Category: General

So, for a little while now I’ve been seeking out the oldest and biggest trees that are accessible from town via bike plus hike. I have some favourites in the Seymour valley and a few that I’m aware of but require a longer hike than I’ve been willing to make yet. A little while ago I found out about a grove of what I believe are old Douglas Firs on the east side of the Lynn mountain range, accessed off the LSCR parkway that I frequently ride, dubbed the Temple of Time.

This map was already going out of circulation in 2004, and is from before the paved parkway trail went in (in 2006/2007 I believe?) which is uphill from the Mainline Rd shown. I’ll say this from the outset: I underestimated the terrain based on this map. We knew there would not likely be any trace of the trails left, though perhaps some flagging could still be intact to lead us along. But I underestimated how steep it is after the first bit of the approach. It quickly becomes steep enough you’ve got to use your hands and hold onto things, and navigating between and around the cliffs become a bit of a puzzle.

My bike of choice today was the Bombadil. Obviously by name it is very comfortable in the deep forest.

Below is the mid-valley lookout which was about 18 km into the ride and nearing the area where our hike would begin. Funny to think how small a fraction of the day’s effort this was.

We rode up the connector trail and looked for a good spot to jump into the forest from the parkway. This is where we stashed our bikes, locked to each other. The popular paved trail is visible just 20 ft or so behind Tay, but nobody would be looking into the woods here.

Where we locked our bikes was at 250m elevation. The trees we were looking for were in the 450-550m elevation range. Obviously 300m (about 1000 ft) is not inconsequential, but in my mind, this would be not too bad of a hike. The first stretch was like below – very chill and lovely. Soft ground, not too steep. This carried us up to about the 350m elevation mark.

And the sun would break through sometimes and make everything even more beautiful. There’s been a lot of rain lately so every stream was running, even the ones that are usually dry. The forest is simultaneously so full of beauty I can hardly stand it, but also such a young and recovering forest that would have been so much more impactful, awe inspiring, and healthy if it hadn’t been decimated by logging 100 years ago.

It was not unexpected that things got steeper after this. I was expecting some amount of steep. I was in perfectly good spirits about it, partly because we were starting to see some pretty old Douglas Firs and Hemlocks too. The payoff ratio was pretty good at this point.

From about 350m onwards, it got really steep. I was using my hands as much as my feet, and grabbing hold of whatever was available to scramble up the slope. It wasn’t quite steep enough to be considered exposure in itself, but getting pretty close.

But we were also discovering that sheer cliff faces were abound. The photo below doesn’t really show it, but the reason for that nice peek-a-boo view of the mountains across the valley is in large part due to the tall cliffs only a stone’s throw away.

Looking down at what we’d just clamoured up, below. Photos never do justice, of course. You have to point the lens downhill to get the terrain in view, which makes everything look flat. But taking that into consideration, I think you can probably tell that this is pretty much a “if you fall, you’ll keep going until you hit something” level of steep.

A “Where’s Waldo” type of game, can you see Tay below me as I rest on a fallen log above? At this point we were as high, or higher, than our elevation target but we couldn’t find a way to traverse to where we needed to be due to the aforementioned cliffs in our way. We were both acutely aware that any poor judgement in this terrain could put us in an unsafe situation.

We climbed up to 660m trying to get around the cliffs, and we found a section of the steep ravine that was maybe okay. I got about halfway across and started to get a bad feeling about it. As I turned around, I faced directly downhill, and I felt the blood drain from my face as I stared down a chute hundreds of feet long, steep enough that I wouldn’t stand a chance of stopping on. That was a clear “well, this was fun, time to go back” moment for me.

Tay was adamant, and smartly so, that we take the same route down – because otherwise, we don’t know what situation we could find ourselves in. As we made our way, we surveyed the terrain carefully and were able to identify some shortcuts that didn’t pose a risk. In doing so, we actually came across the biggest tree of the day, the ~9ft diameter Douglas fire shown below. What’s a bit ironic is that it’s located at 370m elevation and the approach from where we’d parked our bikes to this tree is quite tame versus what we’d just been through.

While we didn’t reach the trees on the map, we’d had a really good time being immersed and humbled by the forest.

Back when the pandemic still had most regular social situations still shut down, Rob took on a project to try to find a way to get to the top of each of the three local mountains by staying off pavement as much as possible. He eventually decided it simply was not possible to do in a way that he could send other people on; there was simply too much, and too difficult, hike-a-bike involved.

This was the lower part of the grouse/fromme route, and for some reason we decided to do it again even though we knew how bad it was. I think we all minimized how long the bad section was. In fairness the views after the bad section all but made up for it, and you do feel a sense of accomplishment when you manage to drag your bike up sections of trail so steep they have ropes.

My steed for the day was the Evasion, naturally. It’s not a light bike, but it’s very capable for a drop bar rig. I would have prefered flat bars today but my only disc brake flat bar bike is the Scrambler, which was simply too much bike for the ride. I am working on fixing this. I love my Rivs and I love rim brakes, but these mixed terrain rides that have proper steep sections really are better with discs. Especially when there’s mud!

