Last Hike - Goat Mountain

It is time to leave Vancouver. As a good bye I will hike (climb) Goat Mountain. The trips starts with Grouse Grind. For me this is the Grind number 3. I improved my result by 3 minutes and reached my best Grind time - 1:20. I did not managed to do it under 1:15, which is a reason to try in near future again. 

After short break in Grouse Mountain bistro is time to head towards my todays target Goat Mountain. I sign in for the hike and head towards first hill. The hike is steep from very beginning. I also welcome first horseflies. How can I only think they will not appear today?

I am not sure which of all those hills is Goat Mountain.

Another beautiful day for hiking. The path if often hidden in wild bushes and challenging to walk safely.  

Pathway (where?) heading towards Goat Mountain.

I recognize the Lions, hoping Goat Mountain is not the one behind. 

These are Lions, not the Goat. Another tempting location to see.

Chains - reminder of the first hike to Shannon Falls from top.

Thinking for few seconds whether I go further or back.

Being Capricorn, I continue further!

Done! I wish for no more chains on the way.

I appreciate signs showing me the right way and the ubiquitous bear warning.

Almost there - top of Goat Mountain.

Amazing views are great reward for the climbing session.

This is most probably the last post from my Vancouver summer. I have enjoyed it a lot!!! Thank you for your attention and see you soon again somewhere on this planet!

Eagle's Bluff Hike

I made the trip to Eagle's Bluff based on friends suggestion. The hike itself is not difficult. Worts is the first part, where you have to walk-up the skiing slope called Fork. 

I shall mention the horseflies - it was again a day when they were a lot in action. I somehow get used to it. Notice for Marty - horseflies fly so fast you cannot catch them with a camera, so I do not have a picture. Bigger than huge is almost a size of small bird :-)
I was rescued by Cabin Lake. Place just before you reach the top of Black Mountain, first target on that day.

View from Fork Slope towards Mount Strachan slopes.

Cabin Lake - paradise just before Black Mountain

I did not believe I will enjoy swimming in Canada as I enjoyed this one. The water was nice warm, but still refreshing, almost no people, just a small group on the opposite side of the lake. Very comfortable entry into water (big stone and sand - see the picture). Refreshed I climb the Black Mountain to get another amazing view that day.

View from Black Mountain

The trail goes than trough forest to Eagle's Bluff. Place above West Vancouver offers amazing views. Here are some of them:

Eagle's Bluff is a busy place.

Ships waiting to enter Vancouver harbor.

View towards Bowen Island.

The whole hike was pleasant. Walking in the forest on such a hot day was refreshing. Despite the long-lasting period of sunny and dry weather most of the lakes and ponds on the way still have enough water. 

One of many lakes I passed on my way.

Blossoming still pond.

Only sad thing about the hike - I lost my anti-bear jingle-bell. I can now only hope it rescued life of the person who find it. 

Good luck with bears and keep smiling! Come back for more stories!

Rent a Boat - it's fun!

I had the spontaneous idea to spend one day on boat. Shot research on the Internet showed there are two locations in Vancouver where you can rent a boat - Granville Island and Horseshoe Bay. I decided for Horseshoe bay. Granville Island is located in city center and I had the feeling it would be much more fun to explore the ocean outside of the city.
Together with two friend we have spend almost all day on the ocean (OK not the open ocean, 'just' on one of the bays between mainland and Vancouver Island).

Map of 'our' Bay - the star shows location of the Horseshoe Harbor.

Before you rent a boat, you need to pass through 'boat driving license procedure'. It is not difficult, the main purpose to to scare you.

Boat Driving LIcense Material

Once you pass, the ocean is yours. We had small boat for max. 4 people with the lowest power (40 HP, stronger were 60 and 75). I do not believe there is much difference. You always feel you go too slow until you hit bigger wave. 

Leaving the Harbour

Once we left the harbour we started to practice the boat driving. It looks very simple, but even small boat can sometimes surprise you. Watch for waves! Looking on the map we planned to explore all islands in the bay. Soon we realised we do not have enough time or boat fast enough to manage this in one day. Plan changed and we started to search for nice place to have a picnic and swim. We found wonderful quite location.

