Another Walk in the Woods

May 8, 2017 – Today was my 50th birthday and I can’t think of a better way to have spent it, out for a walk in the quiet forest with three people who mean the world to me. It was the last day my friends were out from Ontario and although we originally intended to go snowshoeing, the weather was meh so we instead went for a good long walk through the trails of Capilano canyon, just steps from our home.

We took a couple of trails that Kirk and I hadn’t walked before, and every stair or steep trail left my legs, already aching from cycling yesterday complaining.

OK….it was me complaining, I admit that I can do that pretty proficiently at times.

While its fabulous that this place is just a couple of minutes, by foot, from our driveway, I also get to work down in this little peice of paradise occasionally. Its also a major tourist destination. The dam at the top, the hatchery down below, and the forest throughout attract hundreds of people daily. Tourists come here to take photos and learn about the environment, locals come here to walk their dogs, run the trails, or just get away from the hectic pace that their workdays hold.

Its been a damp and cold spring, and the trees and plants are just getting going. The mosses and mushrooms are well on their way though. As we were walking we encountered far too many people walking along, through this magical place, staring intot heir smartphone. I dont understand it, there are amazing things to see in these woods. Sometimes you get lucky and see an owl staring silently down at you, sometimes you find a delicate bed of tiny mushrooms, but if you dont put the phone away you won’t encounter much of anything.

Here there be powerful forces.
117 Photos in 2017 – 76. Power/Powerful

At the top, it’s nice to see the reservoir full and the spillway flowing, though it’s a reminder of how wet we’ve been the past few months. We had a good amount of snow this winter and the upside of the cool spring is that it hasn’t melted as fast as it has in the past two years. It’s a catch-22: I want the weather to warm, but if it warms too much and too quickly, there is always the downside that the snow may melt too quickly and see us into water woes come late summer and early fall, and htat’s no good for the fish in the watersheds. What is good for humans, or rather what we “think” is good for humans, is often not particularly good for fish.

After an afternoon wandering the woods with my crazy husband and colourful friends, we had a lovely dinner out at my favourite restaurant, the Salmon House on the Hill, and called it a night. It’s been a pretty fabulous week, and it’s not often one gets to celebrate for that long.

Now I need to recover.

117 Photos in 2017 – 107. Fearsome/Scary, 93. Nature’s Works of Art, 76. Power/Powerful, & 9. Canal/River/Stream