The first 150m or so of climbing was up a wide, well-maintained gravel path along Mosquito Creek. Those who know the area may be familiar with just how quickly that accommodating path turns to shit once you pass this sign. At some point it abruptly turns into the trees and scrambles along the very steep embankment.

Below is the basically where things change. That’s Tay on her Beachcomber, a bike I have on order for delivery later this year – can’t wait to use it for rides like this! The Evasion is, and always was, a temporary solution while I wait for my Beachcomber.

While the first 150m was spread out over a couple kilometres, the second 150m happened in about 400m of distance: the average incline was 40%. I am writing this the morning after, and I can tell you my upper body feels like I went to the gym for the first time in years. Every muscle I can think of is sore, but in a good way.

We also made it to some snow; this was at the 300m elevation mark which was about as high up as we got for the day. And also, the lookout. Kinda made it all worthwhile to see the bridge you biked from off in the distance.

But wait, there’s more! After the lookout I didn’t take any more photos of the ride, even though we weren’t halfway yet at that point. Finished up at 37km and about 700m elevation. Thanks to the long daylight hours I was also able to then get in the car with the family and head to Pacific Spirit Park about a 40 minute drive away and do a nice woods walk with the dogs. We walked around Camosun Bog and through a section of forest that’s about as old as you can find in town – check out the size of that Doug Fir with the dogs for scale! Also some western red cedars of 3-4′ diameter in the area. Not sure how old they are but they seem older than the growth from after this area was logged in the 1880s to 1930s. Suppose they could be just 150 years old.

Last week was a series of vet visits while getting Leia’s health issues back under control (she’s OK, just old dog stuff) and this week was a mix of long working hours, recovery from last week, and poor sleep due to Leia needing to go out to pee more often now with the new meds. Here she is zonked out having a good sleep in a weird position:

Oh, I almost forgot another reason we were feeling it this week, the time change where we lost an hour. That’s a big contributor and it was an unforgiving week to have it as I had two days with early meetings to boot. However it does mean later sunsets and the photo below was taken after 7pm.

We also had snow (nothing that stuck at sea level though) and lots of new buds and blooms to watch come to life.

About all I managed for a bike ride was this short one to the PNE ponds not far from home. Now that I’ve started tracking what birds I’ve seen (and making note of where to find the local ones I haven’t), I was paying attention while here and heard a couple that I’ve been after: varied thrush and brown creeper. I heard them both repeatedly but never saw them, so nothing added to my tally this day.

Today’s ride was a plan with pals Dave and Rob with two goals in mind: visit the site of the first skate park in Canada (maybe North America?) and also to find the hidden statue a few blocks away I had been tipped off by an Instagram follower.

Both were exceptionally anti-climatic.

I was meeting said friends at noon, but decided to take the long way there since I was ready to roll at 10:30. I ended up having to push much harder than I planned to because of brutal headwinds; we had heavy westerly winds all day. I stopped at the shipyards for this photo:

Below is where the skate park was. It was built in the ’70s, when skating was surf-inspired, so it didn’t resemble a modern skate park, instead being a concrete stream of sorts, with sloped sides that could be surfed from top to bottom. This video is what inspired our visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4lrt99GsMI

Alas, there isn’t much to see currently, no visible indication.

A few blocks away was the ‘Marble Lady’ I had read about. https://www.northshoreheritage.org/blog/2023/10/16/the-mystery-of-the-marble-lady

I cannot overemphasize how much smaller it was than what this story led me to believe:

Well, at least it was a nice day for a ride, despite the gnarly wind. Got a huge sandwich too!

I’ve been working on a fresh version of my Burnaby route dubbed the Burnabop XL; the 2025 version was 76 km long but I’ve whittled it down to 56 km now – though it’s mostly the easier sections that have been removed, so it’s hardly any quicker to ride. The new starting location (complete with a bathroom!) is Confederation Park, specifically this spot:

Within the first kilometre there are multiple grass surfing opportunities.

Towards the end of the 2025 version route is Beecher Creek, which is such a gem of the Brentwood area. The problem was, being late in the course, a lot of people skipped it to head home. So in the 2026 version, I’ve placed Beecher right near the start.

I wasn’t riding the full course today but I wanted to try out the first 10 or so km to see how natural the connections felt. I was familiar with it all but hadn’t ridden it exactly this way before. It was pretty decent! It’s somewhat awkward to connect the best bits around town but this will do.

I skipped the south section due to time (and energy) constraints and headed over to the powerline section – a pretty silly part of the route where it just literally follows under the powerlines diagonally across a stretch of Burnaby. There is a hint of a path in spots, other parts are just riding on grass.