Our beach on Anvil Island with rock entering the water on left side and tree trunks - perfect for picnic.

We had lots of fun parking the boat without destroying it and hoping it will not swim away while we were enjoying the beach. 

Safely parked boat.

As you can see on the picture it was a stone beach. The entry into a water was very challenging because of the very slippery stones. My friends swam few strokes. I only dipped my feet and hands. The water was very cold and the stones very very slippery. 
After lunch and swimming is time to explore more. Some of the islands are inhabited. It must be wonderful to have a cottage there. 

This lovely place is for sale.

I recommend everybody to have a boat trip when in Vancouver. It was worth the 220$ we have paid for 4 hours rental. 

Amazing day!

Enjoy summer, it is still not over and see you soon!

Garibaldi Lake Hike

Few days ago my friend B. talked about their trip to Garibaldi Lake. This lake was not on my Canadian list, but now I am happy I added to it. The trail starts about 20 kilometers after Squamish (halfway between Vancouver and Whistler). Here are few technical details:

Difficulty: Intermediate
Time: 5 hours
Total distance: 18km
Elevation Gain: 820 meters

The track is very nice and maintained as you see on the pictures below. Plan at least six hours to have enough time to enjoy the lake fully, especially on lovely sunny day.

Walking up the hill.

Pathway to Taylor Meadows.

Almost there - the road declining to Garibaldi Lake.

The hike is very comfortable. You will not need to climb on slippery rocks. Challenge is the elevation. First eight kilometers are pure walking up the hill. The track is not steep, but continuos. It goes up ... and up ... and up. After six kilometers is time to decide what way to choose. There are two options - longer (about 23 kilometers in total) going through Taylor Meadows or shorter (18 kilometers in total) along two smaller lakes. I chose the way through Taylor Meadows. It was good decision. 

Compare to the pathway along small lakes, the Taylor Meadows track offers beautiful views on surrounding mountains. 

... and nature beauty.

Once you cross the Taylor Meadows the way starts declining and soon you begin to feel the lake.

Garibaldi Lake for the first time - the blue is amazing.

The pathway down the hill to the lake was exciting. Amazing blue flashes through the trees. After one kilometer you reach it - Garibaldi Lake.

Garibaldi Lake - this is first full view on the lake from the weir.

I do not like cold water. I hate to swim in anything what does not have at least 30 degrees centigrade. I did it. You will do it too. Especially if you come on such a sunny, hot day. It was very refreshing and very quick.

Just a perfect day.

Here I swam a few laps, but swam.

Time to go back. For return I chose the pathway along two small lakes. After all day in the sun, the way down through the forest was very pleasant.

The way down back to parking lot was sometimes a little more challenging,
not much, just to make the walk more colourful.

Quick look on the Lesser Garibaldi Lake
(first lake on my way back to parking lot).

Barrier Lake - must be nice for swimming as well.
For me once a day swimming in glacial lake is enough. 

Thanks all my friend for their recommendations. 
More hiking stories soon! Don't forget to come back.

Celebration of Lights

In case you are spending summer in British Columbia, the Celebration of Lights is a must. Celebration of Lights is regular annual (usually end of July, beginning of August) firework contest in Vancouver. This year United Kingdom, Canada and Thailand competed for the prize. All beaches surrounding the English bay are for three nights occupied by thousands of spectators (this year 400.000 people were expected) who are enjoying the 30 minutes show. Local radio broadcasts music accompanying the light show on a radio station. It is also possible to download application and listen to the music on your mobile phone. At this moment is the voting for best firework going on. The winner will announced this week. Here are few impressions from Thailand firework.

I did not know how difficult it is to take a picture of a firework, especially with iPhone. Those pictures are not the best moments of the firework, but pictures I and my iPhone took while having our best moment :-) 

Enjoy every summer night, even without firework. See you soon!

Bears and Horseflies

This post is dedicated to my favourite animals - so called Canadian Wild Life. Today I went to Garibaldi Lake. I will post another blog about my trip later. I decided very quick to get anti-bear equipment. It happened after seeing road sign 'Do not feed bears' I decided to quickly get anti-bear equipment.

This is the sign and I never ever planned to feed any bear.

