Up to Date

So, nearly up to date now (this and 3 posts below in case you have missed them)

Stuart, our host, let us in on this local 'secret spot', well we hadn't found it anyway. Deep Cove is tucked away from the city along Indian Arm, a side estury off Burrard Inlet. I imagine it is very popular with locals, however on a cold November Monday morning we almost had it to ourselves. Being East facing there was little sun so a brisk walk around the grassy area by the water and we were soon back in the car.

We decided to head up the Mount Seymour Road as I wanted to see the top of the mountain. I expected a pointy bit at the top, it was fairly flat however, what I did not expect was the snow. On the news that evening they said there was 15cm up there... I don't think it was quite that much... (The piles of snow are from the JCB clearing the parking lot)

We also had wonderful views over the city, Mount Baker and the Cascades in Washington state (about 60 miles away!) which are also covered in snow, its getting closer!

Today we set out for another walk in Stanley Park. We had intended to walk part way along the sea wall, then Robert wanted to head in on one of the wooded trails to look for fungi.

I had the notion that we could try to walk the whole perimeter of Stanley Park, I did add I wasn't sure how far it was, we guessed about 8km (we were not far wrong)

The Park is 1000 acres of public land which has many faces. The sea walk all around its perimeter changes regularly as you move from the West facing third beach area, where we joined the path, there are huge rocks here with precarious trees perched on them, this area is exposed to the prevailing weather and recently the path was closed after heavy rain caused a landslip. There are large flocks of ducks regularly diving and popping up again along with other water birds on the shoreline pecking in the kelp beds.

The path at the northern point goes underneath the Lions Gate road bridge towards the dock area. This stretch of water is the Burrard inlet and we watched the big Hyundai container ship maneuvering towards the berth where it would unload its cargo, we have seen this and it's sister ships many times during our visit, often from the window of the apartment where it looked so much smaller than now, beside the waters edge.

The Totem Poles (see earlier blogg) are a regular tourist bus stop off point, we walked on today, GPS says about 5km hr. walking pace, not bad. We passed the 9 O'clock gun and on towards Lost Lagoon, this side is generally busier and there seemed to be an influx of casual runners along with more people walking, perhaps because it was about 12.30 and lunch time. It looks like the boats around the Yacht club are largely settled for the winter.

At the far end of Lost Lagoon there were some black squirrels, so tame they chased us for food, a Japanese lady was stood with bird food in her hand and three or four great tits, sitting in a bush were flying back and forth for their lunch. A bit further along the path people were feeding some raccoons, it was a bit smelly here, not sure if it was the water or the raccoons! This was not so wild, life!

Quite quickly we arrived at second beach on the last straight of our walk, this is a lovely area overlooking English Bay, more sheltered and lush on this side of the park it felt at least a degree warmer. We nearly did a second circuit as we missed the path back to the car park and had to double back. All together we walked about 11km in 1hr 40min. Well worth while I think, we had done lots of bits of the walk but I really enjoyed walking it in full and seeing the changes as we moved from one side to the other.

There are so many places to walk here. We haven't got a favorite, we have enjoyed them all so far, and still have other places we could investigate. It is getting a bit damp for walking in the woods now but I expect the fungi hunt is only postponed for another day!