Uncovering my city

Like many people during these difficult times, I’ve been exploring my city from walking the streets in my neighbourhood to hiking places I’ve never been before. If you live on B.C.’s west coast it’s not news that shorter day light hours, cooler temperatures, and constant rain wear down your enthusiasm to be outdoors. As a safe guard, I’ve encouraged a friend to join me once a week to keep me motivated, and we’ve agreed rain or shine, we’ll hike.

the crunch

The Crunch is a hiking trail that goes from the base of Westwood Plateau up to Coquitlam’s Eagle Ridge Drive. It’s only just over two kilometres one way, but the walkway rises 280 metres — the equivalent of walking up an 80-storey building.

Clever signs

I may be a writer, but I can never come up with clever puns. When I see or hear someone else with a slick line, I am gobsmacked — like the CBC radio show, The Debaters, I shake my head at their quick wit, and of course, laugh!

Deer diary

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

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.

Canada’s 150th

It’s hard for me to wrap my head around any country celebrating its 150^th year, yet that’s what Canada’s doing this 2017.

Canada Day

I’ve never been one for Canada Day. It’s the connection to Australia Day I grew up with that was celebrated on the day Europeans first arrived to form a settlement on the continent. To Australian Aborigines, it’s Invasion Day, a day of mourning. Having this connection it wasn’t until this year, I attended a Canada Day celebration.

Salmon come home festival

Yesterday marked the annual Hoy Creek Salmon Come Home Festival. Usually, I pass only a handful of hikers along the Hoy Creek Trail but on this day, there must have been a couple of hundred.

Early chum arrivals

I’ve been waiting for the end of the month when the salmon return. Yesterday however, I decided to go earlier to the lower end of Hoy Creek where salmon spawn because I hadn’t walked there in months.