It’s Wednesday, and I took the rest of the week off work. I wasn’t planning to ride today, but while I had my coffee this morning, I started to think about going out into the woods. Specifically, I started thinking about the ‘Temple of Time’ grove mid-way up the Seymour valley that Tay and I failed to find a few weeks ago despite considerable effort.
The terrain we had experienced was steep and unforgiving, and being off-trail in a relatively remote area, not somewhere I felt comfortable being solo – but between my familiarity from last time and the research I’d done, I figured I’d poke my head into the woods and go from there.
I rolled up the Seymour parkway, past the spot where Tay and I went in last time, and kept my eyes peeled for a good spot to climb in that corresponded with where I’d earmarked on the map. To my delight, I noticed a subtle trail in just the right spot. As I climbed into the forest canopy, it continued, and was supported by occasional flagging.
I do have to emphasize that the trail was subtle, and probably only gets a handful of footsteps a month. I ended up losing track of it on the way up, putting me about 100ft further south – but I knew the elevation I needed to be at and I studied the backdrop of the tree, so I was able to see a clearing in the distance that I was confident the tree would be in.
Being by myself this whole time, it had been a pretty silent hike, but as soon as I got a good view of the Temple Giant I was effusively complimenting it out loud. BC Tree Hunter has ranked it fifth in BC for Douglas Firs, with a diameter of about 10 ft, which is about 12-18″ larger diameter than the impressive Doug Fir we’d found a few weeks prior just to the south. Here are four photos of it from different angles, and myself for scale (taken with a 10s timer and a quick scramble from my perched phone):
There are several other notable trees nearby, but I am saving those for the next visit with Tay and perhaps others. The Temple Giant was remarkably easy to get to compared to our previous attempt; a moderately steep 15 minute climb where I only had to use my hands a few times. Compared to the maze of cliffs we contended with just to the south, this was a breeze, but it’s still proper hiking.
This little detour off the parkway is just a skip south of the Hydraulic Creek connector down to the mid-valley lookout, so a return via Fishermans this way made good sense. Here is the Bombadil on the connector trail, as well as at the lookout:
The day had gone from cloudy to sunny as well, even up the valley here which is notoriously worse weather than the city. I opted to take the nearby loop around the marsh as well:
Continuing down Fisherman’s Trail, I let my curiosity get the best of me on a few occasions. One was a small path down to the river, where I found this massive hollow stump:
And the next was to bushwhack the 100 ft or so to this massive Sitka spruce I’d noticed off the trail before. It isn’t quite as big as the 500 year old examples on Rainbow Creek trail, but it’s pretty old! There is something extra special about old Sitkas to me with their mossy limbs and trunk.
No good pictures to support, but the end of Fisherman’s trail was blocked for construction so I had to make a large detour up the Baden Powell trail to the nearby plateau, which added to my already strong appetite – so when I rode past this patio, I couldn’t help but stop and get some happy hour food and beer. I loved that I could park my bike right beside my spot, and enter from the patio, never stepping foot indoors!
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