Out there in the wide wide world...: March 2007

Baden Powell Trail - Knee Knacker - 29.3.2007

The Baden Powell trail which traverses Vancouver's North Shore Mountains from Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove. Both ends of the trail are close to or at Sea Level and the high point on the course is 4,000 feet at the peak of Black Mountain. The race as a whole has some 16,000 feet of vertical climb and descent. The Baden Powell trail is a scenic and very technical trail through a Pacific Northwest rain forest. Most of the trail is within the forest, although there are some absolutely spectacular vistas at a number of points along the trail. The trail is about 50km long.

6:35am I started at the east end of the Baden Powell Trail in Deep Cove at sea level.

6:56 am I stand about one hundred meter higher and enjoy the sunrise and the view over a part of Indian Arm, still not sure how fare I will make it today and how hard it will be...50km are a long way...and 16.000 feet (about 5.3km) up and down...

lots of cool things to see along the trail, little creeks, waterfalls, wildlife, views of the city and the

Pacific, rain forest, mountains, ....

Capilano Lake with the Lions in the background (close to Grouse Mountain)

I arrived here around 1pm...about half of the trail still lays in front of me, esspecially the part in higher terrain with lots of snow. I was quite tired but I felt like I can finish the trail today, so I kept hiking towards Cypress mountain...

...at around 700m elevation the snow started...I didn´t bring the snowshoes because I didn´t want to carry them all the way, so it was not easy to walk on the snow....it was slippery wet snow and I sunk in several times.

Just to give you a little bit of an idea where the trail goes through and how long it is...I did the blue part and gave up around 4pm at the ski are on Cypress Mountain. After almost 10 hours straight hiking with almost no breaks I was too exhausted from all the hiking in the snow for about 5km up the hill. So the last 11km and about 1km of vertical climb down to Horsheshoe Bay I missed. Fortunately I could catch one of the last cars that headed down to West Vancouver from where I caught a bus to Vancouver. Who knows maybe I will finish the rest of trail sometimes in the future...or do the whole trail again in the summer once the snow is gone.

Photo session at Kitsilano Beach - 25.3.2007

After some trail running on the UBC trails with Lan I went later in the afternoon down to Kitsilano Beach to shoot some pics from the sunset...after all the rain in the last few weeks it was great to catch some sunshine today!

Here you can see a Heron and in the background is downtown Vancouver

False Creek

Cherry Blossoms

English Bay

Kitsilano Beach

Manning Park Day 2 - 17.3.2007

Day 2...after we slept in and a great breakfast it was time to head out for a snowshoe tour on the Lightning Lake Loop trail

we met a bunch of hungry birds...

...they weren´t shy at all

...and some of them even sat on my leg

the lakes were frozen but officially not safe anymore to walk on it because the ice layer wasn´t thick enough

beautiful scenery along the trail

Lan walking on the ice, we had to walk across the lake on a narrow spot in order to finish the loop and to get back to the parking lot

Manning Park Day 1 - 17.3.2007

This weekend it was time to get out of the city and explore new territory in BC´s mountains.
Lan and me left Vancouver early Saturday morning and after 3 hours in the car we arrived in Manning Park (3 hours east of Vancouver). It´s a Provincial Park and the ski area is very remote. The night we stayed with about 20 other people from our Running Club in a cabin called Last Resort in Manning Park.

Lan´s first day on a Board...

here on our lunch break...

after one day and several falls into the snow we both made it down the hill

...yeah and who would have thought that...I also tried snowboarding...I promised too many people that I would try it sometimes...so now was the time to do it. I DID it!

the last gas station for the next 70km...

Snowshoeing Mount Seymour - 3.3.2007

another day in the mountains with friends, here in on the picture is Lan making her way up

Felix

Jacob

Horseshoe Bay Village - 1.3.2007

Today after I had to drive a friend to the ferry terminal in Horsheshoe Bay, so we took the chance for a little photo shooting in the village. "We" is two German visitors that are here in BC, both live in Toronto and me.