Three easy walks
The plan for today, which turned out to be sunny and warm, was to walk up a nearby hill, Mount Becher (1390 metres). After the usual chores - breakfast, shopping, etc - we drove up to the 800 metre roadhead for a 10.45 start and headed up a well used footpath. Elevenses after half an hour, featuring delicious 'Chips Ahoy' biscuits. There were good views down to Comox Lake and across the sea to the mountainous mainland. After another half hour we passed a small lake and paused to check the route description Sue had photographed from the internet. There was no correlation. We decided to backtrack to a point where the description matched our route. We finished up back at the car, having walked about 4 km. Had we ignored the route description we'd probably have made the summit, but with no map and no idea where the summit was (it was no doubt shrouded in trees) we had felt that following a detailed route description would be our best bet. Annoyingly, this particular route description appears to have been a work of fiction, which is worse than no route description at all.
So, with another travelling day tomorrow, our time in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island has elicited just one full day's walking, and a summit of just over 200 metres. I'm sure we will soon make up for that!
We decided to give up on Mount Becher and descend to a network of short trails based around the Nymph Falls, which turned out to be a bit like Aysgarth's Lower Falls, with lots of cairns strewn across the shallows above the falls, and a chap sitting on a deckchair on a slab of rock in the middle of the river above the falls. We found a spot for lunch and appreciated the continuing joy of having no biting insects to contend with. 4 km on easy manicured paths.
Next we decided to head up to Mount Washington Alpine Resort, in the massive Strathcona Provincial Park. Time constraints involving supermarket opening times meant that we had little more than an hour to explore the vast area now available to us at over 1000 metres in altitude. We did our best, zooming in a 3.5 km circuit around the boardwalks that have been specially designed to cater for unicycles, as mountain biking along them is considered unsafe for pedestrians.
Distant snow capped mountains were visible for the first time this trip. The ones in the Strathcona PP were actually fairly close, and mainly shielded by trees, with a foreground of salad burnet and bog cotton. But views across to the mainland north of Vancouver revealed slightly more than hazy outlines of some high coastal mountains. At last!
Sue kept pausing to dodge the unicycles and photograph orchids, the most profligate of which was the White Bog Orchid. There was also lots of Northern Bedstraw and many other damp loving plants including several varieties of gentian.
Other denizens of this area that made themselves known to us were a chatty red squirrel, some attentive grey jays - the 'Don't feed the Birds, it's Bad for their Diet' signs were largely being ignored - and a number of woodpeckers and LBJs.
After Sue had come to the aid of a parched old lady who was about to drink the water put out for dogs whilst she awaited the rescue and delivery (by unicycle) of an injured companion, we rejoined Charlie, who happily coasted us down to a supermarket before its 5.30 closing time. That resulted in an excellent baked potato and tuna mayo with salad meal in this excellent hostel, followed by strawberries and cream, following tea, beer, and a twenty minute run for Sue.
Today's photos:
• Sue on the Mt Becher trail
• Elevenses on the Mt Becher trail, with the first 'clear' view we have had, with mainland summits visible
• Giant slugs near Nymph Falls
• Nymph Falls - can you spot the man in the deck chair?
• Looking down river from Nymph Falls
• A Mount Washington trail - spot the boardwalk
• A unicycle trail
• A mountain view from a Mount Washington boardwalk
4.2 km in 23.15 for morning exercise, then 11.5 km of walking in three leisurely ambles.
We are camping for the next couple of nights, and may not be able to get an Internet connection, so you may have to bear with us for a few days. I'm sure you'll manage.
2 comments:
There's a good Farm Museum just outside Vancouver. Just saying, like.
Thanks Alan, we'll try...!
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