We have spent the last couple of weekends hiking half of the 48 Km Baden-Powell Trail on Vancouver’s North Shore. The trail runs from Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver to Deep Cove in North Vancouver.

The week before last we hiked from the bottom of Grouse Mountain east to Lynn Canyon Park (about 7.5Km), and last weekend we hiked the 12.2 Km from Deep Cove west to Lynn Canyon Park. Both hikes were great; the shorter hike was the more demanding of the two and had less foot traffic on the trail but the longer hike also had plenty of ups and downs and a few rough patches which made it fairly challenging over the longer distance.

Both hikes had a fantastic Canadian feel because of the rainforest scenery and air but I think the longer one was the more interesting overall - half an hour in you reach a cliff top (Quarry Rock Lookout) with an amazing view over Indian Arm inlet, Deep Cove and Belcarra.

The hike takes you by plenty of pretty little creeks and waterfalls, then eventually you walk alongside two big rivers (Seymour and Lynn Creek), crossing the very stable bridge over Seymour Canyon and ending it all with a little wobble over the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge. It’s definitely the hike I’d like to take my fitter visitors on.

We plan to do the remainder of the Baden Powell Trail but perhaps next year when we own a car, as part of the trail through Cypress mountain is not accessible by public transport which makes it difficult to do day hikes.

Before winter sets in we will probably head back to our favourite parks which lie next to  Lynn Canyon Park - Lynn Headwaters Regional Park and Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve. Is it any wonder that we are planning to leave our condo in the city and move to a house in the Lynn Valley early next year?!

The day has finally arrived; I’m getting married this evening! I feel very happy and remarkably calm, although just had a panic moment when I discovered that I was locked into my room at my parents’ house this morning. I thought they were trying to tell me something, but it turned out just to be that the door is old and the handle/lock gets stuck - they were one side of the door furiously trying to get the doorknob to turn, and I was the other side practically pulling it off in desperation! I got out in the end though, and hope that there will be no more problems today.

I’ll be going on honeymoon for about 3 weeks from tomorrow, so will be taking a hiatus from blog-writing. I’m sure I will have plenty to write about when I get back regarding my travels in BC - we’ve been looking forward to this road trip for so long and will be visiting some beautiful places that have been on our “to visit” list for a long time.

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of Vancouver’s seawall in city life. My parents are visiting at the moment and they spend their days walking a different section of the seawall and seeing the city from different viewpoints. It serves as a fabulous commute for me and my fellow Vancouverites - a walk or cycle along the seawall to work really lifts your spirits and gets you ready for the day ahead. It’s so calm and peaceful, and you get gorgeous views of the ocean, and mountains and the city skyscrapers. It also acts as a beautiful gym - why stay indoors on a treadmill or in the weights room when you can get out in the sun and walk, cycle, run, or rollerblade around the seawall? On my way to work I often see people doing yoga and tai chi, and on the way back there is always at least one group of people doing a group circuit or weights session by Science World.

Every time I’m down there I just feel so alive and happy and fortunate to be living in Vancouver.

Tuesday was Canada Day, a welcome day off in the middle of the week to celebrate Canada’s 141st birthday. I like Canada Day as everyone is in a really celebratory mood and it makes me proud to be a part of this beautiful country.

There were lots of things going on with the main hubs being Canada Place and Granville Island. Canada Place had bands, competitions, displays by the Canadian Forces and Port of Vancouver and a traditional citizenship ceremony (it would be really special to become a Canadian citizen on Canada Day at Canada Place - that’s what I’m aiming for in 2 years time). Granville Island had a parade and a ceremony along with lots of live jazz.

I took advantage of the emptier than normal shops to go shoe shopping. It’s a week until my wedding and I still hadn’t found the perfect pair! I’m pleased to report that I now have almost what I wanted, only more comfortable and less strappy. I can certainly live with that! Robson Street had a stage set up with bands playing as well, so that added something extra to the experience.

We spent the afternoon on Granville Island listening to the jazz and dining/drinking at the Dockside pub on the patio at the Granville Island Hotel - it really is one of my favourite places to hang out in Vancouver. Unfortunately, it was heaving and our servers were really stressed - they said that they normally have 200 people in an afternoon, but had served 1200. They’d run out of quite a few drinks.

We ended the day with a fireworks display set off from a barge in Burrard Inlet. The crowds were amazing, the fireworks not so. I think they are saving their fireworks money for BC Day (it’s BC’s 150th birthday on August 4th - yes, BC is older than Canada) and the International Fireworks Festival at the end of July/beginning of August (this year Canada will be competing with China and the US for supremacy).

A member of the Vancouver Hiking Meetup group has drawn my attention to the Regional Parks section of the Metro Vancouver (nee GVRD) website. It has a quick introduction to many of the parks that can be found around the Vancouver area including park maps. The Metro Vancouver parks cover an immense and diverse area from Boundary Bay on the US border north to Bowen Island and east all the way to Abbotsford, taking in the likes of North Vancouver, Burnaby, Port Moody/Belcarra, Pitt Meadows and Aldergrove.

