Rain, Finally! August 7

 

This time no records were broken but its close and its been a long time since the last rain, from June 15 to August 7. A few 'T' for trace on the Environment Canada website but I don't think we got any of it in Burnaby. 52 days! No wonder our big Rhodo called it quits and the Star Magnolias are not looking that great either.

Grouse Airtime - June 27

 

Several heat records broken today. Highest ever Canadian temperature recorded in Lytton 150km from here. Not that much cooler even at 1980m (air space - took some work to avoid it) but a nice breeze. Smog over the town.

 

End of the Cap Cam

The end of the Cap Cam! Its been running for over 18 years. Impressive that it lasted that long. Thanks to all the volunteers, especially Jim S. (idea+implementation), VKC/VWC for paying the bills and the fish hatchery staff for hosting!

Fire Smoke in Vancouver, Aug 1

Wildfires happen every summer in BC but this year we have a particularly bad season. The wet and cool spring and early summer did surprisingly more harm than good since it encouraged the growth of grass and underbrush. After a stretch of hot and dry weather in early July the stage was set for big wildfires. At one time over 40,000 people had to be evacuated from towns as big as Williams Lake (10,000 inhabitants) in the Cariboo region of BC.

Wind directions changed to a northeasterly outflow and now Vancouver and the Fraser Valley are blanketed with the dense smoke of these fires. This makes for spectacular sunsets and prevented the temperatures to reach predicted record numbers. The North Shore mountains are obscured by the smoke and the setting sun has an eerily red color. But I'm certainly hoping for a change in wind directions to blow all this smoke away again!

Sunset at Lighthouse Park, looking across Howe Sound to Bowen Island

Sunset from the roof of our house (with a sunspot visible at 10 o'clock)

Satellite image of the smoke blowing out the Fraser Valley

Seymour Ski - July 7

A first for me: I never skied the Northshore mountains in July. I probably never skied in July at all.

With the amount of snow the coast got this season, there was enough left to ski down about 2/3 of the run on Seymour. And the snow was good enough for turns. Only draw back were the bugs... way too many of them trying to get into nose, eyes and ears.

Ben's photo

Dry and Hot - Spring and Summer 2015

It was a dry and hot early summer in southwest BC. We saw very little rain in May and June (May 4.2 mm vs. 60 mm average, June 11 mm vs. 59 mm) and many temperature records were broken in the second half of June. Cliff Mass blogs about this heat wave here.

Lack of rain in addition to this year's very low snow pack is a bad recipe for the wild fire season. Several big fires are burning already (Elaho, Boulder, Sechelt). Here is hoping for cooler temperatures and rain!

Smoke from the Boulder Creek fire creeping into Pemberton Valley

Big Trees in Lower Seymour Reserve - May

Back to the search for big old trees. With a long logging history, only a few are left in the Vancouver surrounding. The General and his wife, two big old Redcedars, on Vicar Lakes trail were easy to find. It took more searching to locate Temple of Time Grove and Pipe Organ Grove. One amazingly long Douglas Fir lays toppled on the ground, away from the trail many meters through dense brush finally down a creek bed. This is possibly the largest tree in this grove, the Will Koops Giant. I also explore some of the gigantic stumps left behind after decades of logging like the one found on the ‘More Stumps Trail’. Hope that the remaining few old giants will be left standing for many years to come.

April Cherries

Spring is here again and the cherry blossoms are out in full force. Hoping for nice weather so we will enjoy them for a long time. Rainy weather means the blossoms will get soggy and drop fast. Not a photo of cherries, but other trees are in bloom too, like the maples.

Great Blue Herons - March 27

On our way back from the highway we noticed herons in the tall tree along our route. During the week I went back for a photo session one evening. Several dozen birds were doing various heron things: their courtship rituals, fighting, nest building. When I came back a week later the short window of photo opportunity had closed: the spring leaves were out and hiding the birds and their nests.

Bears and Birds

This fall I had time for several trips out to Boundary Bay and to a small stream in Port Coquitlam for bird and bear photography.

Got to see an impressive murmuration of dunlins (wading birds) at Boundary Bay and shot a short video. Unfortunately I didn't have a tripod at hand and the video is rather shaky. I just didn't expect this. Always be prepared! Mental note: always bring tripod, wait for sunny weather, high tide and avoid south and east wind (thats when the kite boarders are out).


Also watched several great herons stalk and catch their prey (voles, I think). Pretty amazing when these birds have that intent and focused stare, ever so slowly get closer and then lightening fast move in for the catch.

Without noticing all involved I took this photo of a short eared owl and a northern harrier getting into a brawl. Only at home I realized that there was a third participant. The birds were fighting over a vole.

Watching the bears feed on salmon was probably my best 'wild life adventure' of the year. At different times I observed a couple of smaller bears, probably second year, and one very big mum with two cubs. Amazing how much they can eat, but really not that much of a surprise - that's all they get for several months!

Walking Among Giants

I was looking for new hiking destinations at low elevation (in early summer there is still lots of snow up high in the mountains). Since I always wanted to check out the remainder of old growth forest around Vancouver I made finding the BIG trees my objective. Here are a few photos of my explorations.

