Caitlyn likes to go hiking with Auntie Sam. Caitlyn also loves to help Auntie Sam take care of her forest. This is all about their Adventures! together...
Yesterday Auntie Sam picked me up from school and we went hiking at Minnekhada Regional Park. We like hiking together. When we got to the park we put on our hiking boots and backpacks. We had to wear our rain jackets because it was raining. Auntie Sam took my picture at the beginning of the trail.
We started on the lodge trail then turned onto Fern trail. When we got to Addington trail lookout we took the trail to the lookout and sat down and had our snacks and water. We also watched a tug boat go down Pitt River. When we were done we went back up that trail back to Fern trail.
Fern trail then became Mid-Marsh trail. We crossed over the first bridge. There was lots of bird houses in the trees. One bird house fell down out of the tree. We also saw a beaver dam too. We ran into a lady with four dogs. She let us pet them. She told us that other people told her that there where three bears spotted. One was in the parking lot. The other two were across the mid-marsh. We thanked the lady for letting us know about the bears. We were a little worried about the bear being spotted in the parking lot because we were heading back to the car.
We crossed over the second bridge which was on Log Walk trail. Half way down the trail we ran into the bear. He was sanding in the middle of the trail looking at us. We stopped and slowly backed up and went over the Log Walk bridge back to where we saw the lady that told us about the bears. We then went down a different trail to the car.
Once we got back to the parking lot we got into the car really fast. It was a really good hike. We hiked about 13.2 kms in total.
Sunday night Caitlyn called me wanting to know if we could go to "your forest" as she puts it to me, lol, and clean up. I replied "You have school tomorrow", to then find out her school has a Pro-D Day that day. "Sure", I said to Caitlyn.
I picked Caitlyn up from home at 9am and we made our way to Riverview Forest. We parked and started at our usual location. Caitlyn seem to be enjoying today a bit more than when we were there on Mother's day.
The other week we picked up her own safety vest, gloves (so her tiny little hands weren't disappearing in them) and cherry picker so we both had one. She apparently was excited to "try them out", lol. Previously she was using my equipment.
If you know Caitlyn, her attention to one task can sometimes run short so I have to keep things fun and interesting for her so I tend to send her into brush so she can climb over logs, etc. Every time we are by the embankment along Lost Creek she always wants to go down. This time was no different. I struggled to let her go down as it was pretty steep but we accessed the options and found an ok spot for her to go down as long as she agreed to go down on her backside.
Here is a video of her second trip down to collect a couple items: (Please excuse my rude gum chewing, my deepest apologies, I know its not very appealing. I didn't realize I was doing it.)
Once we did as much as we wanted we headed back to the main entrance to get rid of the collections. We walked around for about an hour and half to forty-five mins.
Here is a video on some of the things we collected: (We tend to collect a lot of cigarette butts, doggy-doo-doo bags, booze cans/bottles, broken glass, misc. garbage, etc.)
We headed back towards Lost Creek before going back to the car as there was a broken lawn chair at the bottom of the embankment Caitlyn kept climbing which she wanted to pick up. Once we got the chair Caitlyn tied ribbon around it and placed it by a Kiosk for the city of Coquitlam staff to come pick up.
Here is a video on Caitlyn's 3rd climb down the embankment to collect the chair this time. (We tried to go down the other side but we couldn't not find the access point from the main trail. We ended up crossing over and hiking up the embankment to the same side we were on previously.)
Here are some pictures of our day!!
The start of our collection
First trail started
Picking up more doggy-doo-doo bags
exiting the crime scene
A bottle we found buried. We pulled it out of the ground.
Snap shot of Cait on the trail.
Cait picking up more garbage.
Cait's first decent.
Almost at the bottom.
Caitlyn carefully retrieving some beer cans. Trying not to step in the creek. (She knows she is not allowed to.)
Me, Mommy, Nana, Auntie Sam and Auntie Gilma went out for breakfast for Mother's Day. It was fun and the food was yummy.
After lunch we took Mommy and Auntie Gilma home and Nana, Auntie Sam and me went to Auntie Sam's forest to pick up garbage. I was so happy Nana came with us and helped us pick up garbage. It was fun.
When we were done, we took Nana home and then Auntie Sam took me home too.
Auntie Sam took me to North Vancouver again. This time we went to Quarry Rock. We went hiking with George and his cute dog named Troy. I like Troy a lot because he is very sweet.
Went went up some really big stairs. I was so tired after we got up to the top. It was all up hill. We saw Auntie Sam's hiking club too. They were going home when we started.
When we go to the end we got to stand on a big rock and look at the water. Auntie Sam showed me where Jug Island was on the other side of the water. We were up really high. It was really cool. It was raining but we stopped and had some snacks.
After our snacks we went back down to the car. We went to a restaurant to have lunch and donuts.
This was my hardest hike. I was so tired I fell asleep in the car. It was fun though.
Auntie Sam took me to Lynn Canyon Park. It is in North Vancouver. I got to use my new hiking backpack that Auntie Sam bought me for Christmas. I was so happy.
I got to walk over a suspension bridge. It was very high and wobbly but I was not scared.
When we got over to the other side we walked through trails but there was also a lot of stairs. Some of the stairs were really high. The stairs made me very tired.
It was fun. I had a lot of fun with Auntie Sam.
We also went into the Ecology Centre where they have a lot of stuff to see. There was owls, but they were not real. There was also a lot of stuff to read about the forest and the animals. I signed their guest book too.