The website is a good place to start to get an idea of places to go and have a nice weekend hike, however it doesn’t include Provincial Parks such as Garibaldi, Golden Ears, Cypress and Seymour and also doesn’t include many other parks in the Lower Mainland region - assumedly because they haven’t been designated as “Regional Park” they are under a different, more local jurisdiction.

This weekend I was feeling really tired so I could only manage to walk down the road and back. Luckily for me, just down the road is Gastown which was chock a block full of people and free live jazz acts to while away a Sunday afternoon with. During the International Jazz Festival there are hundreds of acts in town - many of them you have to pay for but there are daily free concerts too.

We started off by listening to a bit of Out To Lunch while going out to lunch (yes, really) at Sitar. Then we camped out at the Gassy Jack statue in order to catch the next act on stage - The Coat Cooke Trio. There was a sax, a double bass and a drum set and the warming up sounded OK. SO said to me “The trouble with modern jazz is that you don’t know when the warm up ends and the music begins”. Then the band were introduced properly and the alarm bells started ringing with the mention of “director of the improv orchestra”. Then it began. My god, it was painful - 3 instruments playing 3 different tunes, none of them melodic and none of them in time with each other to even discern a rhythm. I’m sorry, but modern improv jazz is just as terrible as modern art in my eyes - I like to see or hear a thing of beauty in creative endeavours. Just call me old-fashioned.

We left abruptly and went to the Lamplighter pub instead - it used to be a dodgy place but they have renovated it well, and as soon as we walked in we felt a wave of joy. The Ale Stars were playing some lively swing jazz and young couples were dancing between the pool tables while the regular customers played fusball. It was a wonderful atmosphere and the band were great and a lot of fun - I hope to see them again on Canada Day when they play at Granville Island.

We missed two festivals this weekend because of my tiredness - The Dragon Boat Festival took place on False Creek just a stone’s throw from our apartment, and the Greek Day festival took place at Kits. I was really peeved that I missed the Greek festival as I didn’t know it was on last year either until it was too late. Next year I shall make it a priority to go.

There are so many festivals and free events going on in Vancouver in the summer that you’ve really got to keep on top of the diary if you want to experience what the city is about. Last weekend we missed out on Vancouver’s Car Free Day which took place in four neighbourhoods, all close by (we were nursing our stag/stagette hangovers). At the beginning of the month we missed the latest In The House festival - where various bands/dance troupes etc perform in people’s living rooms.

Some of the many Vancouver festivals are listed here and here

I was at a dinner party last weekend and the conversation turned to climbing. Three of the people present were really into it as a sport and our host pulled out all his climbing gear. This really got my partner interested as he had always wanted to try it but had never gotten around to it. I had the opportunity to climb with some of my friends at University who were in the climbing club but I always declined as I thought I’d be terrible at it - being short and overweight and lacking in upper body strength.

However, since I have promised myself that I will try as many outdoor pursuits as possible I have decided to try it out. We are going to be attending an Intro Course at an indoor climbing centre nearby in a couple of weeks, and we get a week’s free climbing after that. The worst that can happen is that I absolutely hate it. The best that can happen is that I find it is the sport for me after all and we can look for groups to join so that we can try some outside climbing. I’m hoping that at the very least I’ll be able to add indoor climbing to my list of after-work fitness activities - after all I’m never going to build up upper body strengh if I don’t do something challenging.

People I know are starting to visit my great city and want me to give them an idea of what to do. I started a list and couldn’t stop writing! So here’s a very long list of things to do in and around Vancouver in the spring/summer/fall.

Must do in Vancouver:

• Walk/bike/rollerblade the entire seawall from Canada Place to Kits Beach, taking in Coal Harbour and Stanley Park, English Bay and Sunset Beach, Yaletown, Science World, False Creek South, Granville Island to Kits Point. You might not want to do this all on one day - I think it is about 23Km in total!
• Walk the trails in Stanley Park making sure to visit the racoons at Lost Lagoon
• Visit Granville Island (not just the public market but all the little independent shops and galleries around there too)
• Go hiking on the North Shore - Lynn Headwaters and Lighthouse Park are particularly recommended
• Don’t visit Capilano Suspension Bridge and pay huge amounts of money - instead get the bus to Lynn Canyon where the suspension bridge is lower but more rickety and, more importantly, free to walk. The trails around there are nicer too - you can link up to Lynn Headwaters from there via 30-foot-pool, lots of stairs and Rice Lake.
• Grouse Mountain - expensive but really worth it if you go on a clear day. There’s the Lumberjack Show and Birds of Prey show, nature walks, huge wood carvings, Theatre in the Sky and if you go early you will also see the 2 rescued grizzlies before they retire to their den. Then you can hang out on the patio with a beer taking in the view, or there is some fairly good hiking. If you are lucky enough to catch a First Nations performance at the Feasthouse, do it.
• Check out what festivals are on - there is always some sort of cultural or musical or film or dance festival happening in town!
• Cirque de Soleil’s new show is on this year from June 12th to July 20th Read the rest of this entry »