Hosts like Parry gather visitors in front of the resort’s Big Mountain Centre, gauge the group’s ability level, and then lead 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

Took a winter walk recently with Ryan around Buntzen Lake’s forested shoreline.

Good workout and chat at the same time.

Ryan’s plans for 2013 include taking his “Trials of Life” show into more schools.

Check out Ryan in action where, unlike in trials competitions, he lets his words talk as loud as his actions.

The Trials of Ryan 

The Lower Mainland is the epicentre of what’s shaking in the world of fat tire cycling, whether hucking off North Shore drops or hopping around the trials park in Port Moody. No one epitomizes this more than Ryan Leech, a professional trials rider, extreme mountain biker and monster freerider. We’re pleased to feature Ryan as a guest on our site.

Trials Riding

Ryan Leech discovered he had a talent for trials riding – a blend of balance and hopping skills – when he was 13. He’s twice that now and has journeyed long distances to appear with Cirque de Soleil in Disney World, star in the prestigious Vans Warped Tour, as well as ride his specially-designed Norco bike along ancient Incan roads in Peru. True to his West Coast roots, you’re just as likely to find him working out in the sheltered Port Moody Trials Park as anywhere.

What’s The Point?

Trials riders earn points in competitions by demonstrating a winning blend of balancing skills and sheer guts. Riders hop and drop around an obstacle course that simulates the challenges of bicycling along a rock-and-roots covered trail.

But there’s far more involved than that. So much so that Ryan decided to take matters into his own hands and craft a film that defined his passion for the sport and his vision for its destiny. Manifesto is the result. Watch clips of all his films at RyanLeech.com.

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

ACCESS: Check out the chapter on Mt Seymour in our guide book, 52 Best Day Trips from Vancouver. For a Detailed snowshoe-trail maps as well as information on shuttle-bus service to Mount Seymour from both Lonsdale Quay and Parkgate Mall are posted at www.mountseymour.com/. For a schedule of snowshoe outings with Storm Fitness, visit stormfitness.ca/.

Be resolute.

Be very resolute.

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

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

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

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

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

The 32-year old Ricketts, who earned an outdoor-recreation diploma from Capilano University, knows whereof she speaks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spotting them is not difficult.

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

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

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

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

Why wait?

Now is the perfect time to get living.

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 1 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

South Langley cyclists stop for a sip or two around Campbell Valley Regional Park

Backpackers on a scramble up Downtown Creek have an idyllic campsite to use as a base camp for higher exploration.

Warm September weekends are great times to explore the Cayoosh Range north of Whistler. Pick up a copy of our  guide “The Whistler Book”  for suggestions such as these.

ACCESS:

Duffey Lake Road (Highway 99) begins 160 kilometres north of Vancouver in Mount Currie and leads 100 kilometres to Lillooet.

Joffre Lakes Provincial Park lies 25 kilometres northeast of Mount Currie.

The Downtown Creek Forest Service Road begins about 40 kilometres north of Joffre Lakes on the north side of the highway. After 5.7 kilometres on that road, turn right where the road forks and right again at 10.7 kilometres onto “Branch 2”. Drivers of vehicles with low clearance should park here; otherwise, stay left where the road forks at 12 kilometres and continue two kilometres further to a clearing. The well-marked Downtown Creek Trail begins on the north side.

Remember the childhood thrill of playing on a jungle gym or nimbly scaling a rock wall?

Playgrounds are reminders that kids are born scramblers.

With age, the urge to clamber like our primate kin may diminish, but it never entirely extinguishes.

Care to reconnect with the feeling of stretching your legs while grasping for handholds?

It’s open season for scrambling.

Although snowpacks persist in the alpine regions around Vancouver hardy green ground cover is the norm along the Duffey Lake Road past Pemberton, what the Sea-to-Sky Highway becomes after it crests the Cayoosh Pass.

That’s where the fun begins.

Pick from a dozen routes on either side of the narrow valley during a panorama-packed passage toward Lillooet.

Bring along some like-minded friends and honour the code: if in doubt, bail out.

The most easily accessible route to scrambling country threads its way through Joffre Lakes Provincial Park past a trio of lakes so bewitching that you’d best look the other way while passing, lest your will to reach higher ground wither under their spell.

Wonder at the three jewels later, on descent.

Many of those with whom you share the path shoulder mountaineering equipment.

And well they should, especially if Joffre Peak is their objective.

Joffre is a trophy summit, and tests the upper limits of climbing skills.

If you’re new to this or simply hunger for a mellower outing in the peaks, consider a less-weighty option: a scramble.

According to author and mountaineer Matt Gunn, scrambles are mountain climbing simplified. On the phone from his home in Kimberley, where he recently relocated after a decade of exploration around Vancouver, Gunn said the beauty of this approach is that “you can hike unencumbered with a light pack, cruise fast, and often be back home the same day after seeing amazing places.”

In the same breath, Gunn cautioned that scrambling can be a dangerous activity and that it involves inherent risks.

When asked to describe what sets the Coast Mountains around the Lower Mainland apart from elsewhere in the province, such as the East Kootenay, where he cut his teeth as a young mountaineer, Gunn singled out the ruggedness of local peaks, which are often linked by welcoming alpine ridges.

“To reach those ridges requires considerable elevation gain through a lush rain-forest environment,” he replied.

“The Coast Mountains are so different from the Rockies and Purcells. It’s all rock and glaciated terrain in southwest B.C. One of the neat characteristics is the visually dramatic landscapes of broad, glaciated peaks.”

