Category: General

I’ve been working on a fresh version of my Burnaby route dubbed the Burnabop XL; the 2025 version was 76 km long but I’ve whittled it down to 56 km now – though it’s mostly the easier sections that have been removed, so it’s hardly any quicker to ride. The new starting location (complete with a bathroom!) is Confederation Park, specifically this spot:

Within the first kilometre there are multiple grass surfing opportunities.

Towards the end of the 2025 version route is Beecher Creek, which is such a gem of the Brentwood area. The problem was, being late in the course, a lot of people skipped it to head home. So in the 2026 version, I’ve placed Beecher right near the start.

I wasn’t riding the full course today but I wanted to try out the first 10 or so km to see how natural the connections felt. I was familiar with it all but hadn’t ridden it exactly this way before. It was pretty decent! It’s somewhat awkward to connect the best bits around town but this will do.

I skipped the south section due to time (and energy) constraints and headed over to the powerline section – a pretty silly part of the route where it just literally follows under the powerlines diagonally across a stretch of Burnaby. There is a hint of a path in spots, other parts are just riding on grass.

The pre-ride came in handy as there was a short stretch of powerline path that also coincided with an off-leash area; I’ve ridden it a few times and never seen a dog but today it was pretty packed with large-breed dogs that did not like bicycles, so I’ve since re-routed to avoid this spot. The two photos below are from before and after that spot.

The next section is Robert Burnaby and George Derby parks respectively; the former is home to the biggest black cottonwoods I’ve seen. Below is the second largest here that I know of. This is a favourite stretch of semi-urban trail for me; it traces around a couple big ravines and serves as a reminder of what the terrain was like before we flattened it all around here.

In the 2025 route there was a somewhat awkward section of sidewalk between the aforementioned forest and the next section, an old interurban rail bed. I’ve “solved” this by including a 200m section of trail I previously felt was unreasonable to include; it’s overgrown and has several creek crossing with steep and greasy embankments either side. I brought along my shears and folding saw and did a bunch of trimming of the prickly shrubs that line much of the trail but it will need more work and routine maintenance.

After the course work I stopped by Dageraad for a burger and beer, then took the north trail home. I stopped by this tree fort which has an impressive amount of hard work put into it, including a staircase that feels rock solid.

All in all it was 50km and about 800m elevation for the day.

Another evening ride in the last week of Standard Time here. This time I popped over the bridge to Harbourview Park, a linear waterfront park near the Second Narrows bridge. It’s 15 km round trip, so a good length for an after-work ride. The blossom trees are waking up:

This is a good sunset spot but today was grey and it just kind of slowly got dimmer. This is also an off-leash dog park, so I got to say hi to a few puppers as well.

This is it, the last week before Daylight Savings kicks in. To make it sweeter still, our province announced that this will be the last time we have a time change, and we’re sticking with Daylight Savings – so never again will the sun set before 5pm here!

I rode out to this pier near Railtown, about 5 km from home, for a beer. With both Rivs torn apart at the moment, the choice to take the Twenty was pretty easy.

I went out for the sunset but it was the moonrise that stole the show. The moon was full and bright, and appeared huge while it hung near the horizon – the photo was the best I could do with my phone camera, but appeared twice as big in real life.

I’ve been telling people Leia is 13 years old for almost two months now, but today it’s officially true. As we’ve been doing for a bunch of years now, Aimée made dog cake (in cupcake form this time) and we went to Pandora park and invited dog friends out to join. About a dozen folks were able to make it out, helped by the great weather this day.

We were at the park from 11am to 1pm for the birthday celebration, but with the sun still high in the sky I decided to ride the Evasion out to Deer Lake – my first ride of any substance in two weeks. In that time the early bloomers have started to put on a show and remind us that spring is not far off now!

