Alouette Lake: Finding Franklin
When is summer officially over? Is it at the end of August? Is it after Labour Day, when the kids go back to school? Is it on September 21st, when autumn officially begins? Or is it on the last weekend when you can still happily wear shorts, go on a weekend bike tour, and swim in a beautiful lake? This year it felt especially important to keep summer going as long as possible. So in early October we found ourselves packed up and ready to go on a very local overnight bike tour, but still in an area that was completely new to us. It was the suburbs of Vancouver…
Blanca Lake: Before the Smoke Rolled In
Blanca Lake has been at the back of my mind for some years now. A remote area “near Squamish”, accessible via a short hike, beautiful lakes, surrounded by glaciers, off the beaten track? Sign me up! There was just one thing I didn’t quite realize. Although the hike is short, the drive is long… We did leave the highway near Squamish, but that wasn’t even the halfway point due to all the logging roads involved. The drive took us almost three hours, and we didn’t even make it to the trailhead! The final stretch was steep and loose, and there were water bars which caused us to leave our car…
- Cycling & Cycle Touring, Gulf Islands and Sunshine Coast, Trip Reports, Trips with Kids, Vancouver Island
Discovery Islands Loop: Minimum Planning For the Win
Trust that things will work out, and they will. I’m an insatiable optimist, and that’s really my belief, but Maya and I sometimes disagree on this… Surely, COVID changes things? or does it? Could we still head out on an 11 day cycling trip with our two kids, without knowing where we would stay every night? Would Warm Showers hosts agree to host us, despite these difficult times…? I really believe that not booking accommodation in advance, and in general staying flexible and not planning too much, opens up our trips to new opportunities that present themselves. As you’ll see, this is exactly how it played out. Our trip started…
Cathedral Park: The Fairy Tale Lives On
If there was one trip I knew for sure I wanted us to do this summer, it was going to Cathedral Park. I remembered it being a magical experience with fairy tale landscapes when we were there four years ago. I also remember that we didn’t end up doing all the hikes we wanted to do and that there was so much more to see. With a five year old and an almost two year old, catching the ride up there seemed ideal. Alas, every time we called to try to arrange our ride up we were told a different reason why we shouldn’t come up. For early July we…
Salmon Arm: Tipi Getaway with a Rainbow
When we booked a tipi on a farm near Salmon Arm we didn’t really know what would be involved. The Airbnb posting had limited information and photos, but the description sounded nice enough and the price was reasonable. In addition, it was the only place available – of course, we only checked a week before we wanted to go away, with a driving distance that still sounded somewhat doable with two young kids. So on a Wednesday morning we found ourselves driving east. Neil was so excited about the trip, it’s not every day that he gets to sleep in a tipi, so he didn’t eat much for breakfast and…
Juan de Fuca Trail: The Mystical Trail
My backpack was VERY heavy. So heavy that lifting it required an orchestrated series of moves, which ended with an impossible to suppress grunt. So heavy that I chose not to weigh it so I wouldn’t know how heavy it was. Such is life for a family of four on a five (or six) day hiking trip along the Juan de Fuca Trail. Luckily our first day was short, and ended at the appropriately named Mystic Beach. Our mystical campsite, right on the beach, had wide views (of course), and a swing hanging from a precariously positioned down-sloping log, a waterfall going straight into the ocean, only accessible at low…
Viewpoint Beach: The Perfect Early Season Hike
We hadn’t left the city in three months and as much as we had started to get used to our new very local lifestyle we were also starting to get some cabin fever. COVID-19 restrictions were starting to slowly lift and BC Parks and campgrounds had reopened. We refused to take part in the BC Parks crazy camping extravaganza reservation system which crashed as soon as it opened and some very frustrated people were on their computers at 7am trying to book sites. So as usual we just decided we’d play it by ear and see where the wind blows with our summer plans. The first weekend in June was…
Hemlock: A Weekend Full of Skiing and Kids
We had never been to Hemlock (AKA Sasquatch Mountain) before so when a friend sent out an email that she had just booked a town house there for a weekend and was looking for other families to share it with, we immediately replied yes. The plan sounded simple enough – going up on Friday evening and enjoying some night skiing and then skiing all day Saturday and Sunday before returning to Vancouver. What could possibly go wrong? A week before our weekend came up, the road leading to the mountain got washed out and people were literally stuck there and had to be flown out with a helicopter. As much…
Taiwan (Part 2): Love at Second Sight (Taitung to Taipei)
One of the things people always wish cyclists is that the wind will be at their backs. I didn’t really understand the importance of this until the almost impossible headwind we encountered on our way to Taitung. So after a few rainy days in Taitung and checking the forecast and winds over and over again we decided that if the wind is not going to change directions then we will. We caught the train to Hualien, again sending our bikes and gear separately on the cargo train. When we arrived to Hualien it was still raining… We found a cute and cheap home stay and went to explore the city. …
Taiwan (Part 1): Not Love at First Sight (Taipei to Taitung)
Taiwan wasn’t love at first sight. It started with our arrival to Taoyuan Airport. A bus took us from the plane to the terminal. But it took a roundabout route that passed through a series of dilapidated buildings. A taxi then took us from the airport to our Warm Showers host in the outskirts of Taoyuan. It was in an industrial wasteland, ugly, and with no shops or restaurants in sight. Looking for something to eat for lunch involved a long walk on the road that ended at the 7-Eleven. We did find a coffee shop that had tasty Australian Meat Pies. They were rather good, but that wasn’t exactly…