The pre-ride came in handy as there was a short stretch of powerline path that also coincided with an off-leash area; I’ve ridden it a few times and never seen a dog but today it was pretty packed with large-breed dogs that did not like bicycles, so I’ve since re-routed to avoid this spot. The two photos below are from before and after that spot.

The next section is Robert Burnaby and George Derby parks respectively; the former is home to the biggest black cottonwoods I’ve seen. Below is the second largest here that I know of. This is a favourite stretch of semi-urban trail for me; it traces around a couple big ravines and serves as a reminder of what the terrain was like before we flattened it all around here.

In the 2025 route there was a somewhat awkward section of sidewalk between the aforementioned forest and the next section, an old interurban rail bed. I’ve “solved” this by including a 200m section of trail I previously felt was unreasonable to include; it’s overgrown and has several creek crossing with steep and greasy embankments either side. I brought along my shears and folding saw and did a bunch of trimming of the prickly shrubs that line much of the trail but it will need more work and routine maintenance.

After the course work I stopped by Dageraad for a burger and beer, then took the north trail home. I stopped by this tree fort which has an impressive amount of hard work put into it, including a staircase that feels rock solid.

All in all it was 50km and about 800m elevation for the day.

Another evening ride in the last week of Standard Time here. This time I popped over the bridge to Harbourview Park, a linear waterfront park near the Second Narrows bridge. It’s 15 km round trip, so a good length for an after-work ride. The blossom trees are waking up:

This is a good sunset spot but today was grey and it just kind of slowly got dimmer. This is also an off-leash dog park, so I got to say hi to a few puppers as well.

This is it, the last week before Daylight Savings kicks in. To make it sweeter still, our province announced that this will be the last time we have a time change, and we’re sticking with Daylight Savings – so never again will the sun set before 5pm here!

I rode out to this pier near Railtown, about 5 km from home, for a beer. With both Rivs torn apart at the moment, the choice to take the Twenty was pretty easy.

I went out for the sunset but it was the moonrise that stole the show. The moon was full and bright, and appeared huge while it hung near the horizon – the photo was the best I could do with my phone camera, but appeared twice as big in real life.

I’ve been telling people Leia is 13 years old for almost two months now, but today it’s officially true. As we’ve been doing for a bunch of years now, Aimée made dog cake (in cupcake form this time) and we went to Pandora park and invited dog friends out to join. About a dozen folks were able to make it out, helped by the great weather this day.

We were at the park from 11am to 1pm for the birthday celebration, but with the sun still high in the sky I decided to ride the Evasion out to Deer Lake – my first ride of any substance in two weeks. In that time the early bloomers have started to put on a show and remind us that spring is not far off now!

I spotted this bridge from the road, one I hadn’t seen before, so naturally I had to ride over it – and nearly endo’d off the end not realizing the second “step” was about 18″ tall! This does not seem like a compliant bridge…

My favourite tree to sit in was unavailable at Deer Lake due to the influx of park goers brought in with the warm air and sunshine. Can’t complain. I found another spot which was also quite lovely.

The grasslands around the lake are somewhat unique in this area these days, though I imagine this would have been a more common scene before we developed just about the whole land mass. The land was so beautiful before we got our hands on it, and I will cherish what still remains.

I spotted this little hummingbird in a blooming tree while exploring a dead-end fence line trail. The trail shown below is a little hidden gem in Burnaby that I always like to work into my loop.

I couldn’t join this edition of parkbagging on my bike, but the finish park was only three blocks from my place so I walked over with the dogs. Leia has been having some health stuff but is still spry and enjoys being outside.

This weekend I decided I’d finally do a full tear-down and rebuild on the two Rivendells in my possession. The primary reason for going right down to a frame was actually so I could weigh them – I’ve always been curious. The Hillborne frame was 2144g while the fork was 860g, which is really quite light. The Bombadil on the other hand, a rather stout 2826g for the frame but a respectable 940g for the fork. Not a huge surprise.

The differential was bigger than I expected though and it helped solidify my plan to rebuild the Hillborne into the sporty drop bar bike again, after the Bombadil’s been filling this role for almost a year now. The Bombadil will resume “mule bike” duties with the pannier rack and the upright KT bar and become my commuter once again.

The high proportion of bird photos recently are more to do with me being sick and unable to go for proper rides than the increased interest in birding, though the latter is certainly a factor as well. In order to prevent my remarkably long activity streak on Strava from lapsing (306 weeks! Only missed a week during lockdown!) I drove down to a large park along the Fraser River, where I could bike around slowly on the flat pathways. There are also a lot of birds here, and as I realized today, a lot of birders too. I guess I never noticed them before.

And onto the bird photos! Some new ones for me – first downy woodpecker, first white-crowned sparrow, first nuthatch too. I am still very much a newbie but I’ve noticed my ability to talk to a birder I come across and sound like I sort of know what I’m talking about is growing rapidly. I’m looking forward to springtime even more now with this newfound hobby; I already appreciate a lot about spring, now I’ve got one more aspect to enjoy.