Brothers Creek

Now that our walking season is truly underway (we do walk in the winter, but the incessant rain dampens our enthusiasm and diminishes the frequency), I thought I would like to start documenting our walks.  When we first moved to Vancouver, we bought '109 Walks in British Columbia's Lower Mainland' by Mary and David Macaree and have done most the walks in it located on the north shore, some of them several times. 

This weekend it was time for walk no. 41 in the book, the Brothers Creek Trails, in the mountains above West Vancouver.  We drove to the affluent neighbourhood of British Properties and parked on the uppermost road to begin our walk.  The book gave options for 2,3 or 4 hour walks from the same starting point.  Dadda Boo was hoping for the 4, I was reckoning on the 3, and Boo, well she wanted to go home pretty much from the outset.  Most times she loves nothing more than to be on Dadda Boo's back (I'm not keen on carrying her now she's over 2 stone!), but today grumpy tot was in residence. 

The trail climbs steadily up the mountain into old growth forest.  This is an interesting forest to walk through as there are a number of remnants of the logging industry of the past; today we saw an old rusty truck amongst the trees.  There is a heritage trail with numbered signposts to identify traces of the industry, if you want to do it properly.

We enjoyed the trail as it headed into the forest, strangely because it was less well maintained than some of the trails we frequent.  Fallen trees, rickety bridges and deep mud pools add a bit of interest (though we don't want too much difficulty with the terrain what with the tot in tow). 

The grumbling reached such a deafening pitch by the first marker point, that we opted to take the 2 hour route, missing out on our chance to see two mountain lakes and two more sets of falls (we'll be back!).  Dropping down to the creek, we crossed a bridge and began our return route down the other side.

Mist was clinging to the mountainside as we dropped back down on the return leg, and we emerged amongst the houses to rain and a typically misty view down over Lions Gate bridge and Stanley Park.

In the afternoon, we purchased Boo her own hiking backpack (complete with little teddy) and set her off on her own two legs.  Usually pretty reluctant to walk if there is another option, the hiker-in-training managed about 4km around Rice Lake. 

We'll soon have her scrambling over rocks and tree roots!