Hello family and friends, and welcome back to my blog!
Well, I’m newly retired from teaching, and for much of the summer I’ve been training for my upcoming 147 km long distance walks in the U.K. First, I will walk 107 km on “St. Cuthbert’s Way” from Melrose in southern Scotland to the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne in Northumberland, Britain, staying in bed and breakfasts along the way. After two restful days on the island, I will walk a further 40 km south along the Northumberland Coast Path.
Highlights of these walks will include the abbeys of Melrose, Dryburgh, Jedburgh, and Lindisfarne, and the castles of Lindisfarne, Bamburgh, Dunstaburgh, Alnwick (of Harry Potter filming fame), and Warkworth, as well as lovely villages and lots of beautiful nature, countryside, and coastal beaches. I am so looking forward to it!
On my return flight from the U.K., I will have a stopover in Iceland and will stay for a week to visit Daniel who will be doing a university exchange term there, and Sophie and Brent will join us. I hope you will follow along on this adventure which will begin with my flight to Glasgow on August 21st.
A few weeks ago, I took some photos on one of my favourite walks in Pacific Spirit Park in order to do a “practice” blog to see if I still remember how!
For this walk, I park near the end of UBC’s College Highroad and enter on Spanish Trail to connect with Pioneer Trail. There are some lovely Vine maples at the start of this walk, and they are always vibrant with colour, joyous green in the Spring and Summer, and bright yellow-then-orange in the Fall.
Pioneer trail crosses Chancellor Boulevard, and shortly after the crossing I connect to the East Canyon trail which crosses one of the streams which form the “canyon” which is really a steep-sided ravine, thick with lush vegetation.
The principal big trees on this walk are Douglas fir:
Hemlock:
Cedar:
And broadleaf maple:
There are wonderful gardens of sword fern and bracken fern, and you can also find some maidenhair ferns on Admiralty Trail as it descends east of West Canyon trail.
Other understory plants include salal, Oregon grape, salmon berry, thimbleberry, snowberry (poisonous!), and native BC blackberry.
There are a multitude of kinds of mosses, lichens, and fungi as well adorning the trees, logs, and stumps in the forest.
Where East Canyon trail joins Admiralty trail, I turn right and enjoy the shaded cliff-top walk, with periodic views of Spanish Banks beach below.
Admiralty joins Pioneer Trail and descends to the Spanish Banks stream where I used to release salmon fry with my students.
At the beach, sometimes I walk west towards U.B.C., or east towards the city, but usually I scamper on the rocks and logs, and then have a nice sit down at the mouth of the stream. A few times, I’ve been lucky to be here when the crows are having a morning bath.
Afterwards, I climb back up to the shade of Admiralty trail and head west along the cliff top until the descent to Acadia Beach where I can walk on the rocky, log-strewn beach to arrive at another lovely stream, just prior to the official start of Wreck Beach.
Finally, I climb back up to Admiralty again, connect to West Canyon trail this time, cross Chancellor, and then retrace my steps to return to my car, tired but happy. What a wonderful way to train for my upcoming long-distance walks – lovely shaded forest, clean streams, descents to beautiful beaches with city, ocean, and mountain views, and multiple choices of routes for variety. There is always bird song in the air, chiefly robins and chickadees, and I also feel lucky when I see a towhee, winter wren, pilleated woodpecker, or barred owl. I feel so blessed to have easy access to all of this in glorious Pacific Spirit Park!
