And so March has come and gone, and it wasn’t without its fair share of excitement. Well, kinda.
If we were being outdoors today, I would lament our continued quiet start to the hiking year. The crummy weekend weather and spiking avalanche danger meant we spent another month without touching our snowshoes. However, we did actually chill our boots in some snow on one of our hikes – the first since January 6! We still kept active, and got out on a number of good-length walks along the beach and in the forest, plus enjoyed a couple of urban walks. We’re grateful that Vancouver is such a walkable city.
Our only two hikes saw us plodding up the Sea to Summit trail on a warm pre-spring day with friends, enjoying a well-earned beer on the patio, and muddling along a section of the Baden-Powell trail between Grouse Mountain and Lynn Headwaters. To be honest, I can’t say I had a great time on either hike (apart from the beer and sunshine), which is rare for me. Some days you just don’t feel at your best, you know? (Hiking with one arm in a sling didn’t help – see below.) But let’s be honest: some parts of both trails are just plain awful hiking and are in desperate need of maintenance.
If we were being outdoors today, I would take delight in showing off some of my favourite early spring flowers that were in bloom already. We found white fawn lilies in Lighthouse Park and at UBC, bleeding heart in the forest at Spanish Banks, and trillium at UBC. The common and death camas were pushing up their leaves, as wes false lily-of-the-valley. The salmonberry bushes were starting to leaf out as the pink flowers began to fade. The cheery yellow swamps lanterns of skunk cabbage were putting on a great show near the Beaver Pond in Stanley Park, and the cherry blossom was really putting on its best show towards the end of the month.
It’s also been nice to hear the spring birdsong again and I’ve been breaking out the Merlin app, reminding myself of the delightful call of the brown creeper, the melodious song of the song sparrow, and the glorious burbling of house finches. In Stanley Park we spotted a female Anna’s hummingbird investigating the branches of a tree in search of nesting material. We’ve seen quite a few crows, too, with beaks full of furnishings for their nests. The eagles are active around the city again and we were fortunate to get a close-up view of one devouring an unlucky starry flounder. Finally, we saw some (quite large) turtles basking in the sun on Granville Island.
If we were being outdoors today, I would say that falling off your bike and breaking your collarbone is not recommended. Fortunately, my break was clean and did not lead to any displacement of the bone so now I’m just doing daily physio exercises to get those shocked, stiff, and sore muscles moving again. It’s been an education in how to do many daily activities one-handed – such as getting dressed, making coffee, showering, etc. After two weeks, I could finally (kind of) tie my shoelaces again. But I won’t be commuting along the beach for at least another month. On the bright side, I can catch up on some podcasts as I spend more time on the bus. Oh and did I mention the bruising? My shoulder looked like it had been attacked by someone with a bright yellow highlighter…
If we were being outdoors today, I would note that it’s been another quiet (uh, silent) month on the blog, and I didn’t publish a single post. However, I did start selecting photos for one of our epic backpacking trips from 2021, which re-ignited my enthusiasm for finishing the write-up for that week and getting it out into the world. Watch this space: I’m hoping to start publishing posts this month! (There, I’ve said it out loud – now let’s see if I can make it happen!)
If we were being outdoors today, I would highly recommend picking up a copy of a new guide book for hiking and backpacking on Vancouver Island. My friend Taryn has just published her second book and her publisher was generous enough to send me an advance copy to check out. It’s full of great ideas and a ton of helpful information to help plan trips on Vancouver Island. As with her previous book, the maps and photos are excellent, and her advice on minimizing impact in the backcountry is top notch (as you’d expect from someone so well versed in Leave No Trace principles). Having done several of these trips already, I can also vouch for the accuracy and usefulness of her write-ups (and I learned a few things I didn’t know before). Plus it’s inspired me to think about some of the other trips we could do on the Island. So, yeah, I have no hesitation recommending Taryn’s book. Go buy it wherever you buy your books, or order it directly from Taryn’s website.
I’ll finish off with some random March photos that didn’t seem to fit in any of the topics above.
That’s all for this month so I’ll see you again in a few weeks! Hope you have a great April!
I gratefully acknowledge the time I spent on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people.
Being. Outdoors. 