First Snow

Summer changed to winter in two weeks. The glorious fall weather came to an end; and the end came fast and furious. With the rain came the cold and within two weeks we saw the first snow on the Northshore mountains. The first snow-day was also the first day in a couple of months we paddled whitewater, on the Capilano, how appropriate... Well, maybe we are not quite as wimpy as we feel (sometimes)? And a big thank-you to the inventors of dry suits!

First snow on Grouse Mt

Glorious Indian Summer

Phenomenal fall weather for 6 weeks! Record breaking sun shine and lack of rain. Well deserved after the very late start to summer this year, if the weather would care about human sense of fairness and merit. Fall air isn’t the greatest for paragliding and we switched into hiking mode. We went back to Downton Creek, a great area off the Duffey Lake Road where the logging road leads up into the subalpine. We hiked up to Linus, a fun ridge scramble with a short knife-edge ridge (but too pointy to cross it au-cheval style).

My other fall hikes lead me to Yellow Aster Butte and Table Mt in the Baker area, Mt Laughington and Flora Peak in the Chilliwack Valley and last but not least Mt Strachan. Stunning hues of red, orange and yellow of the fall leaves of blueberry, mountain ash and willow. New perspectives of the border mountain range from south and east.

Mt Baker from Yellow Aster Butte

Clouds cover Howe Sound seen from Mt Strachan (CBC Listners' Lens mug winner)

Chilliwack Valley from Flora Peak

Vine Maple leaves

Phosphorescence

What an amazing spectacle of nature! To get away from the city lights we paddled across Indian Arm to Jug Island at dusk. In the shade of the trees close to shore our paddle strokes set off a silent symphony of sparkles and miniature flashes. We experiment splashing water to make different patterns of light. The bow waves of our boats glow and swirls stay behind where the paddles touched the water. As it gets darker the fish darting away leave trails of shooting stars. On the way back tracks of light deep below show that we just crossed paths with an endless stream of fish making their way up Indian Arm. No pictures for this post because it was simply too dark.