My new survival belt with built-in bottle opener. Because beer grows on the north side of trees, eh?
Category Archives: Hiking
Tynehead Regional Park Ramble
We spent several hours walking around lovely Tynehead Regional Park today, part of Metro Vancouver’s superb regional parks system.
Goofing around in a giant stump
My turn to goof around . . .
Another giant old stump
Checking for salmonid fry
And we spotted some!
Lots of caddisflies, too
Now that’s some pecking order : – )
Walking the Pitt River Greenway
Yumi and I walked the Pitt River Greenway in Pitt Meadows, BC, for a couple of hours today, starting from Harris Landing and heading past the airport and back, and then east and back. Lovely day!
Rufous Hummingbird
Pileated Woodpecker
LBB
Steller’s Jay
Turkey Vulture
Discover Deer Lake Park with Henry DeJong
It was a gorgeous day for a two-hour tour of Deer Lake Park in Burnaby, led by Henry DeJong, retired from Burnaby Parks. Lots of history, and plant and animal knowledge.
Hummingbird
Douglas Squirrel
Saw lots of egg masses today
Another egg mass
Little frog
Big frog
Hawk
Heron adding to its nest at the Deer Lake colony
Invasive Red-Eared Sliders
Dive! Dive! I think it was a Scaup : -)
Rice Lake Loop in North Vancouver
If we’re on the north shore in Vancouver and have a bit of time, we love the quick and easy Rice Lake loop. It’s a fairly short, flat trail, yet the lake and the towering trees refresh the soul.
This female mallard was almost overly friendly — very conditioned to humans. No handouts from us!
We didn’t see any water life until Yumi spotted this caddisfly larva crawling along the bottom. These creatures are so cool — they build “shells” out of bark, leaf litter, sand, tiny stones, etc.
Merganser
That’s some excavating! Perhaps the work of a Pileated Woodpecker?
Long Burnaby Walk on Glorious Sunny Day
Yumi and I took a 3 hour and 40 minute walk starting from SE Burnaby all the way to Deer Lake, around the lake and home again. We capped the glorious afternoon with delicious Japanese food at the Nikkei Seniors Centre restaurant.
For the photographers out there, all of these were shot with a Sigma 10-20mm ultrawide zoom on a Nikon D5200 body.
And if you want to be let in on a secret, for the first half of the walk or so, somehow the autofocus got turned off on the lens. But with a lens that wide, set at F8 with aperture priority, depth of field is massive so pretty much everything is in focus anyway, eh?
Deer Lake dock
Gull soaring over the beach with Metrotown on the horizon
Deer Lake Brook
Over two hours into the walk and Yumi’s still got lots of energy : -)
Nikkei Place
Pretty One-Mile Lake
We’d driven past this little lake and nature trail many times, and today we stopped and checked it out. One Mile Lake near Pemberton, BC.
Rolley Lake and Falls Loop
Yumi and I did the Rolley Lake and Falls loop today in Rolley Lake Provincial Park north of Mission, BC. Easy walk in a lush forest, and around a pretty little lake.
Completed Standard First Aid for Industry
I completed a St. John Ambulance (Burnaby branch) Standard First Aid for Industry with CPR/AED course and certification over the weekend.
Thanks to Danni, a superb instructor, who was very knowledgeable, down to earth, and fun.
I’m zonked now — it was an intense two days, but also happy to have refreshed my first-aid knowledge. I hadn’t taken a formal first-aid course since my youth, in Red Cross swimming classes and Boy Scouts, several decades ago.
Hiking the Four Lakes Loop Near Alice Lake
We hiked the Four Lakes Loop near Alice Lake north of Squamish, BC, today. Lovely outing!
Didn’t see any toads or bears, but several folks with dogs : -)
I love Steller’s Jays — so bold, raucous, and iridescent
Yumi spotted this wasp’s nest – – love the patterns!
