Goldstream Park, Coombs, and Parksville

Matt’s friend, Shane is leaving Victoria soon, so Matt and I decided to take him places he’s never been to! It was a long day, but it was tons of fun. Here’s what happened:

We started off at Goldstream Park where we showed him the waterfall – Niagara Falls. This is a cool area because from the parking lot, you have to cross underneath the highway via a tunnel. You follow the riverbed for a little bit, and then you’re greeted by a waterfall.

The riverbed and waterfall looked lonely, so we built an Inukshuk friend. Hopefully there will be more next time we go there.

Next we hiked up to the trestle. There’s Mt Finalyson! We didn’t have time to show him the top of it, but oh well…

We kept following the tracks, and we came across a second trestle.

And a tunnel.

We walked back to the car and started driving towards our second destination – Coombs. The next two pics are from random lookout points along the highway.

Coombs!! A big tourist trap, but they also have a lot of cool stuff here! Shops, markets… And random stuff.

Coombs is known for the goats on the roof. Yup… They just hang out on the roof of a building. Sometimes there’s a lot of them, and sometimes they’re all hiding. Can you find the goat??

One of my favourite things about Coombs is the market. They sell a lot of cool things from smoked salmon, cheese, and other foods from all over the world. It is also pretty expensive, but there’s a lot of unique foods and stuff you can get here.

Last stop was in Parksville. We went mini golfing! … Do I need to say more?

Recon Mission at Sugarloaf

Nashira had a day off last Saturday, so we decided to do an exploring trip. Throughout the week I kept checking the weather forecast because the weather has been pretty bad lately. It kept going from being sunny to raining less than a millimeter to showers. So we had to play it by ear.

Saturday arrives and it was sunny, so we decided to go for it. We decided to go hike Sugarloaf which is a rock climbing area that we’ve never been before. There has been talk about a large loose rock on the face, so we were going to investigate this. We got to the pullout where we’re supposed to park, and we started hiking. About 15 – 20 minutes into the hike we had to cross a creek. This was the bridge to cross it… Could you tell it was made by rock climbers?

Just over an hour later, we made it to the top! Loved the views!

It turned out to be such a beautiful day except it was windy once we got out of the protected areas. We had lunch up on the top, and then scoped out the rock climbing situation. It looked like there’s a lot of potential there. Throughout the hike, we kept going back and forth saying how we should’ve lugged all our climbing gear up the hill… But we didn’t… And besides, the rock was sort of wet anyways, so it wouldn’t have been fun. Sigh…. This trip was such a tease. Can we have summer now, please?

I Think We’re Off to a Good Start to the Year

On Tuesday, John, Matt, and I decided to go snowshoeing just outside of Port Alberni. We decided to snowshoe the Saddle Trail which is a trail that leads to the saddle between Mt Cokely and Mt Arrowsmith. It’s about a 4km round trip, and this was going to be my first snowshoeing experience!! We weren’t sure if we were going to summit a mountain or not. Just had to play it by ear. So off we go! Here we are at the start of the trail. We were lucky there wasn’t that much snow on the roads so we were able to make it to the desired spot.

You can see in the next picture that is where we’re roughly going… Straight ahead into the mountains (and the trail starts on the right).

This was about halfway (or just over halfway). No one around. Beautiful views. It was perfect besides the fact that I’m totally out of shape, so I was really tired at this point, and it was also raining/snowing so I was pretty wet by then. This was also the spot where the snow was deep enough for us to actually start snowshoeing! Yay!

We’re almost at the top of the saddle! It was beautiful! This part got really windy I guess because we were out of the trees. But at least my feet were still dry!

We made it to the top of the saddle! The wind got a bit crazy here, and it hurt when ice hits you in the face… So we had to wait it out until we were able to get a group shot. We’re soaked, but we’re still smiling. Time to run down the hill on the nice soft snow! What a great trip. Hopefully there will be more to come! … Must… Snowshoe… More! … And maybe get a Gortex jacket.

If you missed my previous post (HDR pictures of the Saddle Trail), check it out here – Week 44 of HDR Project: Saddle Trail

Week 44 of HDR Project: Saddle Trail

First post of the New Year! Awesome. So here’s the scoop… Right down to business. John, Matt, and I decided to do some snowshoeing, so John and I drove up to Port Alberni to Matt’s place to spend the night and plan the trip and all that. We decided to see how far up the Saddle Trail we could get to because we weren’t sure about the weather and all that up on the mountain. I didn’t take very many pictures because it was pretty wet out there and there were parts where it was REALLY windy! But I was able to snap a few shots for my HDR project. So here they are!

This was about halfway up the trail. Man was it beautiful up there!

10mm, ISO 400, F5

And this next one I had to Photoshop A LOT of rain drops out. It got really windy and the ice hurt when it hit your face. So I tried cleaning up this picture a bit…

11mm, ISO 400, F7.1

I’ll be posting a couple more pictures and a more detailed blog entry in the next couple of days, so keep an eye out for it!

Operation GeoTriad

Ok, so instead of splitting this up into a 3 part blog, let’s just have one huge post! There’s not going to be as many updates because Summer is over. So I apologize in advance. But here’s hoping my adventures will continue!

