Galiano & Salt Spring Islands: A Birthday Bike Trip
The Gulf Islands are truly magical. So, when we had the opportunity to take a few days off around my birthday, I knew it would be an awesome place to spend my birthday. Combining this with biking, one of my favourite things in the whole world and with my favourite people, guaranteed me a great birthday. Getting ready to roll! However, the ferry schedule was tricky and our time was limited. We also hadn’t reserved any camp sites, so we wanted to avoid the weekend. I had to scratch my head a few times before coming up with a plan. We spent Saturday at the Folk Fest in Vancouver and…
Mount Seymour: So Close and So Far
The kids had been asking for a while to experience camping in the snow. It was me that needed more convincing. Eventually I agreed to come along, what’s the worst that could happen? Plus I figured I could probably survive one night in the snow. I have done it before, just not recently… The kids “helped” us pack Our friends who live in Victoria were excited to join, though by foot and not on skis. In retrospect, they should have probably had snowshoes, but they managed. The original plan was to head to Red Heather and camp there by the warming hut. But original plans don’t always work out. We…
Harrison River: Eagles, Seals, and Sturgeon!
When I bought our inflatable canoe a couple of years ago I had visions of us floating down a rushing river. In the meantime, most of our trips have been on lakes, theoretically more mellow, but in reality at least one was scary too. Finally, on this trip, we got a chance to experience some real “moving water”. The trip down the Harrison River is apparently a classic fall trip in the canoe community, due to the many eagles that can be seen at this time of year, and the fall colours – and it sure delivered! Mid October swim… We left home a bit late, and made a quick…
Olympic Discovery Trail: Ending the Summer on a Positive Note
This summer did not start in the best possible way… In early July while making dinner I managed to cut myself pretty badly, cutting 70% of the way through one of the tendons in my right hand. Of course, after the initial shock of first going to the ER followed by a small procedure a couple of days later, my next question was “can I ride my bike”? The intern who did the procedure looked at me like I had just landed from the moon – “of course not”. I kept asking my physiotherapist the same question and her answer was even worse, maybe in 8-10 weeks, like mid September. …
Monck Provincial Park: Last Minute Surprise
We were looking for a last minute camping destination. Popular wisdom here says that you must book everything months in advance. I hate it… How am I supposed to know what I’m going to want to do in a few months time?! In this case, my dad was visiting on a last minute trip, and we wanted to do a few nights of car camping within a few hours drive of Vancouver. BC Parks’ new website allows one to see vacancies in all the parks in the province easily. I checked it a few times for our dates, but there were no reservable sites available. There are actually many first…
Saturna Island: A Hilly Little Island
The weather over the spring wasn’t ideal to say the least… We got more rainy days than sun and it just felt like the seasons forgot to change. So we were all surprised that for the weekend we had planned to go to Saturna the forecast showed nothing but sun. That was more like it. Heading to Vancouver Island We met another friend and his two boys in Tsawwassen and we all rode together a few kilometers till the ferry terminal. Although we were there with plenty of time, the ferry crew decided to let us wait till they boarded all the cars and only then let us on. Not cool. In Victoria…
- Camping, Hiking & Scrambling, Kayaking and Canoeing, Metro Vancouver & North Shore, Trip Reports, Trips with Kids
Widgeon Creek: The Opening Trip of Canoe Season
It was canoe season once again. Last year we did our first ever overnight canoe trip to Widgeon Creek and decided it would be good as a first time this year as well. The evening before the trip we decided to check some information online and we discovered that the campground was actually marked as closed. Oops. We decided to still go and hope for the best. On the way – photo by Nick M. It was a cool June morning and we met up with friends in the parking lot. Like last year they still hadn’t installed a bathroom in the parking lot which I found very odd (and disgusting).…
Porpoise Bay: A Rainy Weekend on the Sunshine Coast
At the beginning of June it was time for the annual camping trip to Porpoise Bay from Kai’s outdoor preschool. Although at first there was a lot of enthusiasm around this trip among the families, closer to the weekend many started to drop out. The reason of course – the rain! I am still not sure what’s the reason for the name “The Sunshine Coast” but on that weekend the name definitely didn’t make sense. Not so sunny on “The Sunshine Coast” We left on Friday afternoon after school, rushing to the ferry terminal. It was one of those rare times that there was a glitch with our Modo booking, and the car we reserved…
Portugal: Far and Away to Faro
It was Monday morning and Gili and I were biking in the first of several atmospheric rivers to hit British Columbia. The rain was coming down hard and we were soaked. But we had to keep going, we had to make it on time to get our COVID test… We hadn’t been overseas for almost two years and we were dreaming of a long bike trip in a far away sunny place. After much consideration we chose Portugal as our destination. At the time, the high vaccination rates in the country played a role in our decision. Also, we had heard really great things about biking in Portugal, the weather…
Joffre Lakes: Glaciers and Lakes Up Close
British Columbia is mostly covered with beautiful mountains and lakes. But still, there are few places nearby that have easy access to the mountains, with a well maintained trail and rewarding views. Joffre Lakes is a rare example, and as a result it tends to be extremely busy. This year BC Parks introduced a day pass system for this trail. Without getting into the question of whether it’s good or bad, it does limit the number of people. Not that the trail was empty or anything. Even in early October there were still lots of people out, but since we haven’t been there since I was pregnant with Neil seven years ago…
