Looking for a trip Saturday, we weren’t so much worried about contributing to Global Warming, we just don’t like doing a lot of driving. So we decided to check out Wreck Beach, but not the usual “go to gate 6 and hang out”, but something more challenging. We parked beside a magnolia tree in full bloom, at gate 7. This trail starts out at where a GVRD employee called the “Fruit Loop”, but more on that later. We found the beach mostly deserted, and the trail mostly followable, at least in spots. We were trying to follow the trail because it is challenging, though we realized that walking in the mud among the bullrushes, was probably less work. Eventually we gave up on the trail and took to the mud. We got to the “Booming Grounds Trail” up to Marine Drive, where we met a walker and a nice dog, and eventually a couple of GVRD employees. We decided to return the way we had come, except choosing the mud and bullrushes all the way, as we were by then pretty muddy and couldn’t get worse (we thought). As we approached gate 7 we found a large number of naked men sunning their wares on the mini-beaches. Half way up the stairs, I found a tablet (medicine, not computer) lying on the ground. I took it home and identified it using the Internet. It is Kaletra, a drug used to treat HIV, around $7 each. So, like it says on our t-shirts “always use protection”. We finished off the day by buying ice cream at Safeway, where it was on sale.
Sunday we needed to get the mud off our boots. Another nice short, but rather too familiar, drive took us up Seymour. Seymour is winding down, the snow is still excellent, but the lifts will be shutting down after Easter Monday. Already the crowds were less, parking lot wasn’t full, lift lineups were tolerable. Carla decided that we would look for a cabin that she though she had seen from a distance somewhere around Suicide Bluffs, and we avoided collecting any beta, to make it more challenging. After climbing two things with really good views, which might have been the Suicide Bluffs, we stumbled onto the cabin, which is operated by North Shore Rescue, and is securely locked. They helicopter propane, at least there are two large propane cylinders there and they are not human-carryable. On the way down we saw a hasty memorial to Dave Jones, the North Shore Rescue guy who died up there this year. The snow was ideal for walking, not crispy enough to need crampons and not mushy enough to need snowshoes. We got our boots clean OK.
I really enjoyed reading this.