There are spots close to Vancouver where big old growth trees still stand. They have escaped logging and wildfires and matured into century-old giants, providing a glimpse of what this world looked like before western civilization arrived. Some of the trees are celebrities, like ‘Grandfather Capilano’, an 800 year-old, +60 meter high Douglas fir in Capilano River Regional Park. Others are tugged away deep in the temperate rain forest and faint, hidden trails lead to them. It is an awe-inspiring moment to catch first sight of one of the giants among their smaller cousins, to walk up closer and let the eyes travel along the tall trunk up to big branches and crown high above.

Hollyburn Fir, 1100 years old

Big Red Cedar with some regular trees for size comparison

Nurse Log

Skid roads - left over from the logging days

Another big Red Cedar near Mosquito Creek

Wetcoast Week without the ‘Wet’

Awesome week with lots of sunshine and record breaking temperatures. We got into the air in Pemberton where the temps climbed into the high twenties. Although conditions were rough with strong NE and NW winds I managed to do a +20 km out and return flight to Owl peak and then across to Miller Ridge. I arrived high enough for a great view of the snow covered peaks and ice fields behind the front ridge. During the week I enjoyed various evening activities: skiing up Mt Strachan (with après-ski de-gooping of the bases), hiking to an outlook over Indian Arm and a bike ride through the green forest on Sumas Mt.

Last but not least we got our sea kayaks wet again and explored Widgeon Slough. It was pretty cool paddling along the channels of cold and clear Widgeon Creek through marshlands with steep mountains in the backdrop.

So there was paragliding, skiing, mountain biking, hiking and paddling in one gorgeous week! Hard to beat life on the wetcoast...

Snow Days - December

This December has been an amazing month for the aficionados of the white stuff. As it happens, we got a season’s pass at Cypress this year, and I have put it to good use already. Even on weekends there were almost no lift line-ups at the new Raven Chair. OK, new to us... its been there since the 2010 Olympics, but we haven't skied at Cypress since then. And the snow just kept falling.

Snow-covered Lions (that's the name of the peaks on the right)

Above the clouds (sweet to escape cold and fog in the city for a few hours)

Sunset at Cypress ski area

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.

Wetcoast Week: Ski, Paddle, Bike, Kite

Excellent use was made of the nice weather this week. After-work activities started on Monday with a quick ski-up to the first Pump on Mt Seymour. A ditch to ground level along the ski run (to help with construction of a new lift) showed that the snow cover is still a healthy 2-3 meters. Snow was still soft on the way down at sun-set – a rather pleasant ski out for May, and not the knee-twisting deep slushiness we encountered a week ago.

Wednesday we rinsed the dust of our whitewater boats with a quick run on the lower Seymour. First time in my kayak since October (not counting a couple of pool sessions). This must have been the longest dry time since I started paddling in 1996!

Thursday we aired our wings with a vigorous kiting/groundhandling session at Queen E park.

Friday we took the bikes for a spin along the Fraser River, everything green and fresh but despite the sun air temps were surprisingly low.

Carrot on a 5-day Stick

That’s what the weather forecast has been looking like all spring!

After yet another rainy weekend, the forecast promises improvement for the next Saturday. Tuesday comes around. Now the sun will come out on Sunday. When it’s Wednesday, the weekend doesn’t look that great anymore, but clear skies on Monday.

A new initiative of our weather men (and women) to keep the population from falling into complete despair?

March Skiing

Before I start writing about spring here are a few more random winter shots.

Lucked out at Hemlock Resort and lift-skied fresh lines until noon

Night mission on Hollyburn Mt

Pete is chasing pow at Mt Baker

Despite lack of lift line-ups the fresh snow only lasted a few runs

Backcountry next to the ski area

Mt Baker ski area had almost 3 meters of fresh snow in one week

First Day of Sping, March 20

First day of spring and not very spring-like!

Since mid February the coast has been pounded by a series of storms, associated with cold temperatures and big dumps of snow. Last week Grouse had 167 cm, Whistler 170 cm and Baker comes in on top with 110 inches in 6 days (279 cm!).

Nice turns on Mt Seymour

Unfortunately these storms often came just before (or on) weekends, making for rather harsh skiing conditions. Despite this Pete and I skied Whistler in 50 km/h winds. With another friend I got stuck on a chair at Seymour on a cold and windy night for half an hour. Unfortunately, heavy snowfall combined with high winds also make for tricky avalanche conditions, so we haven’t been out in the backcountry quite as often as we would have liked. But early in March we got some nice runs at Hemlock Resort (and found 50-60 cm fresh pow behind it) and later in March did a moon-light tour at Hollyburn and hit some sweet snow in the whiteout conditions at First Pump (Mt Seymour).

Now forecasts are for warmer weather by this Friday, maybe spring is starting after all?

From BC River Forecast Centre

From Canadian Avalanche Association

Snowy Owls - March 10

Snowy owls migrate south from their arctic habitat in average only every four years (this is called an ‘irruptive migration’). They do this when the lemming population, their main food source, crashes. This year many owls came south, and some of them landed at Boundary Bay near Vancouver. Hope they found enough food to fill their tummies.

Here are some pictures from my visit with the owls. 

February 12 - End of Winter?

Snowdrops, winter aconites (Winterling, Eranthis hyemalis) and spring snowflakes (Märzenbecher, Leucojum vernum) were out in full force and flower when we came back from our ski trip on February 12th. Is the end of winter in sight?