Winter in Vancouver and the North Shore

It’s been downright summer-like, never mind spring recently here in Vancouver, and high-time to post some photos from snowshoeing and other winter stuff I was up to in the last few months.

First though a shot of my family from January I forgot to include in the last post:

I did a few short snow-shoeing trips up Seymour and Cypress.  Hannah, Matt and I had a good snowshoe one crisp morning up to First Peak at Seymour. The red trail markers helped us from getting lost in the winter wonderland.

 

 I also did a solo trip up Hollyburn (Cypress Mountain) which is always pretty breathtaking during an inversion when the city is under a thick layer of clouds below.

Good shot of the Lions (twin mountains) from the peak.  The Lions are a Vancouver landmark; the BC Lions football team and Lions Gate bridge are named after them.

The ubiquitous whiskey jacks (officially the gray jay) were out in full force, boldly trying to steal lunches and whistling and chattering up a storm.

Once the snow was mostly gone I did an early season hike with Allison and some friends up in Lynn Valley (North Van) to Norvan Falls.  The area was logged in the early 1900s and there are plenty of abandoned artifacts along the way including an old logging cart and a rusty bucket.  There was lots of snow which made it pretty slow going in normal hiking boots (I need to invest in microspikes next year), but the beautiful falls were a nice reward. 

In February I had a business trip to Ottawa presenting some interesting stuff to the Canadian Ice Service to help automatically distinguish ice from water in radar images.  After the work part of the trip I enjoyed a fun-filled weekend with Rod’s sister Annie and her partner Grant.  I was lucky and was there the last weekend that the canal was open for skating.  

Annie and Grant hamming it up on the canal: 

I also tried hot yoga for the first time (sweaty but good!) although I managed to embarrass myself at the beginning of the class by walking straight into the floor-to-ceiling glass wall.   They kept it so clean!  Over the course of one weekend I also went to the restaurant Town (delicious blue cheese salad and stuffed meatballs), walked around Byward Market, had drinks at the stalwart pub the Manx,  dinner with my South-American-travel-pal Val and her 3 kids under 3, and finished the whirlwind tour with a quick cross-country ski in the Gatineau Hills.  Thanks Annie, Grant, Alistair, Amy, Val and Mehmet for a great visit!

To finish this post off are a few shots of art from UBC’s museum of Anthropology (highly recommended for a rainy day in Vancouver) and a beautiful ski day.

Bill Reid’s “The Raven and The First Men” (also featured on the old $20 bill).