Another defining feature is the geological composition of the Coast Mountains themselves.

“Granite makes for solid scrambling with less scree, which means it’s less scary, as handholds aren’t as liable to shear off. The change in geoclimatic zones as you move inland from the coast lends more diversity as well, plus there are incredible views from the ridges where you look down on lakes and fiords. You won’t find that anywhere else.”

Among the choices for easy exploration off the Duffey Lake Road are a number of logging roads that lead to trailheads at higher elevations.

One of these is Ainsworth Lumber’s Downton Creek Forest Service Road.

It’s linked to a well-maintained hiking route that leads into the open alpine headwaters of Downtown Creek, one of Gunn’s favourite scrambles.

It’s easy to see why.

Swaths of pink-blossomed fireweed as tall as cornstalks surround the trailhead, above which rises a grey-maned massif.

If it’s possible to fall in love with a peak at first sight, meet your newest heartthrob.

Go ahead and bestow a name on it, as you’ll be keeping company for the duration of your scramble.

Not that its pinnacle is your objective: be satisfied to reach an adjacent ridge that Gunn has dubbed Peak 840.

To do that in comfort, plan a weekend away from Vancouver.

Pack in camping gear and, after a two-hour hike from the trailhead, rest up overnight at a small campsite beside one of two alpine tarns fed by Downtown Creek.

There’s only enough level space among the moss-covered hummocks for two tents, so plan accordingly.

When it comes to making your way from the lakes to Peak 840, use your wits.

There’s no marked trail, nor is there much need of one.

The way is clear.

Simply start scrambling uphill from the lake past tightly packed copses of fir and through meadows of alpine flora.

Your presence will arouse the curiosity of a colony of hoary marmots, many of whom will be sunning themselves atop boulders scattered across the multihued amphitheatre.

When you finally look down from the windblown peak, the sweet wine of success never tasted so good, all because you freed your inner child for a little scrambling.

***

For information on Matt Gunn’s Scrambles in Southwest British Columbia (Cairn, 2005) visit www.cairnpublishing.com.

To gauge snow levels in the local Coast Mountains, view Whistler Blackcomb’s Web cams at www.whistlerblackcomb.com/weather/cams/index.htm.

Information on Joffre Lakes Provincial Park is at www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/joffre_lks.

Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie

Lindeman Lake sparkles below the peaks of the North Cascades in Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park.

Here’s the perfect summer outing, a perennial favourite among destinations detailed in our best-selling guide “52 Best Day Trips from Vancouver”

Access: Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park lies 150 kilometres southeast of Vancouver. Travel east along Highway 1 to the Chilliwack Lake–Cultus Lake exit (number 104), then head southeast on No. 3 Road through the community of Yarrow. Go east along Vedder Mountain Road. Just over the Vedder Bridge, turn south (right) onto Chilliwack Lake Road at a well-marked intersection. Drive 42 kilometres to the park. It’s an easy two-hour drive from Vancouver. Lindeman Lake is 3.4 kilometres return; Greendrop Lake is 10.4 kilometres return. Details are at www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/chilliwack_lk/.

There’s no better time to visit the south Fraser Valley than right now.

Corn fields surround roadside stands stocked with freshly picked cobs.

Just as prized are picnicking and angling sites sprinkled along the Chilliwack River Valley, as well as shaded trails on the slopes above the river’s headwaters in Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park.

While river access comes easily at numerous roadside pullouts, you’ll need to expend more energy to reap the benefits offered by hiking routes such as the popular Lindeman–Greendrop Lakes Trail.

One of the rewards will be an enhanced appetite for those juicy niblets; another prize will be the entrancing sight of sunlight sparkling on the surface of the two lakes towered over by craggy North Cascades peaks.

Beside the trail’s outset, lively Post Creek froths its way down the mountainside from high above, carrying a gentle breeze that helps keep biting insects at bay.

Columns of old-growth Douglas fir line the way.

In less than an hour, you’ll find yourself beside Lindeman, possibly the most beautiful subalpine lake on offer in the Lower Mainland.

Clear green at the shoreline, its chilly waters deepen from a lighter blue to indigo when viewed from the trail.

If you plan to journey on to Greendrop, save a swim here for the return journey.

Picking your way around Lindeman’s north side requires some tricky boulder hopping.

Not only will shoes with good ankle support spare you the misfortune of twisting or wedging a foot in the scree, they’ll also afford you the benefit of improving your balancing skills.

Thankfully, staircases and boardwalks assist hikers around the steepest section of the trail by this lake.

From there, the well-marked trail to Greendrop passes knee-high wild gooseberry bushes and delicate mountain orchids as it wends through a narrow forested valley interspersed with open sections of scree.

With the exception of the occasional whirring hummingbird, the air is thick with a rich stillness rarely experienced in everyday life.

As you near Greendrop Lake, a sign posted at a fork in the trail offers two approaches, either across a wooden bridge on a section marked “Trans Canada Trail” or beside a small stream that occasionally fans out across the forest floor.

Regardless of which route you choose, orange metal markers affixed to tree trunks helpfully guide the way.

While Lindeman Lake has a lock on looks, Greendrop’s special feature is the spectacular size of the western red cedar grove that surmounts its waterfront.

Although a trail marker beside Greendrop’s wilderness campsite indicates that the Centennial Trail leads east from there into the Skagit Valley, attempts to find the faded route will prove futile for all but the hardiest of bushwhackers.

Chew on that as you dig into some fresh corn.

Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie