Deer diary

This is my second segment on animal encounters after being inspired by videos of animals entering human spaces since the lockdown.

Pitt-Addington Marsh

Pitt-Addington Marsh was by Pitt Lake. The signage of this Pitt Meadows location was poor and grasses bent over the narrow neglected path, but the day was perfect and the scenery spectacular.

Rocky Point Trail

Sometimes I forget the treasures right under my nose. One gem, is five minutes drive from my home — Port Moody’s Rocky Point Trail.

A lake at all seasons

I’ve witnessed Lafarge Lake throughout the year, but it’s not a real lake — it’s human made. The location was once a quarry, but in the 1970s it was turned into a lake that’s eight metres at its deepest and covers five hectares.

Finally — a beaver

Over the years I’ve spent hours exercising around Lake LaFarge where I’ve admired an occasional bald eagle, a profusion of ducks and Canada geese and even a few tortoise sunning themselves on logs, but I had yet to spot a beaver.

Burnaby Lake

Situated in the city of Burnaby, this lake stretched for approximately four kilometres with lilies covering its surface in several locations. Home to countless Canada geese, it wasn’t uncommon to observe a flock glide and land on its still waters.

By the sea of Pacific Spirit

Along the Wreck Beach Trail I spied poles rising over the sand in the distance. This was where most people hung out, sitting on logs staring into the Straight of Georgia.

Art in the woods

Replicas of squatters’ cabins were sculptured along Maplewood Flats off the Burrard Inlet in the exact location where they  originally stood during the 1940s. Hovering over the tidal mud flats, the cabins on stilts housed a community of squatters who, by the 1960s, were hippies, artists and displaced loggers who craved nature and self-sufficiency.

Sandy Cove trail

Past the source of Harrison Hot Springs, was Sandy Cove Trail. Because it was the tail end of autumn, leaves covered the path making it difficult to find the way in some sections. Alder and broad leaf maple leaves were strewn up the slope of the rising path.

The source

From the hotel resort, the source of Harrison Hot Springs was only a couple of hundred metres away. When I’d walked to the spot twenty years ago, it had appeared as nothing more than a rocky smoky pool of bubbling water not much bigger than a king size bed; at least that’s how I remembered it.