A Nomad in North Vancouver

 

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This Saturday dawned slightly overcast with a promise of clearing skies for later in the day. That was enough of a tease for me to prompt me to check the charge on one of my camcorders and one of my cameras and ponder where we should go for a drive today. The "we" changed into a "me" as Annette was not up to a day of wandering aimlessly in the car. Funny, that sounds exactly like something I would like to do!

With the crew dwindling to a singular person I decide to return to one of my favourite haunts as a young man - North Vancouver.

NOTE - ONLY A FEW PICTURES ARE POSTED HERE. SEE THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE TRAVELOG FOR ALL THE PICTURES ON THE DAY

North Vancouver is located on the north shore of Burrard Inlet, across the water from Vancouver, hence the name of North Vancouver. My love of exploring the forest on a rainy day was enforced by many a rainy fall day wandering around the older original communities like Dundarave, Dollarton and Edgemont Village. Linear parks encompass major rivers which run down off the flanks of the Coastal Mountains and empty into Burrard Inlet. These parks provide the public access to what is, for many of them, an awe inspiring experience. No other experience fills the senses like the sounds of a heavy rain falling on the ancient trees comprising the temperate rainforest of South Coastal BC. All the water falling from the skies continues its trip by flowing from the forest floor into creeks, streams and eventually raging rivers carving deep canyons through the local mountains. And we get to experience all that on those rainy days if you have the will to get Out and About

Strolling along a riverside forest trail surrounded by enormous trees it is hard to believe most of North Vancouver was practically cleared of trees in the 1800s and early 1900s to supply wood for the fast growing Vancouver city and fledgling suburbs At the turn of the century most of these outlying suburbs required a tram ride or even a train ride on the Inter Urban BC Electric Railway to be reached.

Red Cedars, Douglas Firs, Western Hemlock and Pacific Yews all grow to incredible heights in the mild and rainy environment. Sadly, you have to look hard to find a few remnants of these 500-800 year old legends.

I started my day visiting the sleepy village of Edgemont located in the upper realms of North Vancouver near the Capilano River. As with any area you have not visited for a long time, things change. The sleepy village was no longer so sleepy - new grocery stores had been built, along with a few medium size condo blocks. There was now even two stop lights in the three block long village!

Even with the new buildings and obvious growth you could see the municipality was taking pains to maintain the integrity of the small communal village which was rewarding to see. I snapped a few pics off  main street but the original small town charm I remembered could not be captured on camera as the lens always tells the truth.

I left the village and headed a mile or two away to enter Capilano River Regional Park, which is the location of the Capilano Fish Hatchery. The hatchery complex has excellent sheltered self guiding information boards complete with a viewing section where you can watch the salmon jump up as they travel along a man made fish ladder back into the hatchery complex. The fish ladder is chest high enclosed behind thick glass which allows the public to experience the actual size of the salmon just inches from their face. Needless to say it is a huge hit with the kids.

Unfortunately, like many locations the facility was closed due to Covid concerns - the good news is the wild river was right there to enjoy. I snapped off a few pictures of the small dam built to moderate the water flow for the benefit of the salmon as they approach the fish ladder. In the distance of the above picture notice the tell tale mist along the river surface and the canyon-like terrain. We'll talk about that in a minute 

I wandered around the immediate area but not wanting to be diverted by the beckoning forest trails I pondered my next moves. I formulated a haphazard itinerary for the next couple of hours and decided my next obvious tour stop was half a mile upstream.

The Capilano Watershed area provides 1/3rd of Metro Vancouver's drinking water and the 91 metre (300 feet) high dam built in the natural river gorge is an excellent place to visit on any day. Apparently 100 other people thought so as well as it took me 10 minutes to score a parking spot in the small parking area.

Staring directly down a spillway's 300 foot drop is mesmerizing and has the effect of a magnet just holding you in place watching the water cascade down to the bottom lip of the spillway and exploding into a mist in the canyon below.

During this tour stop a few drops of rain had started to land on me, forecasting an end to any future photo ops I had planned. I made my way to the lower slopes of North Vancouver closer to the water of Burrard Inlet. The lower slopes around the Lonsdale Avenue corridor is where the rich moved from the common neighborhoods near the water. As North Vancouver prospered, there was a demand for prestigious neighbourhoods where the newly rich could showcase their wealth.   

