Vancouver Life: Two Canyon Loop, October 2010

This week Mojo and I revisited the Two Canyon Loop trail which we last walked in 2009 and it was during that walk our camera broke. Armed with the long since replaced new camera on a bright and sunny fall day we headed over to Lynn Canyon.

We don’t often walk at Lynn Canyon largely because of the crowds but I thought an average October Tuesday might not be too bad. However, two school busses parked, a full parking lot and a number of out-of-province license plates suggested it still wasn’t going to be quiet.

We pass the very impressive cafe and visitors centre.

Before approaching the bridge we can already see it’s going to be busy.

Despite being fussed, commented on, patted and poked by tourists Mojo is excellent on the bridge and just pushes his way through and gets to the other side as quickly as possible. I do too so no photos from the bridge.

We take riverside trail, Mojo amongst the fallen leaves.

We reach 30’ Pool and its beautiful clear waters.

Mojo takes the opportunity for a quick paddle.

Then we are faced with the giant staircase to take us back up the canyon side.

Views back down the staircase with the autumnal colours.

At the top of the rise we turn left and reach the Varley Trail where we make a short detour to the first pipeline bridge, these views down to the canyon a long way below.

We then proceed back up to the edge of the Seymour Conservation Reserve and down the Homestead trail into the Seymour River Canyon. Similar to the Lynn Canyon this is proper North rainforest with lots of moss covered trees.

Giant older 2nd generation trees completely covered in moss.

Here there is a substantial new growth tree that has grown completely out of the old stump of a felled old-growth tree.

The Seymour Conservation Reserve is one of the few locations on the North Shore that restricts dogs because of its particularly environmentally sensitive nature. Mojo isn’t impressed, but he does have an awful lot of places he can run around.

We don’t need to go along this trail anyway and we take a right at this point onto Fishermans Trail which runs alongside the Seymour River.

This riverside trail is much more open with less dense deciduous trees.

Seymour River.

We eventually reach the blue bridge which we will cross.

The views upstream from the middle of the blue bridge.

We continue the walk along the East side of the Seymour River before reaching yet another pipeline bridge seen through the trees ahead.

The river rushes through the narrow canyon below the bridge.

Now we must make another steep ascent as we climb back up the canyon side back towards Lynn Canyon. This starts with a very steep staircase followed by extensive switchbacks.

Mojo takes a break for a moment. Probably praying I won’t throw his stick all the way back down the stairs…….again.

After some climbing the trail levels out and we soon cross Lillooet Road, which is the access road cut through the forest to the Seymour Conservation Reserve and the water filtration plant nearby. It’s a strangely busy throughfare to find when you feel you’re stomping through forest in the middle of nowhere.

After re-entering the forest on the Lynn Canyon side we hear and see a woodpecker a short way from the trail.

This video of him tapping away, pull off pieces of the bark to get at the insects underneath.

After a good ten minutes or so of watching him snack he flies off and tries his luck on another tree. We then see the damage he has managed to cause to this tree which is where he was when we first saw him.

We carry on with our walk and soon back at our old faithful Lynn Creek.

Further along the trail we come to the Twin Falls. This is the upper of the two small drops.

Nearby is the bridge we need to cross the river.

There were good views to the naked eye of the falls from the bridge but the contrast between bridge sunlight and shade meant it didn’t photograph well.

On the North side of the bridge are beautiful colourful pools in the river canyon.