The more time I spend in British Columbia the more I love it but most of my time there has been spent in the Vancouver area so was I eager to take the opportunity get out of that city and start to explore different parts of the lower mainland area and my five days in Pitt Meadows was my first real opportunity. Pitt Meadows is a small town about 60kms east of Vancouver nestled at the foothills of those Coast Mountains that I had been gazing at from airplanes, highways and distant hotel windows for the last few weeks.
I sat down at the pub attached to the hotel and ordered dinner and chatted with the staff as the place was empty of customers. Beer serving dudes in strange pubs across the country have been my most reliable source of local information over the last year and the guys at the Golden Ears Pub continued that trend with a couple of great restaurant options as well as some outdoors stuff that I got pretty exited about.
The first couple of days in town I was pretty busy at work but stole whatever time I could to drive out into the country surrounding the small town, exploring the roads that led through farmland and closer to the mountains that lay tantalizingly close across Pitt Lake.
By the third day when I finished work I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do with my spare time alone in town. Wildplay is a chain of outdoor adventure parks in BC that offer zip lining, bungee and tree top walks among other things. I had called the site just about thirty kms away just north of Maple Ridge and was disappointed that they didn't have any of those activities but had Monkido, which is a tree to tree course that entails maneuvering short zips, rope swings and nets. The lady I talked to had me pretty gung ho to give it a try and headed for what I hoped would be my first adventure of the week.
The drive out to Wildway finally brought me right to the edge of those mountains that I had been driving around for the last couple of days and my excitement level rose the closer I got but as I approached the place my heart kind of sank. The Monkido course was not exactly the level of excitement I was expecting. Instead of the vision I had of soaring through trees with mountain vistas in the background the course was contained in about an acre* of somewhat bare, dark and uninteresting forest right at the side of the road and the ropes and swings had a very family friendly, lo risk, safety first, anyone can do it feel that didn't seem adventurous at all.
*I use the word 'acre' a lot but have no real concept of how big an acre is, it may have been a hectare as well as I have no comprehension of that unit of measurement either.
I wanted to push my boundaries a bit and have an adventure and this wasn't going to be it.
I didn't even get out of the car as I made the split second decision to continue further up the road which I knew would lead me right into Golden Ears Provincial Park. Another ten kilometers and I saw a sign for a hiking trail and I pulled over immediately, grabbed my water and camera and headed into the forest. The trail started with a short interpretive nature walk that was interesting and gave me some background about the forest I found myself in. I quickly walked the two kilometer path and then headed further into the forest following signs heading for a lookout point. I have never seen a forest like this one. The forest is covered in moss from the fern covered floor to the soaring branches of coastal hemlock and cedar trees. The area is regenerated forest after being cleared by a major forest fire back in the late 1920's's that ended turn of the century logging operations.
Most interesting was the evidence of that logging from almost a hundred years ago. Massive stumps, some of which were two or three meters wide and many of which still showed evidence of fire dotted the forest floor. The bases of these massive trunks still bore the notches loggers had cut to mount springboards to take down the massive trees with hand axes and saws. It was hard to imagine the sight of one those 80 meter tall trees crashing to the ground but I sure wish I had seen them standing before they fell.
As I the trail started to climb steeply up a dry riverbed covered with loose rock I was reminded of a part of LaCloche Silhouette Trail in northern Ontario nicknamed 'The Hog' that I have hiked up several times with an full forty pound pack. Today I appreciated having my arms and back unencumbered and my shoulders pain free on this climb. I clambered to the top about a half hour later, sweaty and winded to a less than breathtaking view back into the valley below but loving the fact that I was hiking in the middle of the forest in BC's Coast Mountains. I didn't spend long at the lookout before I continued along the trail as it dipped back into the thick green moss covered forest. As I descended back into the forest it became darker and darker quite quickly and after about half a kilometer I decided to turn around and hike back out the way I had come in. It was about three kilometers either way but as the trail was crossed often by horse riding trails as well as deer and other other animal trails and I felt more comfortable and safe taking the same path back to the car as I had taken in, especially if I had to make my way, without a headlamp, in the dark.
Being alone, with no-one knowing where I am, I have started to learn to take the safest, not the most adventuresome, route out.
The sun was close to setting when I finished my 90 minute Spirea Trail/Lookout Loop hike and I headed back to town for dinner. I picked up sushi and ate while looking at pictures from my first few days in town, then did a bit bit of online research about the other trails at Golden Ears before going to sleep with thoughts of a morning hike rolling around my head.
By the third day when I finished work I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do with my spare time alone in town. Wildplay is a chain of outdoor adventure parks in BC that offer zip lining, bungee and tree top walks among other things. I had called the site just about thirty kms away just north of Maple Ridge and was disappointed that they didn't have any of those activities but had Monkido, which is a tree to tree course that entails maneuvering short zips, rope swings and nets. The lady I talked to had me pretty gung ho to give it a try and headed for what I hoped would be my first adventure of the week.
The drive out to Wildway finally brought me right to the edge of those mountains that I had been driving around for the last couple of days and my excitement level rose the closer I got but as I approached the place my heart kind of sank. The Monkido course was not exactly the level of excitement I was expecting. Instead of the vision I had of soaring through trees with mountain vistas in the background the course was contained in about an acre* of somewhat bare, dark and uninteresting forest right at the side of the road and the ropes and swings had a very family friendly, lo risk, safety first, anyone can do it feel that didn't seem adventurous at all.
*I use the word 'acre' a lot but have no real concept of how big an acre is, it may have been a hectare as well as I have no comprehension of that unit of measurement either.
I wanted to push my boundaries a bit and have an adventure and this wasn't going to be it.
As I the trail started to climb steeply up a dry riverbed covered with loose rock I was reminded of a part of LaCloche Silhouette Trail in northern Ontario nicknamed 'The Hog' that I have hiked up several times with an full forty pound pack. Today I appreciated having my arms and back unencumbered and my shoulders pain free on this climb. I clambered to the top about a half hour later, sweaty and winded to a less than breathtaking view back into the valley below but loving the fact that I was hiking in the middle of the forest in BC's Coast Mountains. I didn't spend long at the lookout before I continued along the trail as it dipped back into the thick green moss covered forest. As I descended back into the forest it became darker and darker quite quickly and after about half a kilometer I decided to turn around and hike back out the way I had come in. It was about three kilometers either way but as the trail was crossed often by horse riding trails as well as deer and other other animal trails and I felt more comfortable and safe taking the same path back to the car as I had taken in, especially if I had to make my way, without a headlamp, in the dark.
Being alone, with no-one knowing where I am, I have started to learn to take the safest, not the most adventuresome, route out.
The sun was close to setting when I finished my 90 minute Spirea Trail/Lookout Loop hike and I headed back to town for dinner. I picked up sushi and ate while looking at pictures from my first few days in town, then did a bit bit of online research about the other trails at Golden Ears before going to sleep with thoughts of a morning hike rolling around my head.
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