Monday, June 11, 2018

June 11 – Crystal Falls

Back out in nature for our last day in the Vancouver area. And we really did get nature as we had our first ever bear encounter on a trail.

I wanted to go to another waterfall and most of the ones that I could find were too far way, too long a trail or you never got a good view of the falls after your hike. Crystal Falls in Coquitlam was good on all three counts.

You park on a suburban street. The trailhead has no markings at all. It is about a 5.6 km return, mostly flat trip to the falls.

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The first part of the trail was right beside the Coquitlam River. I think this shot only showed half the river as it went around an island.

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They were counting the salmon smolts returning to the ocean, with this rotating drum sieve that scooped them into a tank.

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After a short while we were in the forest and didn’t see much of the river again. Lots of huge mossy trees.

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This old stump looked like an obelisk.

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I think the locals use the trail quite a bit to walk their dogs. We met about 25 people on the hike. Every group of people heading back as we were going in told us that there was a black bear active in the area. Two groups had actually seen it. There were a lot of ripe berries beside the trail so it was not a huge surprise. Even the websites I had used mentions bears.

So out came the bear spray to the front pocket. We had forgotten our bear bells so I just put on some music using my phone.

Then sure enough. What is that black spot up ahead just hidden by the bushes around the next corner?

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I never got a good picture of it because I was a bit more concerned about other things. We made a lot of noise yelling and banging the hiking sticks together. It reared up on its hind legs to get a look at us. (That would have been a great photo.) I put my hands up to look bigger and yelled some more. It quickly plopped back down and wandered into the bush.

We waited a few minutes. Then once again making a lot of noise and carefully watching the bushes, we quickly walked passed the spot.

We had earlier also seen a deer on the trail but all I got was a not flattering or interesting shot from behind.

Right where the bear had been there was a berry bush that I wanted a picture of, but decided that I had better wait until the way back to stop.

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The trail was a bit muddy with quite a few puddles to navigate around.

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And a few easy stream crossings.

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And then we arrived. We only saw 4 people while we were at the falls. Two only stayed a few minutes and the two in the picture below came just as we were leaving. So for about 45 minutes we had the place to ourselves.

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The two fallen trees get in the way but what can you do.

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Our lunch spot.

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A photosphere.

The website said that if you climbed up to the top of the falls there was a scenic little gorge that fed it.

The path up was very rooted and slippery but I made it to the crest.

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A photosphere.

From here, this is all I could see of upstream.

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To see the gorge it looked like I would have to climb this.

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The roots I could probably handle but that slick wet rock reminded me too much of my fall the other day. Back down I go.

One more waterfall shot before we left.

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And then an uneventful trip back to the car, still paying the music as loud as the phone could do it except when we passed other people.

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We were invited out to a great sushi dinner with my work friend so now we are stuffed.

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1 comment:

  1. Black bear on the trail - that's the west for sure!! We came close to one on a trail in Port Renfrew years back but we could only smell it. Quite an odor!!!!

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