I have seen similar sign just before Squamish (caution bears next 60 km). I stopped at a mountain equipment shop in Squamish and bought anti-bear spray. I have the jingle bell already since Sunday. 

Basic equipment - jingle bell and anti-bear spray. 

Good news is - I did not see any bear. Despite the high traffic on the Garibaldi Lake hike, there were parts of my trip where I was happy to be heard by everybody, especially bears, in the forest. You need to get used to the sound. It is not as bad as I thought. It is kind of meditation sound.  
Wild animal number two is my favorite horsefly. I made very bad experience on Mt.Seymour. I can't tell whether Garibaldi Lake hike was better or worst. It helped I did chose grey outfit and did not use any scented cosmetics. There were less horseflies than on Mt.Seymour, but those who were there cannot be called GIANT (like those on Mt.Seymour). I do not know what is the right term for the size of the horseflies on Garibaldi Lake - maybe bigger than huge. 
I was planing to use the insect repellent until the question 'do I smell tasty to a bear while wearing repellent?' came to my mind. I did not use any this time and I will do some research on this topic. 

Do not be afraid, get ready for the situation! See you soon again!

Mt.Seymour Hike

At the very beginning Mt.Seymour was just one of the topics on my 'to-do-list'. the trip completely changed my perception of that place.

Technical details:

Difficulty: Intermediate
Time: 5 hours
Distance: 9km (same road return)
Elevation Gain: 450 meters
Season: July - October

Although I went on Sunday in amazing weather, there was very low traffic. Just enough people to scare bears, knowing I am on the right track and feel free. I did not see a bear. This is good news. The only nature challenge were insects. Thousands of flies, bugs and mosquitos accompanied me all way to the peak and back. Learning - do not wear any scented cosmetics at all and do not get dressed in white. Especially in white, they all just love you. For my next hike I have to consider some insect repellent, bear spray and 'anti-bear' jingle bell. Many people here use the jingle bell as a sign 'attention bear, I am here'. I still do listen to my iPhone music, believing that bears understand - music from iPhone = human is close, get away.

Here is the photo story of the day:

Trail profile. Stated 450 meters elevation gain is counted on total
(peak minus starting level).
As you see from the profile, the total elevation gain is higher as the trail goes
few times steep up and down. 

The trail starts in forest and the road is rocky.

Sometimes it looks like the path is leading nowhere.
Can you ever reach horizon?

Brockton point - first view down to the valley - Vancouver from top.

Endless mountains are great motivation.
I am trying not to pay attention to all those bugs and GIANT horseflies. 

The trail looks very often like end of the world. Learning - do not think about
the way down while going up the hill. You will see the trail with very different
eyes when going down. Concentrate on the way up.

Although long period of sunny days without rain small ponds, lakes, plashes and even snow are present along all the way. It is very refreshing. 

Pump Peak with small Inukshuk (in the middle).

Another Inukshuk in detail.

What is Inukshuk? I took the definition from the web site of Inukshuk Gallery in Vancouver: The mysterious stone figures known as inuksuit can be found throughout the circumpolar world. Inukshuk, the singular of inuksuit, means "in the likeness of a human" in the Inuit language. They are monuments made of unworked stones that are used by the Inuit for communication and survival. The traditional meaning of the inukshuk is "Someone was here" or "You are on the right path."

Second Pump Peak. Do you see any path? I have spend about twenty minutes looking for the pathway to Mt.Seymour. The one which I did not like at all finally proved to be the right one. I call it 'jump-in-the-abyss road'.

Abyss - deep between Second Pump Peak and Mt.Seymour,
nevertheless wonderful views. 

Never look back! Way down to abyss (yes, those rocks on the left side is the path),
you may get scared. And do not even think about the return.
Your perspective will change until then.

The peak of Mt.Seymour - I do not know the guy. While taking this picture I thought
he is spoiling my picture, but only at home I realised he looks quite aesthetic.
Deep down in the ocean is Vancouver.

Just wonderful. On top - now you see why is Mt.Seymour my best hike.

On top - whatever direction - the visibility is for Vancouver brilliant
- for the moment this is the top of the world.

Nature is lovely! Even with insects. More follows soon. Come back!