Climb for Hospice

On Sunday, Ali and I hiked the Brothers Creek Loop in North Van. It was AWESOME. Full of spooky silence, creeping mists, tall stately trees, and natural trails. See?


Now, some of you may have noticed my fabulous hiking wear – jeans. This is because I have no “hiking pants” per se. I have had to make do with wearing my corduroy pants up until now, but I kind of forgot to put them in the dryer last night. Ooops. So, jeans it was. Not the greatest thing to wear when one is hiking through a rain forest. Especially if said jeans are a touch too big (thanks Cara!), and keep slipping down as one walks. Hmmm, what to do, what to do… I KNOW!
Closer now…
Thaaaaat’s right – I wound the draw strings of my thermal underwear through the belt loops of my pants, and then tied them together. It may not be pretty, but it worked! My mom always said that being a Girl Guide would come in handy someday!

So, on we hiked. Through ankle-busting roots and toe-snagging snarls, across quick, rocky creeks and over super-sketchy-slippery-sideways bridges:

And after surviving our Death Bridge of Doom crossing, we found a little spot for lunch.

Note the complete lack of snow. We were expecting “snow at higher elevations”, but we saw absolutely none. To be honest, it was a little unsettling. Especially since I had packed my ski pants. So anyway… we finished our lunch, and resumed our hike, talking about important things like the economy (our favourite cartoons), politics (which cereal is the best for staying crunchy in milk), and philosophy (singing the theme song to Polka Dot Door). We chatted about a wide range of subjects, and the forest around us listened intently. The conversation moved on to movies and music, and we (I) began singing “Doe, a Deer…” from the Sound of Music. Which then led to a discussion about the movie. Which brought us to talking about Nazis. Up until this point, we were obviously keeping the forest entertained, but just bring up Nazis, and THIS is what happens:
A tree blocks the ENTIRE trail! It was going along so swimmingly until that point! Now, I can’t be certain that our conversation is what caused this tree to make our lives more difficult, but I have no problem blaming Nazis for random stuff.

Anyway… we gingerly made our way around the tree, deftly avoiding the precarious edge that led to a steep fall onto jagged rocks and into the rushing creek below. No problem. We continued on our way, getting closer to the sound of the waterfall ahead. We started talking about nachos.

We found the waterfall…
Went further into the spooky forest…
And soon enough came to the start of the loop in just over 2.5 hours. The hike was supposed to take 4 hours, but I guess we’re just getting that good at hiking now. Being the Mega Super Pros that we are, we thought about going back up and seeing the Candelabra Fir – a BIG tree with a branch that looks like a candelabra. We thought about it, mulled it over, gave it consideration, and then it was decided that we should end our day at one of our favourite sight-seeing spots, taking in the view that we like best: