Aaron and Kait were both born and raised in beautiful British Columbia. We are now living on Vancouver Island, BC and have made it our goal to experience life with a focus on the beauty of our natural surroundings. Our main focus is on British Columbia's great outdoors but our posts include hiking, nature and astro photography,and a variety of tourist destinations.
Family Day Hike: Cypress Falls, West Vancouver, BC , Canada
Pre-moving stage in our new place.
Family Day: First Day Off Since January!
Playing Catch up
Aaron and I have been insanely busy between work, full time school, practicum, and moving. We both feel like we haven't had a second to rest, breath and worst of all hike!
First look at the place.
We have finally settled into our new place after spending night after night hauling all our stuff from our old place to our new place. We only had 2 weeks to move everything and settle before the beginning of February. Our new place is two stories and is currently backing a large provincial park in North Vancouver. We are ecstatic to start exploring the trails right outside our front door if only we can sneak past our cute yet furry and obdurate neighbour who likes to visit us often and especially likes trying to charm his way in through the front door. We have decided to name him Terrance, and while he's very cute and friendly, he is also full of cat mischievousness so we have to keep an eye on him.
This video describe Terrance pretty much to a T
Terrance creeping.
Terrance pondering his entry plan.
Today, Aaron and I woke up around 10 am. It felt so good to finally sleep in past 6:30 A.M. and started making a nice big breakfast of Kait's famous Vanilla Almond Smash Pancakes made from scratch. On the side,we had a mix of scrambled eggs, hash-browns, and farmer sausage that we cooked up in a big frying pan. It's so so YUMMY! If your a pancake lover, we insist you try the recipe:
Kait's Vanilla Almond Smash Pancakes
Dry ingredients.
Dry Ingredients:
1 & 1/2 Cup of Sifted All purpose flour
3 & 1/2 teaspoon of Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon of Salt
1 Tablespoon of Fine Granulated Sugar
1 Tablespoon of Cinnamon
Wet ingredients.
Wet Ingredients:
1 Large Egg
3 Tablespoons of melted Butter
1 & 1/4 cup of Vanilla silk soy milk
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
1/4 Teaspoon of Almond Extract
Mix it all together and throw it on the frying pan on medium heat.
Once cooked, add the toppings.
Toppings:
Icing sugar
Canadian Maple Syrup
Un-sweetened Coconut flakes
Almond Flakes
The Hike
Start of the trail after you leave the parking lot.
Kait at the beginning of the trail.
After breakfast, Aaron and I heading into West Vancouver in "Bruce," Aaron's Mitsubishi Outlander to hike a trail we discovered in the summer of 2013 during one of our late night drives. A few days after finding the trail head, we explored the area in the daytime and ended up following the creek bed all the way to the end before hitting the second water fall.
Summer 2013: Aaron heading up stream.
Since it has been almost 9 months after our first visit to Cypress Falls we decided it would be a good quick trail to do during Vancouver's current record breaking cold snap. As we started on the trail we quickly began to run into frozen chunks of ice coating the rocks along the trail, but overall the terrain was quite walkable.
Kait standing atop a boulder prior to the First Falls.
One of the many patches of ice coating the trail.
A shot of the canopy near the First Falls.
Ice coated creek.
As I just mentioned, the creek was coated in ice in several areas, and Aaron and I were pleasantly surprised to find that both falls have been frozen over by ice due to the cool temperatures. This is such an infrequent experience to see the falls so ice bound. The rare beauty of the frostbitten rocks leading into the mouth of the waterfalls were also incredible to see.
Ice covered rock formation we saw in the creek.
Aaron and I both enjoy this trail because there are so many unique features in this area. There are hidden cliffs all along the trail which provided excellent vantage points to view the creek. There is also a small cave by the first falls thats been created by fallen trees and water erosion creating smooth, defined passages for water to run through.
Small rock tunnel near First Falls.
The trail itself also runs parallel to the creek, which is quite enjoyable, especially if you're a hiker that is drawn to the power of water. The creek itself is so dynamic with large pools of water dotted by rocks ranging from tiny pebbles to huge boulders. There are cliffs that wall in the creek itself and constant elevation shifts creating miniature waterfalls between the two larger main falls.
Looking upstream from First Falls.
Ice on the creek above First Falls.
Cold enough for icicles.
Equipment
For our hike, we packed all our gear into a Panagonia Atom 7L bag. The bag contained mostly survival equipment, as Aaron and I were planning on exploring a new portion of the trail we hadn't hiked before and we wanted to cover all our bases. We brought Coghlan's waterproof matches, an emergency poncho, a lightstick, an emergency blanket, and a couple Zip fire-starting blocks as well as a Lifestraw water purifier. Inside was also a flashlight, a couple apples and Cliff Bars, and a Gerber fine-bladed folding knife. On the outside of the pack, we attached a Coghlan's Trek II first aid kit, a compass/thermometer/whistle combo made by the same company, a few small lights in case it got dark quickly, and a Nalgene 1L water bottle.
Our day pack with our medkit, compass/thermometer, lights, and water bottle.
Contents of our day pack, minus the fruit, granola bars, and flashlight.
Kait standing at the half-frozen creek.
Our thermometer reading 3 degrees Celsius.
For clothing, we both wore our Helly Hanson rain jackets. Aaron wore some brown light khaki pants, Mammut hiking boots, and Underarmour gloves. Kait wore her Lululemon athletic pants, and her Scarpa hiking boots.
Helly Hansen rain gear.
Aaron found a tree bridge.
Bridge crossing the creek just above First Falls.
Kait in the small tunnel/cave.
Bruce, the '06 Outlander.
Named after the Great White from Finding
Nemo.
Overall, though very cold with the heavy rain, a temperature of just 3 degrees Celsius, and some wind chill, the hike was wonderful both visually and physically. Check back soon for an official review with details on this beautiful trail!
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