I spotted this bridge from the road, one I hadn’t seen before, so naturally I had to ride over it – and nearly endo’d off the end not realizing the second “step” was about 18″ tall! This does not seem like a compliant bridge…

My favourite tree to sit in was unavailable at Deer Lake due to the influx of park goers brought in with the warm air and sunshine. Can’t complain. I found another spot which was also quite lovely.

The grasslands around the lake are somewhat unique in this area these days, though I imagine this would have been a more common scene before we developed just about the whole land mass. The land was so beautiful before we got our hands on it, and I will cherish what still remains.

I spotted this little hummingbird in a blooming tree while exploring a dead-end fence line trail. The trail shown below is a little hidden gem in Burnaby that I always like to work into my loop.

I couldn’t join this edition of parkbagging on my bike, but the finish park was only three blocks from my place so I walked over with the dogs. Leia has been having some health stuff but is still spry and enjoys being outside.

This weekend I decided I’d finally do a full tear-down and rebuild on the two Rivendells in my possession. The primary reason for going right down to a frame was actually so I could weigh them – I’ve always been curious. The Hillborne frame was 2144g while the fork was 860g, which is really quite light. The Bombadil on the other hand, a rather stout 2826g for the frame but a respectable 940g for the fork. Not a huge surprise.

The differential was bigger than I expected though and it helped solidify my plan to rebuild the Hillborne into the sporty drop bar bike again, after the Bombadil’s been filling this role for almost a year now. The Bombadil will resume “mule bike” duties with the pannier rack and the upright KT bar and become my commuter once again.

The high proportion of bird photos recently are more to do with me being sick and unable to go for proper rides than the increased interest in birding, though the latter is certainly a factor as well. In order to prevent my remarkably long activity streak on Strava from lapsing (306 weeks! Only missed a week during lockdown!) I drove down to a large park along the Fraser River, where I could bike around slowly on the flat pathways. There are also a lot of birds here, and as I realized today, a lot of birders too. I guess I never noticed them before.

And onto the bird photos! Some new ones for me – first downy woodpecker, first white-crowned sparrow, first nuthatch too. I am still very much a newbie but I’ve noticed my ability to talk to a birder I come across and sound like I sort of know what I’m talking about is growing rapidly. I’m looking forward to springtime even more now with this newfound hobby; I already appreciate a lot about spring, now I’ve got one more aspect to enjoy.

I’m currently too under the weather to ride, so instead I went for a walk around Maplewood Flats in North Vancouver with my old DSLR and photographed some birds. As you come into the nature preserve, there are these scale models of the now-gone squatter shacks that used to exist along the mudflats. Pretty cute.

I mostly saw pretty ordinary birds, as expected. Lots of black-capped chickadees and spotted Towhees, as well as song sparrows. A couple eagles, and then the one bit of proper excitement was this pileated woodpecker which I heard at first, waited a few minutes, and then it swooped in and landed right by where I was standing. It then moved over to another dead tree even closer to me. They’re pretty big! Anyway, I guess I’m a birder now. I would have rather gone on a bike ride, but this was good too.

After a reasonably challenging ride yesterday, I managed to get out for a bit bigger one today (albeit flatter) to see off the Patullo bridge, whose decommissioning work begins in two days. A few friends were also interested so we met there, and apparently many others had the same idea – it was packed! They had a big line to get onto the bridge deck even, though that fell apart after a while (and I’ll admit I challenged it and ended up just cutting in). I think they vastly underestimated how many people would want to walk along a bridge deck in the sunshine on Sunday, knowing its imminent demise.

On the way there I took a bit of a meandering route so I could visit a few spots I haven’t been in a while. First was Kaymar Creek, pictured below. It’s a fairly short but sweet ravine, tucked away in a bit of a sneaky spot so few know about it – making it feel all the more special.

I also came across a flock of very friendly red-winged blackbirds, which for people out east is no big deal, but here they’re somewhat less common and I’d never managed to get up close to them before. Happy to check that off the list.