Grand Boulevard running north-south to the east of Lonsdale Avenue, is a garden subdivision built in 1906 as the premier neighbourhood for those newly rich folks. The one mile long Garden Avenue is highlighted by a 345 feet wide grass area between the east and west legs of the street. This provided the wealthy residents the best sight lines down to the water front and to Vancouver City across the water. The wide boulevard also acted as a fire break, which was a major consideration as the same year as Grand Boulevard was coming into existence, there was a disastrous fire in San Francisco as a result of an earthquake.

Keith Road acts as the southern terminus of Grand Boulevard, and just a few blocks west on Keith Road we can see this wide boulevard idea repeated in what must have been a neighbouring garden subdivion for the wealthy.

My last tour stop was to be high up the mountain in West Vancouver - there is a lookout on Cypress Road which leads up into the Cypress Mountain ski area. Sadly, while I was wandering around the old timey rich neighbourhoods, the clouds had descended down the mountains blocking out any views to be had of Vancouver City from on high. And minutes later the rain started in earnest, putting a definite end to my day tripping. As much as I enjoy playing in the rain, my ambitions for my photo taking required clear vistas, and my open window to enjoy the break in the rains was now over.

I stated the journey home, happy that I had another chance to go out and explore and only slightly disappointed the day was not longer. There is always a next time and plenty of beautiful parts of our local to visit, so I'm not concerned with an abbreviated day - you roll with the flow !

ALL PICTURES ON THE DAY CAN BE SEE ON MY FLICKR PAGE HERE      

If you enjoyed this travelog drop me a comment either on this page or by email. Thanks for coming along on my day Out and About. 

Aimless in Abbotsford

Been a while since I have been Out and About, as the saying goes. Between Covid restrictions and the onset of the poor weather, I have been doing a lot of staring at my collection of video and photography equipment hoping I get a chance to use it again.

This Sunday was an unexpected day where we had nothing on the agenda, and pretty well all the chores were up to date. An break in the non-stop chain of rain storms meant a few hours of dry time for me to be out wandering around.

I kept it simple, I picked my trusty point and shoot camera, and headed to the Fraser Valley town of Abbotsford. I knew of a few eye worthy places to snap some pics, and thought I would explore some of the little sides streets I had not been down before.

To see these pictures in a larger format, click on any photo.

Go ahead, you know you want to !

My first side excursion of the day was to poke around Matsqui, a farming community on the north side of the Fraser River. Straight roadways lined with trees planted as windbreaks is a hallmark of farming areas and there were plenty examples to be seen here.

The flat farming terrain also provided views of the low clouds enveloping the low mountains forming the ridge of the Fraser Valley. 

  The clouds clung to the higher mountains on the northside of the valley even more so, blocking out any scenic shots to be had in that direction.

After dawdling in Matsqui I headed over to main main objective for the day, the Township of Abbotsford. And now you are wondering, what's so special about these two buildings in the picture above? Well, if you have ever watched those Hallmark TV movies you would have seen these two buildings in many of those movies. At least, that is what my wife tells me ..  yeah ....

Vancouver is called Hollywood North and it is not uncommon to have two dozen TV/movies shoots ongoing at any given time. One of the most common movie channels to shoot in the area is Hallmark. For some reason they seem to love this two buildings - they are either using the older white building or the larger brick building as a main movie location. Seeing as I was already here exploring Abbotsford,  I naturally had to see for myself where these were actually located.

The Hallmark buildings are located in the old section of Abbotsford, which is roughly five blocks squared. I parked the car and meandered around the side streets and alleys looking for worthy subjects and came across the murals seen here. They encompass the back of the Hemmingway's book store, a very large and popular used bookstore in town. A lot of time was spent by the artists painting these vibrant murals and they look great and add life to a forgotten back alley.

A few years ago the Downtown association commissioned several sculptures to add to the visuals of the area. These three guys are very lifelike and have been in many a tourist photo. I also have snapped them a few times over the years.

The Goose in the Truck adds a touch of whimsy to the scenery, I have to admit, this Goose looks like he has real attitude! I can just imagine him leaning on the horn yelling for people to get out of his way! Must have received his license in downtown Vancouver  :)

The "art" scene is represented as well with a bench in the form of a large easel complete with dripping brush, all supported by a squeezed out tube of paint. Sadly the surface of this bench is in need of some TLC. Would look so much more vibrant if it was cleaned up and resurfaced.

