Wet Wintery Walks

This past week or so has been mild and wet, very wet.  So, no walks this week worthy of their own blogpost as we stayed close to home.

As always we have been to Lynn Headwaters a couple of times this week.  The great thing about a downpour is you can ALWAYS snag a parking spot in the main lot by the gate and you don’t have to walk in from the over-flow parking.  Not sure if that actually outweighs the getting soaked on your walk problem though. 

Lynn Headwaters in the rain is actually still beautiful as the tops of the trees disappear into the mist, the creeks rage like at no other time and new ‘tributaries’ appear all over the place all racing down the hillside to finding their way eventually into Lynn Creek.

Lynn Creek here in full force, only after heavy rain does the river cover the full width of the riverbed.

Looking downstream.  Logs and other debris are swept down by the force of the river, crashing against rocks and boulders on their route towards Burrard Inlet.

The view from the bridge across Lynn Creek adjacent to the picnic grounds.

We enjoy the quiet trails.

Further along where the trail becomes more rugged there are many places where the trail also doubles up as a temporary tributary. This photo shows the trail as we head up into the forest. It can be very wet underfoot at Lynn Headwaters in the rain.

A couple of days later I wanted to do a walk from home without using the car so headed off to explore more of the Powerline Trail.  Owned and maintained by BC Hydro the trail runs for a couple of blocks from Wellington to Braemar, stops for a couple of blocks then continues from St. Marys Av all the way to the Grouse Mountain parking lot.   I don’t know why the two sections don’t appear to connect unless the St Marys Av – Braemar section disappears into the forest on Mt Fromme. Something for me to investigate this Spring I think because it would be terrific to walk all the way from home as far as Grouse which would be a good few kms roundtrip.

So we walked up St Marys Av and joined the trail from there heading West.  It no longer surprises me when we wake in the morning to snow but discover by the time we drive down to Highway 1 they only have rain, however for some reason it still surprises me when we walk the few blocks up to the powerline trail and hit snow when we left a soggy green garden at home.  Thankfully I did have Yaktrax in my pocket and they were necessary.  Although the top layer of the snow had turned to slush underneath was still a couple cms of packed, slippery ice.

The trail weaves along the hillside ahead of us.

There were a couple at best described as ‘peek-a-boo’ views, nothing noteworthy especially on such a miserable grey day.  Looking towards Stanley Park.

Downtown and Canada Place just visible through the mist.

Still a few good watering holes enroute.

Then yesterday we headed over to Lynn Canyon Park.  We usually avoid this park much of the year as it gets so busy with tourists, some of whom having read the wildlife warning signs will have a tendency to panic that Mojo is some kind of wild rabid wolf.  Besides, why go somewhere so busy when we have so many other beautiful and quiet places within easy reach ?

However, Lynn Canyon is a lovely park in its own right and just 5 minutes by car from home so it was an ‘easy’ option offering a good hour or so loop.

There is often filming taking place in Lynn Canyon Park and today was no exception.  However we didn’t see the film crew on our walk so they must have been further into the park.  Previous sets have been used for series such as Kyle XY and the Stargate SG1 and Atlantis series.  Perhaps they are filming the latest Stargate series Extinction here ?

We approach the suspension bridge and I think for the first time in the 4.5 years we’ve lived here – we have it to ourselves !

There is quite an impressive waterfall just next to the bridge, but partially hidden by trees.  I’m surprised they let the viewing areas get so overgrown, given there is so much protected parkland, these few small areas could be trimmed given it’s such a huge tourist draw.

The view from the bridge up and down the impressive canyon, carved away gradually over thousands of years.

Mojo isn’t a huge fan of the swinging bridge but accepts it in order to get the walk that follows.

The Lynn Canyon Park was created in 1912 around the newly built Suspension Bridge. 5 hectares of land was donated to the District of North Vancouver by some developers who were hoping the park would attract people to their new residential development. The District added another 4 hectares to complete the park in 1912.  In 1991 the District added a massive 241 hectares making it one of the largest parks in Metro Vancouver.  When it first opened the park would have looked very different as the area had recently been logged so the forest would have been very young.

Originally there was a 10c charge to use the Suspension Bridge, today however it’s free and a welcome additional to our city parks system.

All the forest at Lynn Canyon Park is second growth but there are still stumps left from the old grown that was here when the first European setters arrived.  This stump still had the cutouts on the side from when it was felled.

The beautiful temperate coastal rainforest environment, moss covered trees and the ground strewn with huge rocks and boulders.

Mojo looks over 30ft pool.

Then we climb the steep staircase to the top of the canyon side.  Now, grafitti is not a significant problem in North Vancouver but this staircase has become an exhibition ground for teenagers and schooltrippers to express their inner thoughts, hopes and dreams as candidly as they see fit. 

One very small downside to such a diverse and cosmopolitan city as Vancouver is that you end up with grafitti you can’t read – Mojo here is trying to decipher the Korean (thanks Doug :)) writing on this fence but ended up tongue-tied.  It is however clear that Dan and Celeste were having a good trip………

We continue our walk through the forest down to Twin Falls.

We spot two brave (read mad) kayakers paddling upstream.

So I videoed them just incase they were about to kill themselves on the approaching falls.  They had the good sense to turn around.

Then it was back to the car and continue studying for Thursdays exam.

So not a terribly exciting week of walks and this week won’t be much different.  Roll on Spring and bright sunny days…….