Day 6: Vancouver (Science World) to Pitt Meadows

Uncategorized 2 Minutes

Sunday 21 July

A long and arduous day…
There’s a theme here – each day has been tougher than we expected. One of us was actually heard to say last night “tomorrow will be a relatively easy day”. But then … who the hell puts a trail straight up Burnaby Mountain?! No merciful switchbacks or soothing contour spirals?
Heading east on a day of roads, bridges, ports, mountains, trails and rivers started at Science World on False Creek after awesome omelettes at Paul’s Omelettery on South Granville. A bit of urban road riding through Strathcona, lovely forest trail under the Second Narrows bridge and then the climbing … did we say straight up?
Beautiful forest trails and a steep descent took us towards Port Moody and the end of the Burrard Inlet. Following Terry Fox’s training run and the Coquitlam River through to PoQo (Port Coquitlam) and then on to the long, dry, flat earthen wall paths of Pitt Meadows. Finally ended after the long climb over Golden Ears Bridge and into Langley.
Vancouver’s great bus and Skytrain system took us home to a gratefully received Jacuzzi.
Lessons from today’s 75km … probably not a good idea to do a couple of hours of mountain biking on Mt Fromme the day before a piece of our cross-country adventure. And … this isn’t England, folks. There isn’t a pub down every country lane – pack food to prevent prolonged episodes of hanger …

Travelled today: 68km

Total distance: 331.4km

#thegreattrail #transcanadatrail

day 6 1
Starting out across from BC Place
day 6 2
Community garden up against the container terminal
day 6 3
Of tugboats, ships and ports
day 6 7
Heading under Ironworkers’ Memorial Bridge (Second Narrows)
day 6 8
Second narrows from the lovely forest trail – it looks so much better from underneath.
day 6 9
Sometimes it’s good to see where you’ve come from – top of Burnaby mountain
day 6 10
Advertised as “paved path” – another day of being grateful for the mountain bikes
day 6 11
Waiting for the train to pass. It’s all about the railway and port in these parts – Port Moody was the original end of the line to the west and the first port was here. A rail arm was only later established to serve the growing town of Vancouver further down the inlet towards the coastline
day 6 12
The very end of Burrard Inlet. Low tide in Port Moody

day 6 13

day 6 14
Hoping that umbrella will give some shade
day 6 15
Coquitlam river – one of the many salmon “factories” in these parts
day 6 16
Long and flat trails around Pitt Meadows farming area

day 6 17

day 6 18
Bridges to climb – this one on Lougheed

day 6 19

day 6 20
Blueberry pickers
day 6 21
Blackberry picker – thank goodness for wild berries when pubs are in zero supply
day 6 22
Heading home on the train

day 6 23

Unknown's avatar

Published by transcanadatrek

Bron Wilkinson and Gill Winckler tackling the Trans Canada Trail in pieces whenever opportunity allows. May take the rest of our lives to complete this adventure.

Published

Leave a comment