From there I wanted to check on a construction closure in Fraser Foreshore because it was a part of my Burnabop XL route but has been inaccessible for the past year and a bit. Turns out it’s going to be a while yet unfortunately.. large scale utility work going in. Guess I’ll need to plan the route accordingly – shame, this connection was rather wonderful.

A little while later we arrived at the bridge .. and I was floored by the crowds. I feel a little bit naïve that I was surprised – of course, on a sunny Sunday, the second-to-last day that it’s possible to walk the newly closed-to-cars bridge, it’s going to be popular. I guess word got out!

No photos of particular interest for the 25 kms from here to home, but once home I made a quick change to drive over to Burnaby Lake for a dog walk outing with my Mrs. Managed to fit in a ~60 min walk before it got too dark; an action-packed day for me.

Valentine’s Day was a sunny Saturday this year, and with plans made for late afternoon I was free to get some daytime exploring in solo. I set off to ride the latest iteration of the north loop of my route the Burnabop XL. Some of the most recent changes I had only ridden in the opposite direction so I wanted to check that it wasn’t too ornery to ride this way.

The above photo was taken about 15 km into the route, next to the local velodrome. The skies were moody and it was cool out, but rain was unlikely. The next section was Velodrome Trail, a hilly but beautiful stretch of trail along the north face of Burnaby Mountain. One of my favourite things about this trail are the massive big leaf maples in this area, including the specimen below. I dragged my bike down to the base for scale – it’s trunk is 5 to 6 ft diameter and must place it near the top of big maples in Canada. The biggest ones in Canada are in Stanley Park and I’m keen to compare.

The sun came out properly while I rode along Trans Canada Trail along Barnet, below. Most cyclists take the adjacent road because it’s quite a bit more efficient, but unless I’m desperately pressed for time you’ll find me down here on the much more pleasant trail.

A rather low traffic gem of a trail, Hang Your Hat, is closed with no indication of a long term plan. I’m glad I’ve ridden this trail as many times as I have, because I fear they won’t bother to replace the rotten bridges. It also features a viewpoint that feels like a secret because it’s on an even less-used side loop.

The Trans Canada Trail section ends once you reach Port Moody, and from there it’s a 75m climb along the spine between two ravines, a trail that isn’t well known but is definitely well rutted.

Something I didn’t notice previously, having only ridden the trail in the opposite direction, was this car that’s been largely reclaimed by the forest. It’s only about a block away from existing roads, but hard to imagine how it got here nonetheless.

The climb was hard but not too long. There were a few blocks of neighbourhood roads and then a boardwalk crossing of the adjacent ravine. Not very bikeable, but a lovely natural area. Lots of birds to listen to.

After that it was more popular paths and a stretch of notoriously muddy trail that really delivered on that promise today. I stopped at Dageraad Brewing for two small pours before my regular neighbourhood noodle home from there.

It’s been alternating wet and dry days lately. On Monday I commuted in the rain to work (though got home in a dry window), of which I’ve no complaints as it was a balmy 6 or 7 degrees Celsius. Today was sunny and cool, and I started work (from home) a bit early so I could get out on the bike in time to ride up to my favourite sunset spot before dark.

Said sunset spot below. This is Capitol Hill Reservoir Park, for anyone local who might be reading and curious. I took the direct route here, which is a brutal climb of 15+ percent grade, but it gets you there quick.

On the way back I had in mind the trail network on the north slope of Capitol Hill, which is a confusing web of trails that are lovingly maintained by the locals. A group known as the Capitol Hill Tree Keepers, who’ve put up signs on old stumps with information as well as made a cute little social space in the woods complete with chairs and tables, as well as labels for the various native plants surrounding it.

Some remaining sunset awaited me once I got out of the woods (so to speak, but also, literally). I’m very curious about this road, which is gated in the distance and has been left to be slowly consumed by the forest. It’s a rare example of a development opportunity not being taken, and I love to see it.