Our First Trek on the Great Trail – Snowshoeing in West Vancouver

Exploring the Trans Canada Trail from Glenmore to Cypress Provincial Park, British Columbia

 
After spending so much time researching, planning, and talking about our proposed hike across Canada on the Great Trail, formerly known as the Trans Canada Trail, it is exciting to finally have an opportunity to get outside and explore a section of the national pathway for ourselves!
 
We are currently enjoying a belated Christmas holiday in Sechelt, British Columbia, on the Sunshine Coast, where we have both lived for several years and where my parents currently reside. We are fortunate to have opportunities to return to this beautiful part of the country several times a year, often making the journey west from Toronto aboard VIA Rail's Canadian. Travelling across Canada by train is a wonderful experience in itself, although it is certainly much quicker and more luxurious than the journey we are now contemplating on foot!

 
In addition to spending time with family, our time on the West Coast provides an excellent opportunity to explore some of the Great Trail in British Columbia. Having spent many years skiing on Grouse Mountain and regularly climbing the famous Grouse Grind in North Vancouver, I am familiar with some of the recreational opportunities available in the North Shore Mountains. However, with our upcoming cross-country trek in mind, I am particularly interested in exploring some of the pathways that form part of the national trail system.
 
For our first outing, I have chosen a roughly seven-kilometre section between the Glenmore neighbourhood in West Vancouver and the Cypress Bowl skiing area in Cypress Provincial Park. Given the winter conditions, this will be a snowshoeing adventure rather than our larger planned hike.  Yesterday, we travelled from Sechelt to Horseshoe Bay aboard BC Ferries, then made our way to Glenmore, where my father and I set out to explore the trail together.

 
The District of West Vancouver's trail network offers a wonderful variety of recreational opportunities, including pathways that are used for hiking and cycling during the warmer months. At this time of year, however, the mountains are blanketed in snow, and the familiar forest trails take on an entirely different appearance.  Our route followed sections of the Baden-Powell Trail through the forest and past Brothers Creek Falls before continuing onto the Lower Brewis Trail. From there, we made our way towards Cypress Bowl Road and into Cypress Provincial Park.

 
It is a beautiful day to be outdoors. The forest is filled with enormous coniferous trees, their branches heavily laden with fresh snow, and in places the snow has piled up into remarkable shapes around the trunks and smaller vegetation. Above us, sunlight filtered through the canopy, illuminating the white landscape and creating wonderful contrasts between the deep green trees and bright blue winter sky.
At times we moved through snow deep enough to make travelling considerably more demanding than walking along a summer footpath. Although we have both spent plenty of time outdoors during the winter, snowshoeing through the mountains is a useful reminder of how much weather and trail conditions can influence the amount of time and effort required to cover even a relatively short distance.
 
Eventually, we arrived at the Cypress Bowl skiing area, having travelled approximately seven kilometres from our starting point. Here we stopped in the provincial park picnic area to enjoy a snack of energy bars and some wonderfully warm tea from a thermos carried in my backpack before turning around and making our way back towards Glenmore.

 
By the time we returned to the car, we had covered approximately fourteen kilometres in total, which feels like a respectable (and admittedly tiring) first outing on the Great Trail!
 
The day has also provided a few things to think about as we continue preparing for our much longer journey across Canada.  First - one unexpected difficulty was that the cold temperatures drained the battery in my cell phone, leaving us with only a handful of photographs from our outing. Given that we are planning to rely on waymarking and official signs as well as electronic maps and GPS technology during our trek across Canada, the effect of winter temperatures on batteries is certainly something we will need to investigate.  I also have to admit that by the time we reached the car, my fingers and toes were becoming painfully cold. It is one thing to spend a day snowshoeing when we know that a warm vehicle, dry clothing, and a hot drink are waiting for us at the end. It is quite another to imagine spending several consecutive days travelling through similar conditions while carrying everything we need on our backs.  Clearly, we have some more thinking to do about winter equipment and realities on the trail!
 
Fortunately, today's outing ends with the comforts of civilization. After changing into warm, dry clothes, we stopped at a local restaurant for some very welcome coffee and cinnamon buns. After which we met up with Sean to explore the illuminated Capilano Suspension Bridge, which is near another section of the Trans Canada Trail, before returning to Horseshoe Bay and taking the ferry home to Sechelt for the evening.

 
Back at home, we spent considerable time discussing the day's outing and what some of these experiences might mean for our plans to walk across Canada. There is still an enormous amount for us to learn about the different environments, seasons, and trail conditions we expect to encounter along the Great Trail, and outings like this provide opportunities to begin asking some of the practical questions that are difficult to answer while sitting in front of a computer.
 
More than anything, however, it is exciting to finally spend some time exploring the trail that we have been studying on maps for so many months. Our first seven kilometres of the Great Trail are behind us, and there are only another 23,993 kilometres to go!
 
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