The weather is heating up. They're expecting highs of 27C or more by Tuesday. But it's Saturday and that means Big Hike Day, so we lathered on the sunscreen and left before 9AM with Cindy's friend Line.
We went out to View Royal and Francis/King Regional Park. The park has a series of trails in roughly concentric circles around the central parking lot. It's an amazing park in that you're instantly deep within a cool, old forest, with towering firs and cedars and waist high ferns, but then 50m further and you're in a hot, rocky clearing full of hydro lines and scotch broom. Then back into the forest before popping out at a fence with a golf course on the other side. On the one hand, I'm grateful that these small pieces of land are protected. On the other, I'm dismayed how us humans feel we need to build over absolutely everything. We shouldn't have to fight so hard to 'protect' that which nourishes our bodies and souls.
We got lost a few times, thanks to several intersecting trails our insistence in using two maps that were 180 degrees apart, but I think that's what makes hiking fun for Line. We made it back to the car around four hours and 14km later, hot, dusty and satisfied. We'd seen tall trees, small fish, flowering water lilies and all kinds of mushrooms. A very good hike.
Rebirth
Big mushroom
tiny mushroom
big trees
So many branches