White Pine Beach, Belcarra

 

We headed out because it seemed like such a nice morning.  We had not visited Bunzen Lake this year, and we still haven't.  I chose to take the old road through Ioco.  However, there was no way to Anmore because Sunnyside Road was closed.

We did go for a nice walk at White Pine Beach in one section of Belcarra Regional Park.  There were a few people about, but not many.  

I loved zipping through the forest roads in my EV.  The silent whoosh of instant torque on the curvy roads made for a fun drive.

We continued out on the Bidwell Bay Rd to Belcarra proper rather than going out to the picnic area.  Although side by side, the residents of exclusive Belcarra make sure that mere tourists don't bother them.  A whole different road was created as access to the end point recreational area.

It was pleasant enough coming back through Port Moody and North Road.  In fact it was a nice way to spend the morning.

Burnaby's Bryne Creek and Taylor Park

 

It was another day to explore new places that are close by. We've been visiting local parks in New Westminster and the surrounding cities this summer. When we were working we never took the time to see so many things right in our own backyard. Today, we headed to Bryne Creek and saw Taylor Park in the Edmonds neighbourhood of Burnaby, BC. First we parked on the street and walked to the edge of the Bryne Urban Trails. Then, we walked back to the car and moved it to the parking area of Taylor Park.

 

 

Interestingly, we saw that Taylor Park used to be the location of the Burnaby dump. I knew that old garbage areas are reclaimed as open land. I think it's rather great that the old methane is burnt off rather than escaping into the atmosphere. We were so close to Edmonds that we stopped on the way home at our fruit and vegetable place, Langley Farm Market.

 

A Vegetable Patch

We did a few errands this morning. They included stopping by the return-it place for the bottle deposits. During the time out, I had to show Jay the close-by park I discovered just this week. The other day, I used the area for a drone flight. Today, we walked around the parameter of the entire area and also amongst the plots in the community garden. People are keeping their spaces looking good. I now appreciate why Brussel sprouts are so expensive. Those plants surely took up a lot of space for a rather small harvesting potential.

Flying Over New Westminster's Simcoe Park

This morning I wanted to go droning.  There's a little downtown park near the Fraser River Middle School.  A large sports field takes up a majority but there's also an off-leash dog area and a large area for community garden plots.

Were it not for my search for new locations to fly my drone, I'd not have visited here.  I have lived in downtown New Westminster for coming up on a quarter of a century, but never walked here until this morning.  It's a bit hidden on sloping land tucked off the main streets.

Coquitlam's Como Lake and Port Moody's Rocky Point Park

Well, it was another day and another few parks.

We'd known for a month that we'd be without electricity for most of the day.  Every couple of years the electrical room in our condo buildings requires some type of robust maintenance.  Our supply of power was due to cut from 9:00 am for about six hours.

 

We thought we'd take the opportunity to get out of the apartment during part of that time.  At first, we planned to go 'out the valley' a ways but the day started off a little gloomy looking and we weren't sure if we'd have rain or not.

So, we just got in the car and drove.  As I'd headed out uptown, we kept moving in the direction of North Road and the Lougheed part of Coquitlam.  As we continued I thought about going to Como Lake, another location very close but one that we'd thus far never visited.  We're obviously taking our free days to see some local areas in which we've never had reason to explore.

We found that Como Lake was cute, more of a pond than a lake.  The little body of water and surrounding park is less than eight kilometers from our apartment.  It is a nice resource for those living in nearby neighbourhoods and was quite busy even on a Monday morning.  Lots of people were out for some morning exercise, I guess.  We circled the lake on foot as it was probably less than two kilometers around its circumference.  

When back at the car, I noted on the GPS map we were already on a main street leading down to Port Moody.  We took that opportunity to see the salt water of the far end of the Burrard Inlet again.  Lazy otters were playing in the water as well as some well-off humans in expensive boats.

On the way home, we again stopped at Queen's Park DC EV chargers in our city and I topped up Kimchi's battery to 84%.  After the two other locations, we didn't feel like doing a lot of walking, but found a few quiet benches for a 20-minute respite.

We weren't very successful at wasting time as we got home a bit after 12 noon.  The power was still off, but rather than finding something to eat outside, Jay said he could heat up lunch on the camp stove.  The old Coleman is part of our emergency preparedness supplies and in an easily-accessible closet.