 After exploring more of the downtown side streets, I decided to head towards another historic section of the general Abbotsford area, in the village of Clayburn. As I drifted in that general direction I kept my eye out for anything that caught my eye. And this sure did - Snoopy flying a Sopwith Camel airplane! I spotted this in someone's backyard mounted high for all to see from the street. That was definitely worth a stop to snap a picture - great job by the resident ! 

I took the long way around as I headed into Clayburn as I wanted to reach higher ground to obtain an aerial view of the surrounding area. I had circled back towards the Fraser River and was getting close to the Matsui farmlands again. Clayburn is nestled against those low mountains seen in the first scenic picture of this post. These low mountains have something needed for building construction at the turn of the century - clay. Perfect for molding into bricks and when heated and fired, perfect for building brick buildings.

I have been to the village of Clayburn several times over the years but only to look at the old General Store and the ruins of the brick ovens in the nearby bush. 

Today very little remains of the original town buildings. A few brick bungalows that were workmen cottages, and the General store. The land where the original factory buildings stood seems to have been cleared and is now a soccer field. It is quite possible they have bulldozed away the old kiln ovens. In the past, when I have walked through the bush, you would stumble upon a pile of brick rejects that broke during the firing process, so they were just dumped outside in a pile. I have retrieved a few bricks from those piles, all bearing the Clayburn name. So popular were the bricks, it was not uncommon for me to discover historic buildings in other cities in Southern BC built by bricks bearing the Clayburn name.

Today I spent an hour or so walking the side streets and discovered the original Clayburn School, and the Clayburn Church, which were new to me. These two building were only a block off the main street,  but I had yet to see them in all my travels in the area. Thus proving one of my favourite adages - "take the road less travelled, for there is more to see" 

 

These two buildings leant an air of charm to the small village and you could imagine the town folk of the day actively using the buildings as part of their daily lives. While the visible remaining structures from the original Clayburn townsite are small, they still allow you envision a time when the brick factory and the local community compromised the entire world for the work force. Vancouver probably seemed a long ways away. In the day, a trip to Vancouver was an all day event using the B.C. Electric train that ran from Chilliwack to Vancouver, with stops at various Fraser Valley communities along the way.

My last stop of the day was back across to the north side of the Fraser River into the town of Mission. Originally a major First Nations community, the first Europeans were Oblate priests whom established a mission high on the hill above the river.

With the coming of the CPR railroad, the city itself was created through a land auction by the stake holders of the railroad. Farming was the original economy of the area, however the salmon industry soon became a driving force as well. Five species of salmon inhabit the Fraser River, providing a large industry to exploit. White Sturgeon are found from the Mission Bridge, upstream to the town of Yale in the Fraser Canyon. The White Sturgeon live for over 100 years and grow up to 20 feet long. The sturgeon are true dinosaurs, as they have not changed much in millions of years.  

Supplementing the fishery industry was the boat and net repair companies. While many of these businesses have died off, the small industrial riverfront area shows its heritage by the businesses along the side streets    

The shore front has been cleaned up allowing for pedestrian access. A large viewing platform has been created for the locals to rest and sit on the benches while they enjoy their coffee watching the comings and goings of the local ship traffic. The local mountains complement the view by providing a scenic backdrop for daily life on the river. Like Abbotsford, Mission City has begun to install pieces of art around the city. With its large First Nations presence, some of the pieces have been created by local native artists. The Bald Eagle sculpture shown here represents the importance of the eagle in First Nations history. The statue also serves as a reminder of when the Bald Eagle congregate in the area each Winter. Just to the east of Mission is the Harrison River.  Each winter thousands of Bald Eagles migrate south from their summer grounds in Alaska and spend the winter feasting on the salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest. The primary winter feeding grounds are; just north of Squamish in the town of Brackendale; in the Harrison River area of the Fraser Valley; and in the U.S. south of the border in the upper Skagit River Valley. I've been to all three locations during the winter feeding times, and by far the Harrison River offers the most accessible viewing of the eagles. 

   By now the day was coming to an end, as daylight was beginning to wane, and the small bits of open skies were being replaced by darker clouds. Another round of rain storms are on the way, but at least I enjoyed a long overdue day of being Out & About in my extended "backyard" compromised of the 100 mile long Fraser Valley. Time to head home, download my pictures and see what I captured of the day.

If you liked the write up please leave a comment below.

A more complete set of the day's pictures can be viewed on my Flickr site here