Sept 30 – Me, Pete, and the 2 Shannons decided to hit up Seattle and Portland for the weekend because we wanted to do the GeoTriad, and the fact that Pete has never been to the westcoast of the States. Every time Pete visits from the UK, the four of us get together and make an epic geocaching adventure. This time, we thought we’d go for the gold. The GeoTriad consists of three stops – Groundspeak HQ (Seattle), first geocache location (just outside of Portland), and Mission 9 of the Project Ape series (East of Seattle at Snoqualmie Tunnel). Sooo here we go!

DAY 1:

Friday morning. We all meet up at Shannon’s place, and off we go! First stop, Groundspeak HQ in Seattle. We got Pete through the border with no problems (phew!), and by the afternoon, we were downtown. We were a few minutes early for Groundspeak HQ, so we decided to grab a cache or two. We parked my the Aurora Bridge and started our adventure.

Groundspeak HQ! It was awesome to finally check out this place. First out of three of the Triad!! We Met some fellow cachers and the people who work there were super nice. They even have a TV screen showing the logs that people have recently logged. It updates every 30 seconds.

Box of swag!

Signing the logbook after we took some pretty ridiculous photobooth pictures.

After picking up some TB’s and GeoCoins, we were ready to do some more geocaching! We found this awesome troll guarding the bridge.

Next stop, the Space Needle.

View from the top of the Space Needle. Just in time for the sunset.

Panoramic shot from the top. Click on it to view high res.

Once we got back to the bottom, we continued on with our caching adventure. We were heading over to our next cache, and then realize there was a huge group of cyclists gathered around a really sweet fountain. There were cyclists going around the found which was really cool. People were sitting at the bench where the cache was, so we had to just hang around until the crowd left.

Not sure what this place was, but the lighting and stuff looked really sweet.

It was getting late, so we decided to call it quits on the caching. We then drove to a pizza place called Juliano’s to get some pizza. We didn’t know what to expect because obviously it was new to us. We found this place on the interwebs as my friend Shannon can’t eat any gluten, and this place offered gluten free pizza. So it was worth a shot. You pretty much build your own pizza with your choice of sauces, cheese, and toppings. I had a calzone while the others ordered pizza. I must say it was the best pizza I’ve ever had. I said it SO many times on the trip that I can’t eat regular pizza anymore because this place just raised my standards.

Happy happy happy!

DAY 2:

Woke up at 8:00am. Checked out of our hotel at 9:00am. Went to Trader Joe’s for some stocking up on food, then off to the second destination of the Triad, the original cache location just outside of Portland!

We arrived in the early afternoon. We found the plaque where the original stash was. SO COOL!!

We are such nerds…

After a few hours of hiking around the area, we decided to check into our hotel in Portland and explore a bit. The place we stayed was so awesome! We drove downtown afterwards and parked at a parkade. Once we got out, who did we see?

Jimi Hendrix!! That’s who!

Anyways… Let’s continue our caching adventure! We went all over the place. We even played at an old school video arcade place where it only costs 25 cents a play! It’s like I’m reliving the 90′s all over again! We also checked out Chinatown.

One of my favourite things about Seattle and Portland was all the art that’s around the city. There’s so many cool things around the place that it’s great for photographers.

After walking around for quite some time, we all got hungry. So… It was time to test out restaurant #2 we found on the internet – Deschutes Brewery and Pub. We waited about 45 minutes for a table because the place was packed! But we were glad to be finally in.

The problem with going to new restaurants is, you end up staring at the menu for 5 – 10 minutes not knowing what to get. Our server came and I made up my mind… Until he said that there was a $15 special on beef ribs. So I HAD to go for it along with a pint of Mirror Pond pale ale. Oh my goodness… Everything was SO good!! So far it’s been a pretty amazing trip with lots of amazing food and amazing friends and amazing geocaches.

Did I mention that the food was amazing?

DAY 3:

Got up early again, checked out of the hotel, stocked up at Trader Joe’s (again), and off we went to our last destination of the Triad – Snoqualmie Tunnel. This is where Mission #9 of the Project APE is. But apparently sometime stole the cache in the summer, so we didn’t get the original Project APE cache. It’s a tribute cache which is a bummer, but oh well… We’re still going to do it!

Once again, another afternoon start. So far we’re doing pretty good about staying with our “planned” schedule. We weren’t sure how long we’re going to be here for, but here’s hoping we’ll get out of here by dark. We had to hike about 6.5 km. Sooo here we go!

Team Awesome… Assemble!!

Hey, look what we found! A container for a rocket! I think we’re off to a good start in our caching adventure. So awesome!

An hour or two later, we got to the site where the APE cache was. Operation GeoTriad accomplished!! It felt GREAT being able to do this. Afterwards, we awarded ourselves with the GeoTriad coin we all picked up from Groundspeak HQ in Seattle. That sneaky Pete had these coins with him the whole time while the rest of us thought they were in the car. Amazing amazing amazing!

Here’s the GeoNerds at the APE site with our coins.

