Thursday, June 7, 2018

June 7 – Rocky Point Hike and Burnaby Mountain

It was a rather cool, cloudy and gloomy day. We didn’t feel like doing anything major so after lunch we went to two nearby places. We first did the 5 km return Shoreline Trail at Rocky Point Park in Port Moody. Then we drove up to the top of Burnaby Mountain to check out the gardens and the view down into Vancouver.

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The description of the Shoreline Trail said that it wrapped around the end of the bay with views of the tidal flats. Since Jennie likes exploring the tidal flats I thought that this might be a nice easy excursion. The trail is also supposed to be wheel chair accessible but that is a bit of a stretch and might mean the bike path that runs parallel but inshore a bit.

Unfortunately most of the time we were in the trees and you could barely see the water. When you could access the water and the flats there were signs saying not to go out being it is very soft mud and can act like quick sand sucking up feet and pets.

It was also not all that scenic especially with the dull day and the fact that looping around the end of the bay essentially gives you the same view from slightly different angles.

So it was basically an exercise hike, which is not terrible just not exciting.

There pictures were taken on the way back so the water is on the right.

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The first viewpoint.

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There were two open spots where you crossed some boardwalks. At least there had some interesting curves even though it would have been easier to make them straight.

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The view from the end of the bay and the photosphere.

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I think it is a popular bird watching area because there were a couple of blinds to hide yourself along the trail.

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The only large bird we saw other than crows was another heron. We did see some small songbirds but they were too quick to capture in a picture.

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A nice new bridge.

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A few interesting berries and ferns to look at. The white fluff is everywhere.

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The second boardwalk.

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At first I thought that this bridge was falling apart because of the angles of the railing but it was built that way.

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The one place Jennie could go out, she confirmed that it was a bad idea.

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We got as far as this old mill site before turning around. The trail continues for about another 1/2 km.

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Back at the park in Port Moody I did a short walk out the pier.

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A photosphere.

Some nice flower boxes.

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An almost black petunia.

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There was also this weathervane art piece (at least I think that’s what they are).

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There was no wind so the pointing was rather random.

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Even though the weather was not great for long distance views, it is only going to get worse for the rest of our time here so we drove up to the top of 300m high Burnaby Mountain.

First we wandered around this sculpture called the Kamui Mintara to commemorate the goodwill between Burnaby and its sister city Kushiro, Japan.

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Downtown Vancouver in the background.

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Some gardens.

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This crane sculpture needed some more time to grow out.

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To the north we could look down on Deep Cove and Quarry Rock (just over the ship) from our hike on Tuesday.

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Then on to check out the rose garden. There are still far more buds than blooms but it still looked great. More flower pictures.

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This picture gives you an idea of the ratio of bud to bloom.

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In a short time this bush is going to look amazing because it was just covered in buds. There was currently just the one open flower.

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Flower pictures are so cliché but I love looking at them.

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The playground had an interesting climbing structure. Sadly it said ages 5-12. Why can’t adults have fun anymore? Probably because we would hurt ourselves.

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Then we climbed up the open space above the parking lot for a better look downtown.

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A photosphere.

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Then home.

There is rain in the forecast for the next 4 days. When I plan these trips I don’t usually research inside things so I am not sure what we will do. 

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