Another Hike and a Mystery Ship

Hullo! I am doing another hike today as part of the Virtual Pacific Crest Trail... today we are going down to the river estuary to see what we can see...

The bushes are putting out leaf buds! (This was February 9...) It seems a tad early...

Do you see that white thing right above my head... it is a big ship... beary strange... 

It's not a ferry... and it's not a cruise ship... let's zoom in...

Huh... beary strange! We did a quick internet search and...

It is a Floatel (floating hotel) for workers who will be working in Squamish on the woodfibre LNG plant.

The ship is called the MV Isabelle and used to house refugees in Estonia before it got bought by a Vancouver company. It's going to be hanging out here for a few months before heading over to Squamish. Interseting. Wonder if they will do tours...

It's beary pretty down here at the estuary and the tide is in so the river is high.

One of my friend asked what the "Hike" button means... it was part of a three-set of pins that I got for Christmas... part of a geocaching set! The full set is: Hide, Seek, Play... I can't wear them all at once or I will tip over!

More leaf buds!

We are along the edge of an old railway embankment here and the black stuff behind me is coal detritus...

It's kind of neat here because...

There is a carving on the rock over there!

Oooh... and over there... on the log...

Is a great blue heron! Or Great Blue Heron... if you are into capitalization.

This looks like it might be a good swimming spot... 

We came here once... further down towards the mouth of the river in the summer... for the Summer Stuffie Olympics and... the tide was out and the river was low and it was a weed fest... but this spot looks nice.

I poked around the old ruins here for a bit... they always look so intriquing.

With stairs to nowhere...

This, I think, is some old grating that used to cover a crawl space window/opening...

Windows to nowhere too...

And yes... we are beary green for early February (when these pics were taken)...

We had all that snow but it's all melted and the trails are a bit murky.

With big puddles to navigate...

But this little bear is beary careful not to fall into the murkiness!

We also found this sad dumping ground. A bunch of old mattress springs and general garbage. So sad that people do this...

Even sadder was this dilapidated stuffie! Rest In Peace little guy...

Don't dump in the woods!!!! 

It is beary pretty here... and a nice place to catch the sunrise.

The marsh is also beary full of water, which is nice to see. Lots of ducks and other waterfowl.

Now... if I was hiking the "real" Pacific Crest Trail... I would be looking for a place to pitch my tent and...

I think this place would be prefect! It has a fire pit and an ocean view! Need to get myself a tent...

An Estuary Sunrise

***Editor's Note - this is a pre-recorded episode.***

Good morning! We are off on a little hike this morning, chasing a sunrise.

We found some Saskatoon bushes...

The flowers are beary pretty.

We are at the river estuary... and the tide is beary high!

We've had so much rain and cool weather this spring... the marsh is doing well.

So pretty here.

One day, we should bring our S.S. Rubbermaid and have a little paddle out there.

There were two birds on the water... we think they were Mergansers...

So pretty here!

We didn't go far, just to the last spit of land we could sit on...

I'm sure the sunrise would look cool from the decks of the S.S. Rubbermaid (hint hint).

It's taking a while for the sun to get above the clouds.

The water really is in quite high!

There we go... this is sunrise above the clouds, finally!

And no... we did not get any hot chocolate while we were waiting!!!

So pretty!

That's just a rock in the river and sunrise just makes everything beautiful!

Next time... someone (cough, cough) better remember the hot chocolate!

Exploring the Estuary

Hullo! We went for a little walk to a new place today - the river estuary!

There's this big old oak tree here, but not much else in the way of trees...

It's pretty, isn't it?

There are some informational plaques here. Back in the day (early 1900s), settlers decided to throw up some berms to convert the estuary to farmland. That destroyed a lot of estuarine habitat for birds and other critters. But now... they are taking the berms down and trying to reestablish the estuary. Cool!

That looks like an area that might have been dug up recently to convert back to a tidal channel...

See... they brought in big machines...

They're hoping that plants, fish and little invertebrates will colonize the area and help turn it back into a true estuary...

If you stand and look in the water, you can see all sorts of little scurrying activity...

Well... maybe not on the photo... but it's there!

There's the city, waaayyyy over there... and one of the river channels flowing out to the ocean.

This is a cool area - not a long hike, but interesting nonetheless...

We can help protect this rare ecosystem by... packing in what we pack out... that means not leaving garbage and cans lying around. Some people didn't read this because there were a few beer cans lying around. We also shouldn't disturb the wildlife... and stay on designated trails...

The area in pink is the section of estuary that is a conservation area.... cool...

As we left, we stopped at a spot along the river which looked interesting... It's beary close to the road which means one could put a kayak in the water here!

And it might be an interesting swimming area to take Rose to this summer...

Plus, there are all sorts of cool areas for stuffies to explore!

That rock better be strong... we don't think we could have been miners...

We're more mountain climbers!!

It's exciting to go to new spots and see what's there!