Category: Hiking

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Making time to be outdoors

Best photo from the Lynn Valley Suspension Bridge

We took a hike yesterday with our good friend DaveO yesterday before taking in the Leafs and Canucks game on TV. He took us to the Lynn Valley Suspension Bridge[wiki], and I challenged my fear of heights by standing in the middle of the bridge with rushing water, rocks, and trees nearly 50 meters below. I made it, but the decision to get to solid ground on the other side was an easy one.

Hiking = workout

DaveO

Waters better left untouched

Spare time has been tough to come by with the various sixty4media projects we’ve been working on. There is a certain point where you need to get outside and enjoy life so the creative energies can keep functioning. It’s also amazing that we can take a 30-45 minute bus ride to find some trails, get some mud on your shoes, and breathe in some amazing mountain air. Makes tomorrow being Monday seem not all that bad.

Picking our place to pan for gold

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The day I went back to America for the first time

It’s such a touristy thing to do, but Rebecca took me down to the Peace Arch[wiki] with her dad a little over a week ago. We were actually hiking in Redwood Park and ventured over there since we were so close.

Redwood ParkOur little walk through that park turned into quite the down and back up affair, totally not wearing the right shoes for the occasion. From what I’ve been told, this is what to expect from my father-in-law. I’m always down for wandering through the bush and getting a little dirty, but my shoes were less than perfect for the soft ground. I’m more impressed that Rebecca did it all in two inch heels.

You can see a bunch of pictures that I took of Redwood Park on Flickr.

America is right over that ditchI always have a hard time grasping that fact that there isn’t a fence that separates Canada from the states. Driving along 0 Avenue, you could spit out the window from Canada and have it land in the U.S. A ditch, a little more than a foot deep, is all that stops a car from crossing the 49th. A three step start and you could easily jump over it.

This was the closest I had been to the U.S. in just over a year. And technically, I did cross the border for a few minutes. Even better, I used the washroom by the road heading north. I was very straight forward that when the urge to relieve myself hit me, I was going to do it in my native country. And in true fashion, that little rest stop was creepy. No power and no hand soap. Smelled alright, though.

I'm standing in AmericaIt’s a nice park and completely worth checking out. While we were running around, people would hop out of their cars to snap a picture of themselves in this symbol of friendliness. We’re two countries that, deep down, like each other. Our political ideologies get in the way of the feelings Americans have about Canadians and vice versa. It’s nice to forget that and just be a tourist some times.

Of course, I have all my pics of our adventures at the Peace Arch on Flickr.

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Adventures On the Sunshine Coast

Venturing through the woods on the Sunshine CoastAs you might have heard on the podcast, we took a day trip to the Sunshine Coast[wiki] over the weekend. This was my first time making the trek, but Rebecca is a seasoned pro. And anytime you have to take a ferry to get somewhere, I’m pretty excited, fear of sinking or not. Is that because in Iowa we don’t have ferries? Yeah, you’re probably right, but we do have some nice boats you can ride on down the Mississippi while you gamble.

Our time up the coast was a super awesome good time. Rebecca spent a lot of time in this area while growing up and speaks about it highly. This was my chance to check it all out, and I have to say that I can see why. It was very apparent, as with nearly all of the lower mainland, that the area is developing a lot. Ocean front homes are the thing to have, and people are building them where they can, as big as they can.

Horseshoe Bay ferry terminalI heard someone say that living in B.C., it’s hard to not become a lover of the outdoors. I can say that is oh so true. I had fun playing soccer and what not while we were there, but I wanted to keep exploring the woods and just see what was out there. There were some trails that we went around, but with my hiking shoes on, I could have stayed out there for hours.

I uploaded a series of pictures from the day to my Flickr account. Check out some of the shots from Horseshoe Bay[flickr] and the Sunshine Coast[flickr] if you’d like. I have a feeling we’ll be back there again in the future.

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Hiking the Park

Looking Out at English BayMaybe Rebecca and I have a warped sense of what a honeymoon should be, but the outdoors are something we both enjoy. Right now, we don’t have a lot of extra cash to spend on a trip to Mexico as we would like to do. We’re going to do our best to enjoy as much of life that we can, and that is exactly what we did this past Saturday.

Nearly five hours of wandering around Stanley Park, and we had a hell of a good time. For those of you not in the know, the park is roughly 15% larger than Central Park in New York. You cannot even compare the two beyond that. Central Park is surrounded by Manhatten and tall buildings. Stanley Park is surrounded by mostly water with mountains for a back drop. It’s unfair to compare the two as they both have their wonderful charms.

Looking Down at the Seawall From Above Siwash RockThe hike, which might not be a hike to some, was something that I’ve been wanting to do for a long while. I’ve become familiar with less than a quarter of the interior of the park, so we took the opportunity to explore, have fun, and check out the scenery. With a variety of trails, it’s easy to get lost or turned around, but you’ll never lose all hope. The worst that will happen is that you get yourself further from where you wanted to end up.

One thing we discovered that was new to both of us, Rebecca having more experience wandering all over the park through her life, was the lookout above Siwash Rock. The sun was high in the sky, 12C, no clouds, and it was just beautiful. Turns out that this lookout is on top of a WWII defense bunker. I’m sure people were looking up at us trying to sort out how we got up there. It was truly an accident that we did. Hit the Siwash Rock Trail, head towards the rock, and check it out some time.

Inukshuks on Second BeachThe most fun we had was off the trails. Mushy, rain soaked ground that was covered with fallen trees, leaves, moss, thorny plants, and all sorts of dirty stuff was a good, good time. There are lots of other places Rebecca kept bringing up that we have to check out and do more hiking at. I’m completely up for it and could hike through the mud all day long.

The tide was the furthest out I have ever seen it that day, so we had to hit the English Bay side of the seawall as well to see some of the inukshuks random folks have constructed. I have to add, some of them are truly impressive.

It’s strange to go from murky Beaver Lake to the smell of sea water down by Third Beach. Mud coated shoes to having sand inside them. Truly you are not having fun unless you are getting dirty.