A Walk in the Park, Part 1

As you can see in this reprise of the photo from the previous post, the girls withing a kilometre or two of Stanley Park, which at ~400ha/~1000ac is the largest urban park in North America.



The Seawall (the yellow route around the periphery of the park which is green on the map below) is at least 8km/5mi in length. Additionally, there are approximately 200km/125mi of trails (the brown lines on the map) in this park which is estimated to hold more than a half million trees. (Click on the map to see it twice as large.)



We had roamed Stanley Park a number of times when we visited Vancouver two years ago, but I had it in my head to walk the whole, seawall perimeter. I also would have liked to cycle it, but when push came to shove on the one full day that we had for exploring this recreational paradise, we opted to go by shanks mare (i.e. walk). Maybe we can cycle it next time, should there be one.

We left the apartment ~10 o'clock on that very hot morning, shopped for lunch provisions, which I, the pack mule, was designated to carry on my back. Oddly enough, said back held up extremely well that day, not getting sore as it often does on even much shorter walks. The trouble was that it was so hot at the outset, that I was almost willing to give up our plan to hike the entire seawall. When we stopped by Lost Lagoon for this pictures, for example, I was really feeling the heat and despairing of our plans.



However, once we had struggled to the shadier northern and western side after lunch and more exposed to sea breezes, it became ... a breeze ... so to speak. In fact, it was very pleasant over there. So, after lunching by the seawall while overlooking downtown Vancouver and the harbour on the other side and then purchasing souvenirs at the native operated Legends of the Moon gift shop, we were ready to go for it.

That's just what we did. We took our time, stopped often to relax, enjoy the view, and absorb our surroundings. In this section we were walking along Burrard Inlet (the top of the map) to Prospect Point (top red circle). The following photo, with the Lion's gate Bridge and North Vancouver in the background to the right is as good a sample view as any.


... to be continued