Surrey's Green Timbers Park

We discovered a Sri Lankan grocery shop in Surrey, BC in June.  It sits very close to the current terminus of the SkyTrain track near Surrey Central.  We'd known of its existence for a number of years but had never stopped until this summer.

Jay suggested he could pick up a few things if we went today.

From a map, I knew there is an Urban Forest Park very close to Colombo Stores.  However, it also happens to be a place we'd never seen.  So today, we drove to have a look at it first.  The city of Surrey's park was quite busy with dozens of families picnicking, bicycling, and walking.

   

It is a pleasure to see marshlands that are appreciated and protected. The area didn't look large on Google Earth, but it extends over a large portion of land bounded and crisscrossed by highways.  Surrey itself is enormous stretching all the way from the Fraser River to the US border.  It is seeing growth which will make its population larger than the city of Vancouver within a decade.  The part of the city we visited today is only about 10 kilometers from our apartment in New Westminster.

We walked only a few kilometers around Green Timbers' Lake.  Quite a number of people were fishing as it is stocked with rainbow trout.  Now, the daily temperatures reach a maximum of around 22°C.  It was a nice little bit of exercise.  I've always appreciated nature wherever we've lived be it the woods or desert.  Still, I have to admire the Lower Mainland of BC because it is an urban area surrounded by forests.  Even within its cities lie large swaths of wilderness.

Jay did get a number of items at the Sri Lankan ethnic market.  He got curry leaves, red rice, horse gram, and a bottle of palm treacle.

Over Albert Crescent Park for 26 Minutes

This morning we did go uptown, mostly for some bananas.  However, as the car was down to a 60% charge, we knew we could easily spend twenty minutes walking in Queen's Park.  One of the DC chargers can easily get Kimchi, our EV, back up to a comfortable 80% in that amount of time.

That meant plenty of time before lunch.  I really wanted to get the drone out.  I had charged up the three batteries in my pack when we went up Grouse Mountain last Sunday.  The great thing about my Mavic Mini is that it's so small, it's not a problem carrying it around.  I wear a laptop bag over my shoulder from teaching days.  We didn't actually even take the drone out on the mountain.

So, I just got back from walking past the end of our street to Albert Crescent again.  It was easy to burn up a 30-minute battery just flying around the turn from Columbia Street to the Pattullo Bridge.

Burnaby's Deer Lake Park

It was a sunny Friday and we asked ourselves where we'd like to go for a morning walk.  Jay suggested Deer Lake because it is less than 7 kilometers from here.  It felt like a familiar road because I used to travel Canada Way to get to the BCIT Burnaby campus for many years.  However, we seldom need to go that route nowadays.

We'd walked at the park many times, but had never made the complete loop around the lake.  The far end of what used to be part of the lake is now marshland.  We didn't walk all the way to Willingdon, but just crossed around the end of the lake proper.

 

It was pleasant weather as the breeze was still cool in the wooded areas.  Some folks, but definitely not hordes, were out on the trails.  Now that we're retired we prefer discovering the great outdoors on weekdays as there are far fewer crowds.

Burnaby Lake is peaceful and seems, at times, miles away.  However, the continued construction around Metrotown is merely a hop/skip as witnessed by the looming residential towers in the background of some photos.

 

  

Once we saw a coyote when walking at the lake.  Today, however, we saw mainly birds.   Our loop was only around four kilometers according to my Mi Band.  So on the way home, we topped up our EV's battery to 80% at Queen's Park in our own city.  We were plugged in only 16 minutes.

I am glad we walked where we did.

 

Five from the Ground and Five from the Air

This was a perfect, August morning.  We spent a little time deciding whether to drive far or stay close.  We chose to get a little walk around a part of our own city again.  

We took the car over to Queensborough, a neighbourhood on an island in the Fraser River.  Point Royal, on the eastern tip of land, is where the Fraser splits into its north and south arms.  It is also a great place to look across the water to the Quay and downtown New Westminster.  In fact, this river location is why New West was BC's original, capital city.

The area was predominately still industrial when we arrived in this city.  Over the last couple of decades the entire end has been transformed to mainly residential.   I like the area a lot and we walked a couple of kilometers.  Many folks were on bike paths too.  As well, I brought my drone along.  Therefore, I've picked through today's many photos to choose five taken from the ground and another five which were taken with my Mavic Mini.

FROM THE GROUND

 

FROM THE AIR