One of the best things about Vancouver is how easy it is to combine city life with outdoor activities. This Sunday we enjoyed this combination for the first time since we moved here. A hearty late breakfast at the last available table at our favourite all-day-breakfast spot, a beautiful forest hike on Lynn Valley trails, and then back home by 4 PM. What more could I wish for on a Sunday with nothing but freedom on the calendar?
all day breakfast yes please
Before travelling to North Vancouver for a bit of hiking, you do need to make sure you fuel up, right? Well, we don’t have a car, so after sleeping in, we made sure we had a proper breakfast nearby 😉 I live for breakfast and brunch, so the all-day-breakfast place Red Umbrella Café on Davie Street always makes me happy. Though there are so many places to explore, this certainly wasn’t our first time walking over to Red Umbrella for breakfast or lunch. Just can’t help but come back there! With some effort (and donating the last few bites to Tom), I fuelled up with a royal egg sandwich. Next, it was just about a 10 minute walk to the bus stop near the bridge to North Vancouver.
lynn valley’s baden powell trail
Following up on my film locations bucket list, we picked Princess Park and Lynn Valley in North Vancouver to go check out first. These locations were used in The Art of Racing in the Rain and The Adam Project. The area is very easy to get to from Vancouver. Hopping on two buses, we arrived at Princess Park in just an hour and fifteen minutes.
Unfamiliar with the area and open to anything, we looked at the map near the Princess Park entrance to see which Lynn Valley trails seemed nice to start with. We decided to walk towards the Baden Powell Trail and see how far we’d get. We strolled through Braemar Park Reservoir, onto Dempsey Trail, and soon enough we were on the Baden Powell Trail. In total it has four sections, which would take about 4 to 5 hours to fully complete.
We only did part of one section. Easy to intermediate, it was a nice and quiet area with deliciously fresh air, mountain bikers passing by every now and then… It must have been about 5 degrees – nice and crisp, just perfect! A couple of lovely bridges over streams and small waterfalls… People trail-running with their dogs… Imagine this being your everyday spot to just walk your dog. Wow. Reading into the different sections of the Baden Powell Trail, I’m pretty sure this was not the most impressive part. It was pretty dense forest, so no lookout points in this area. Further up, there should be some great parts including views overlooking the mountains and water. The full trail stretches from Deep Cove to Lynn Valley, Lynn Valley to Grouse Mountain, Grouse Mountain to Cypress Mountain, and Cypress to Horseshoe Bay.
When we arrived at a road, we knew the next part would be a bit too lengthy to start now. My bottle of water was empty, and it gets dark pretty early this time of year. We decided to find a bus stop to go back home for now. However, we will definitely come back soon to continue the trail better prepared: earlier, with more food and water.
The stroll to the nearest bus stop was a nice cooling-down, with views on the mountains which were partly covered in ice/snow. My camera loves being here!
