Journal

Westward · Entry 06

My Baden-Powell Trail Hike

A ride that fell through, a sunny hike from Lynn Canyon to Deep Cove and a maple bacon donut.

North Vancouver, British Columbia3 min read
Sunlight falls between tall tree trunks onto a wide forest trail
This is what our plan B looked like.My own photo

We were originally going to hike on Sunday. My German roommate had asked me on a whim if I wanted to come along, so we looked at a few routes. We figured Sendero Diez Vistas would take most of the day. St. Mark’s Summit sounded like a slightly shorter hike. We found a possible ride on Facebook, and somehow, in our heads, Sunday turned into Saturday.

So there we were on Saturday morning, backpacks packed, waiting at the pickup spot. We waited and waited until we realized we’d read the message differently. We thought the ride was settled. The person who might have driven us was still figuring out whether they could make it. I was disappointed for a bit, but my roommate looked up what else we could do and found a route we could get to on our own. So we headed to Lynn Canyon and took the Baden-Powell Trail towards Deep Cove.

Boardwalks and rocky paths

We spent a lot of the first stretch on wooden boardwalks. Below us, we could see water flowing between the rocks. A little further along, there was a warning sign on the fence. The line “100% not the vibe” made me grin.

A yellow warning sign and a red prohibition sign on a fence in the forest

A pretty direct message at Lynn Canyon. My own photo.

The trail got rockier, so I started paying more attention to where I put my feet. I still kept stopping whenever the sun came through the trees. A few steps later, the light looked completely different again. I think I could have carried on taking photos of that alone for quite a while.

Sunbeams shine through tall tree trunks into the forest

I was happy to stop for this light. My own photo.

The sun peeks through the trees above a dark, uphill forest trail

A little further up, the light hit the trail differently again. My own photo.

With all those tall trees around me, I nearly missed what was happening right beside the trail. There was a little beetle sitting on a rock, so I stopped for that too.

A small beetle on a rock covered in lichen

Sometimes it was worth looking down, too. My own photo.

From the lookout to the waterfront

Eventually we found ourselves above Deep Cove, looking out over the water. Beyond the wooded point, we could see the hills on the other side, and down below a boat left a white wake across the bay.

View from above of blue water, a wooded point and the white wake of a boat

The view from above Deep Cove. My own photo.

From there it took another twenty minutes or half an hour to get down, much of it on boardwalks and stairs. After all that up and down, we’d planned to go straight for coffee once we got to Deep Cove. But on the way we spotted this place by the water and thought, why don’t we just lie down for a bit? This photo has that slightly faded look again. I think there’s just something about it.

Hiking boots in the foreground of a soft-looking photo of blue water and hills

Down in Deep Cove, coffee could wait a little longer. My own photo.

We did get that coffee afterwards, and I tried a maple bacon donut. Before coming to Canada, I probably wouldn’t have ordered a donut with maple and bacon on it. That Saturday, it felt just right. And by then I’d almost forgotten about the pickup spot that morning.

A glazed maple bacon donut on paper beside a cup of coffee

Coffee and a maple bacon donut to finish the day. My own photo.