Caching in South Vancouver

ABOVE: Marpole Bus Depot

Had another splendid day of caching in the sunshine on the west side of Vancouver with Ken and Alan.

All pictures from the caching day can be viewed here on my Flickr site

ABOVE: Southlands area of Vancouver is horse country

We started out in the south part of Vancouver near Granville Street and worked our way west to the Southlands area of Vancouver. This is an area populated by Beemers, Mercedes, and horses; horses in Vancouver you say? Why yes, The Southlands is a mini Langley type area complete with many boarding stables, riding stables and small hobby farms; quite something to see so many horses in the middle of Vancouver.

From there we stretched over and bordered the Musqueam area, home to a few golf courses, some of the most expensive homes in Vancouver, and the Musqueam First Nation living in reserve #2.

We found a tiny little island called Deering Island covered in upscale homes, with a park and walkway tidying up the west side of the island. From there we walked along a water front trail that was bordered by the Fraser River on the one side and an executive golf course on the other.

We scooted over to Pacific Spirit Regional Park, one of the many excellent GVRD parks in the Lower Mainland. Here the GVRD strikes a balance between public access and limited intrusion; they create well groomed trails through out the parks, but urge every one to stay on the trails and control their pets.

ABOVE: View from Spanish Banks

Our next caching area was on the north side of UBC along a well known beach area known locally as Spanish Banks. This area was first chartered in 1791 by the Spanish explorer Jose Maria Narvaez, then "discovered" a year later by Captain George Vancouver. Of course there had already been 10,000 years worth of occupation by the First Nations people, but if you're from Europe you don't count that!

After finding half dozen caches or so we finished up at Jericho Park, originally a teeming First Nations village called Ee'yullmough. In the 1860's it was the site of a logging "show" (forest camps at that time were called shows), then taken over in the 1930's by the National Department of Defence.

ABOVE: View of downtown Vancouver from Jericho Beach

In the early 1970s Jerry's Cove, as it was originally known as, was turned back over the the City of Vancouver, and as Jerry's Cove was pushed and pulled into the future, Jerry's Cove gradually became known as Jericho.

These days it's transformation back to a city park is almost complete.

This was the end of the day for us at darkness had decended and we had been out caching for 9 hours; that was enough for us, time for the long drive home and a late dinner.