Oh, here’s the cache.

Once we celebrated and gave each other high-fives, we checked out the Snoqualmie Tunnel. It’s an abandoned train tunnel that’s 3.7km long. It was so awesome because you could just barely see the end of the tunnel on the other side. Unfortunately we didn’t venture that far in there as we were pretty tight on time. We’ll definitely have to come back!

We decided that on the way back we HAD to drop by Juliano’s again to pick up some pizza because it was so epic…. And that’s what we did.

It always sucks having to go back home… Back to reality. But it’s been an awesome trip!

Finally Made It Out To Squamish!!

It’s been a pretty crazy summer this year! It’s been rainy and cooler than usual. It’d be nice every day and then it’d rain when I wanted to go to Squamish. It was weird! But finally August rolled around and the weather started feeling more like summer. So obviously I had to head out there and boy does it feel GREAT to finally meet up with the Chief once again! Me, Rachael, Lynn, and Emma did a day of hiking all three peaks (since I’ve never been to third peak yet). And the next day it’ll be rock climbing!! Super stoked!!

We started hiking it, and wow have they developed the area. There were SO many stairs now! (Boooo!!) It’s starting to feel like the Grouse Grind – hate hate hate!! I guess it’s becoming a really popular place to go. But anyways, here’s the first little stop.

There’s a cool secret path (sort of) that easily links up the first and second peaks without having to backtrack. So to get to the first peak, there was a ladder with steps made from rebar drilled into the rock. It was super cool! Rachael and I scrambled up there while the other two waited for us. This pic is up at first peak facing the other direction.

A panoramic shot of Second Peak! (click on these pictures for higher res)

And here’s the crew!

There’s this amazing chasm between second and third peak. I’m pretty sure this is where you can set up a highline…. Tempting… AND super crazy!

Third Peak!! Thanks for the awesome times!

The Journey To Leechtown

Leechtown… It used to be a gold mining town in 1864. People flocked out there, grabbed the gold, and left… Only the remains are left now. This place has been on my radar for quite some time…. And on Saturday (June 4th), it was time to check it out. There was a multi-cache out there, so I gathered a group of people to get that multi-cache along with a few more geocaches on the way there. It said it was a 17km hike round trip… It’s just north of the Sooke Potholes. Sooo here we go!

This was our first cache we were looking for. It was just off the galloping goose trail, and it was John’s (on the right) first official experience to geocaching! And he made the find! Yay!! And Chad is signing the log.

Here’s the view of the river that runs along the galloping goose trail.

After a few hours of walking, we found this sign with some history of Leechtown. It was really cool! We were able to get to the surrounding areas of Leechtown, but the actual town is now protected because it’s soon to be a water supply for the Greater Victoria area…

So the remains that we were able to see were the leftover machinery. It was still pretty cool!

Chad driving the bus

We found the final stage of the multi-cache!

The crew

We started the trip around 10:15am, and ended probably around 3:30pm ish… So not bad at all with all the geocaching in between!

Week 14 – Leechtown and Mt Wells

Summer is here! Summer is here!!! There’s been quite a bit of stuff going on now that the weather is finally amazing. On Saturday, a bunch of us decided to hike to a little ghost town called Leechtown. It used to be a gold mining town, and then yeah… Ran out of gold. Anyways, access to the town has been closed off, but there’s still a few vehicle remains out there. Here’s a pic of the remains of a bus.

12mm, ISO 200, F4

Then on Sunday, a few of us went rock climbing at Mt Wells. Always a great time! It feels so nice being out on the rock. This is Dion rappelling down a 5.10c route. And once again, I didn’t have a tripod with me at Mt Wells, so only 3 shots were used to make this picture.

10mm, ISO 400, F4

More pics of these two events coming soon!

Week 12 – Goldstream Park

Sorry for the late update… Things just got a bit busy (as usual). Anyways, John and I decided to go hike up Mt Finlayson at Goldstream Park on Saturday, and so I was pretty determined to snap an HDR picture. We decided to warm up our legs by checking out Niagara Falls. It’s a 47.5m waterfall. Even though it’s not as epic as the Niagara Falls in Ontario, it’s still a cool waterfall!

11mm, ISO 200, F14

Afterwards, we hiked up Mt Finlayson. It’s 419m (1,375 ft) high. So it’s a pretty good warm up hike… Hopefully I’ll be able to conquer some mountains in Strathcona Park soon!

10mm, ISO 200, F16

Sombrio Beach

Mollie, John, and I decided to go hiking on the Juan de Fuca trail. We only did a few kilometers of it, but it was SO much fun – good company, muddy trails (thank you boots, you did good!), crossing streams, suspension bridges, climbing up and down places with rope, beaches, and the list goes on and on and on. We’re so spoiled to be living on the Westcoast that’s for sure. The weather was perfect too – overcast and not too cold. All in all, it was such an amazing day! I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures because most of the time I was making sure I didn’t bail… Hahah. This is just a taste of what’s to come. SO stoked for the summer!!

So I’ll leave you all with this HDR pic I attempted… Anything with a waterfall is cool :)

20mm, ISO 100, F32