North Vancouver

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A Chance For One Last Hike

Well, I will have no excuse for not staying in touch on the road! I just brought home ‘Kevin’, a 1.5Ghz, 12″, aluminum casing Powerbook G4. I did a lot of research and spoke with a lot of people, enough to feel confident that I got a good machine at a fair price. It’ll be nice to be able to watch DVDs on it; the battery has plenty of juice to watch at least one movie.

The seller lives in North Vancouver and I decided to just go meet up with him there instead of trying to find a mutually convenient time to meet ‘halfway.’ The meet up point, a Starbucks, was just a few kilometres from Lynn Canyon (which explains why I didn’t mind driving the 100 or so klicks round trip *g*), so I packed up my hiking boots this morning! We met at six, spent about a half hour going over the machine (which helped inspire confidence in the seller), and I was on the trail by six forty! The gates to the park close at 7PM, so I parked a few blocks away on a city street in order to not be rushed.

I couldn’t believe I was there, under those magnificent towering redwoods on a glorious Tuesday evening! If I could with me only one visual memory of Vancouver, it would be of the view from the Twin Falls bridge, of all that turquoise water smashing down on the rocks below. My boots were very comfortable, albeit stiff, and I savoured every second of my hike. I even stopped mid-span on the suspension bridge and looked down. How far I’ve come since Eagle Canyon!

Four months in the Greater Vancouver Region has been perfect–just long enough to fall in love with the area and savour its treasures, but not so long as to grow jaded. How marvelous it was yesterday and today to use the GPS as I did in Ottawa to only to fine tune my drive to a specific address while knowing exactly what route to take to get to the general area. I’m ready to go, but sad at the same time, feeling much the way I did last September. In fact, after so many months of hardly driving at all, I feel like I’m starting fresh, like a complete novice again!

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The Difference Between Full-Time RVing and Tourism

Today, I had the great joy of showing my friend some of my favourite sites in the Vancouver area. How lovely it is to stay long enough in one place to go back and re-explore sites you enjoyed!

We had a really, really full day. The weather cooperated beautifully, being just warm enough to be comfortable, with a mix of sun and clouds.

Late morning, we took off for Lynn Canyon. It was warmer today than the last time I went, but not by much; it gets cool up there in North Vancouver in the rain forest! It was wonderful hiking weather and we earned the picnic lunch I’d packed.

We then headed to Stanley Park via the Lions’ Gate Bridge. The park was very full this time around, so I felt very fortunate to find parking quickly. We were just heading up to the aquarium to see the killer whale statue when my friend noticed a horse drawn trolley that seemed just about ready to take off. We learned that it was a one hour tour that would take us to all the sites we wanted to see, so we decided to get on, figuring that it would easier than trying to find parking at each location.

I’ll pause here to address the issue of horse drawn tours being exploitative. I had a theory about this before I got on and it was confirmed by the driver who addressed the issue head on. The horses pulling these trolleys are big draft horses which have very little use in our day and age. A lot of these older animals get sent to the glue or jell-o factory. The company running the tours rescues these horses, gives them purpose and needed exercise, and allows them a dignified retirement.

The tour was fantastic and well worth the 28.50$ per person. Our guide was funny and an excellent storyteller. We learned that Stanley Park was originally called Duck Head Point (because it really does look like the head of a duck!) and was home to ‘squatters’ consisting of minorities–Chinese, Hawaiian, Métis, etc. The government used this point as a strategic military location for a long time and when that purpose was no longer required, they wanted to develop the land seeing as Vancouver (population 2,000 at the time!) was booming. Real estate speculators were worried that the introduction of so much new land would devalue other properties, so some backroom dealing was done to turn Duck Head Point into a park. Of course, all the ‘squatters’ were expropriated without compensation. It is a sad story with a happy ending. Also, as Stanley Park used to be a logging area, all of the forest there is second regeneration growth, not primeval forest as some romantics like to believe.

After Stanley Park, we drove to nearby Denholm Street. My friend wanted to try sushi and I was eager to go back to Tanpopo, so I decided that its proximity to Stanley Park meant that was where we were destined to end up for dinner. We walked up and down Denholm for  a bit, popping into a bookstore where I found a remaindered book about the Chilkoot Pass!

Dinner was just as good as it was the last time I ate at Tanpopo and I added spicy tuna rolls to my repertoire. They are soooo yummy. My friend liked everything but the teriyaki salmon because it was too dry for her taste. Otherwise, she bravely sampled everything.  I must say I didn’t get anything too ‘weird’ as I didn’t want to turn her off suishi from the get go, and  I’m proud of her for having several pieces of salmon sashimi and ordering the prawn tempura on her own.

We ended our night with a dip in the park’s hot tub.

I put up some new pictures, including lovely shots of Vancouver’s skyline that I missed because of fog the first time I went to Stanley Park.

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Lynn Canyon Park

Today promised to be a gorgeous, springy day, with sun and highs in the double digits. Things have started to dry out considerably and I was just itching to get out of the city and enjoy a hike in the woods. My first instinct was to visit the Capilano Suspension Bridge. It’s not a cheap excursion (30$ entrance fee plus 5$ for parking), so I did some research on tripadvisor.com to see if it’s a tourist trap. Apparently, yes, because nearby Lynn Canyon offers a comparable experience at a price that can’t be beat: FREE!

Free sounded especially good since I wasn’t sure I’d actually get across a suspension bridge. I sure didn’t the last time I was faced with one!

Well, it seems that continued exposure to suspension bridges and a gondola ride have made me a little less of a scaredy cat and I wound up crossing the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge no less than THREE times! I will admit that I got across as quickly as possible, didn’t stop to take in the scenery, and shook like a leaf the whole way, but what progress!

Lynn Canyon is situated in the heart of a temperate rain forest and is a world of towering redwoods and pools of clear emerald water. Until today, I’d only seen water that clear and beautiful in Alberta. I spent two glorious hours enjoying the perfect weather (mid-single digits there) taking the first steps to getting in shape for the Chilkhoot hike. I finished my morning with a picnic lunch and then a stroll through the excellent Ecological Centre (2$ suggested donation).

Pictures are on the Lynn Canyon page.

Something wondrous happened today. I don’t know if it was the weather, the minimal GPSing I needed to do to get around, the amazing lack of traffic, nature, or what, but I… Oh, the English language is failing me here. In French, I’d say ‘apprivoisé’, which means tamed, but not quite for this context. I guess I’ll say I made my peace with the GVR, found something about it to love, discovered a little corner of it where I was happy to leave a tiny piece of my soul. The GVR is no longer a big, bad scary urban enclave (shootings notwithstanding), but a place that I will remember as being ‘home’ for four months in 2009.

Good day. 🙂