- British Columbia (and nearby), Hiking & Scrambling, Metro Vancouver & North Shore, Trip Reports, Trips with Kids
Mt. Seymour: A Surprising Last Taste of Summer
October in Vancouver can go either way. Sometimes it’s more like November, with the constant rainfall and dreary dark days of the Fall. Other times it’s more like September, with blue skies, sun rays that actually feel warm, and the last taste of summer. It’s kind of like the Forrest Gump saying: “October is like a box of chocolates, you…
Family Cycling Close to Home: Vancouver Island, Hornby, Denman & The Sunshine Coast (Video)
In September 2017 we left our home in Vancouver on our bikes with our toddler in tow and cycled for ten days on Vancouver Island, hopped over to Denman and Hornby Islands and went down the Sunshine Coast. We took eight ferries, stayed with three Warmshowers hosts, camped, swam at many beautiful beaches and ate an endless amount of blackberries.…
- Cycling & Cycle Touring, Gulf Islands and Sunshine Coast, Metro Vancouver & North Shore, Trip Reports, Trips with Kids, Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island-Sunshine Coast Loop: Blackberry Summer Ride
All great trips start with a single idea, and we had been thinking about this one for quite some time. Although we have visited most of the southern Gulf Islands, many of them several times, we had yet to explore the northern Gulf Islands. They are a bit farther away and more complicated to get to from Vancouver. In addition,…
Steveston: Along the Arbutus Greenway and the Dike
The ride to Steveston is one of our favourite local rides, but it just got a whole lot better. Now, with the new Arbutus Greenway we can leave our place and to ride all the way to Steveston, 25 km away, almost all on designated bikeways, aside from a short section in Richmond. It’s been a while since our last…
Pemberton & Whistler: The Art of Moving Slow
Once again we decided to do the Slow Food Cycle Sunday in Pemberton. Our last time was three years ago, and this time Neil joined us, which made the ride even slower, which I didn’t think was possible after last time. We also didn’t exactly start early. We only left Vancouver at around 9am, and made it to Pemberton around…
Park Butte Lookout: A Smoky Weekend in the Mountains
It was hazy and smoky in Vancouver for a few days before the BC Day long weekend, but we still decided to go ahead with our weekend plans of hiking around Mt. Baker in the US. We honestly didn’t give too much thought to the smoke and didn’t really think it was a big issue in Vancouver. Maybe we also…
Brandywine Meadows: Plenty of Time to Smell the Roses
The forecast was calling for another sunny weekend and we were both itching to get out of the city and do something outdoors. A good friend invited us for a picnic on Sunday afternoon on the beach and we really wanted to go, so whatever we were doing, we had to be back quite early on Sunday. At first we…
Salt Spring Island: Mini-Vacation in (our) Style
My birthday was coming up and all I really wanted was to wake up in our tent by the ocean. I remembered years ago that we spent my birthday weekend on Salt Spring Island and how magical the place was. We camped at Ruckle Provincial Park twice and it’s definitely one of my favourite campgrounds. With the huge space there…
Princeton-Tulameen Loop: An All-Canadian Weekend
On the week leading to Canada Day we hosted a family with two kids through Warmshowers who intended to bike from Vancouver to Montreal, where they are from. While crossing Canada by bike never really appealed to me personally (although I do admire this family for trying), I love exploring different areas of Canada by bike on much shorter trips.…
Brew Hut: Dilemmas in the Mountains
Staying at a hut now poses us with a dilemma: is it right for us to subject other hut-goers to spending a weekend with our toddler (as great as he is)? On the one hand, surely we should not be constrained to stay away from huts just since we have a toddler. Don’t we have as much right as anyone else…