Westwood Lake, Kinsol Trestle, Steelhead
May. 22nd, 2011 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deaneEarlier in the week I'd posted a note to the local geocaching forum saying that I was planning on doing the caches around Westwood Lake on Sunday and asking if anyone was interested in joining me. As the week progressed the weather forecast for Sunday worsened from sunny to partly cloudy to cloudy with occasional showers. When I went to bed last night the forecast had removed the word "occasional". I decided to hell with it, I'd go caching even if it was raining!
As is so often the case around here, the forecast was wrong, in this case pleasantly so. The morning started out bright and sunny. Clouds had moved in by afternoon, but we didn't get a drop of rain.
My post to the forum had gotten a response from someone who went by the handle of "Mr. Walters" and we'd arranged to meet at the park. As it turned out, Mr. Walters was a 15 year old lad who had five times as many caches as I. His mother dropped him off at the park and, after reassuring herself that I was no danger to her boy, left us to our own devices.
Now let me state up front that Mr. Walters is not one of those chubby youngsters who gets most of his exercise from twiddling the knobs on a gamepad. No, he's fit and full of energy, which meant that chubby old me was hard pressed to keep up at times, particularly on the uphill climbs of which, this being BC after all, there were many. To his credit he never commented on my huffing and puffing nor did he give any outward sign of impatience while waiting for me to toil up the path behind him. He just took out his camera and snapped shots until I caught up. There was even one point where he flopped down on the grass for a break which I'm pretty sure was completely for my benefit. If Mr. Walters is at all representative of today's youth then the future is in excellent hands.
On the worst climb I got about 3/4 of the way up, saw more of the ridge rising above me and realized that I simply didn't have it in me to complete the ascent. I was already gulping down air like it was on sale and my heart was pounding so hard that I felt sick. I told him to go on ahead and pick me up on his way back down.
I plopped myself down on a log to try to recover enough for the descent. To my surprise it only took about five minutes for my heart rate and breathing to get back to normal. I ate a banana that I'd brought with me and my stomach settled too. At that point I was actually feeling pretty damned good! I didn't use to have such quick recovery time. I'm guessing that that's due to all the time I've put in on the exercise cycle this past year and half. Cool!
All told I picked up 12 caches today, which is tied for my best single-day result. That brings my total to 276. I can already hear 300 beckoning.
After returning home I had a late lunch and then fell into bed for a nap. Upon awakening the paramour announced that zie was interested in checking out the Kinsol Trestle. Was I too worn out to join zir? I thought I would be but when I climbed out of bed I felt fine. So off we went!
The Kinsol Trestle is an abandoned wooden railway trestle crossing the Koksilah River which is being renovated for recreational use. You can see a cool time-lapse video of its reconstruction here. They're not done yet but they're pretty darned close and the trestle is expected to open for public use in another month or so. The paramour took some nice shots of it from a viewing platform below. I'll see if can snag one of those once zie's uploaded them.
After admiring the trestle we wandered down to the river where we were just in time to see a large steelhead trout jump out of the water three times. I missed the first jump, hearing only a sharp slap of water. I turned to see ripples spreading outward on the river and thought that someone above us was throwing rocks. Then it jumped again and this time I saw it, in all its pink-bellied splendour. It gave one more, much smaller jump and then that was the end of the show. There were no rapids where it was jumping so I'm guessing that it was trying to dislodge parasites. While that might have been annoying for the trout, for me it made a very nice ending to a pleasant, eventful day.
As is so often the case around here, the forecast was wrong, in this case pleasantly so. The morning started out bright and sunny. Clouds had moved in by afternoon, but we didn't get a drop of rain.
My post to the forum had gotten a response from someone who went by the handle of "Mr. Walters" and we'd arranged to meet at the park. As it turned out, Mr. Walters was a 15 year old lad who had five times as many caches as I. His mother dropped him off at the park and, after reassuring herself that I was no danger to her boy, left us to our own devices.
Now let me state up front that Mr. Walters is not one of those chubby youngsters who gets most of his exercise from twiddling the knobs on a gamepad. No, he's fit and full of energy, which meant that chubby old me was hard pressed to keep up at times, particularly on the uphill climbs of which, this being BC after all, there were many. To his credit he never commented on my huffing and puffing nor did he give any outward sign of impatience while waiting for me to toil up the path behind him. He just took out his camera and snapped shots until I caught up. There was even one point where he flopped down on the grass for a break which I'm pretty sure was completely for my benefit. If Mr. Walters is at all representative of today's youth then the future is in excellent hands.
On the worst climb I got about 3/4 of the way up, saw more of the ridge rising above me and realized that I simply didn't have it in me to complete the ascent. I was already gulping down air like it was on sale and my heart was pounding so hard that I felt sick. I told him to go on ahead and pick me up on his way back down.
I plopped myself down on a log to try to recover enough for the descent. To my surprise it only took about five minutes for my heart rate and breathing to get back to normal. I ate a banana that I'd brought with me and my stomach settled too. At that point I was actually feeling pretty damned good! I didn't use to have such quick recovery time. I'm guessing that that's due to all the time I've put in on the exercise cycle this past year and half. Cool!
All told I picked up 12 caches today, which is tied for my best single-day result. That brings my total to 276. I can already hear 300 beckoning.
After returning home I had a late lunch and then fell into bed for a nap. Upon awakening the paramour announced that zie was interested in checking out the Kinsol Trestle. Was I too worn out to join zir? I thought I would be but when I climbed out of bed I felt fine. So off we went!
The Kinsol Trestle is an abandoned wooden railway trestle crossing the Koksilah River which is being renovated for recreational use. You can see a cool time-lapse video of its reconstruction here. They're not done yet but they're pretty darned close and the trestle is expected to open for public use in another month or so. The paramour took some nice shots of it from a viewing platform below. I'll see if can snag one of those once zie's uploaded them.
After admiring the trestle we wandered down to the river where we were just in time to see a large steelhead trout jump out of the water three times. I missed the first jump, hearing only a sharp slap of water. I turned to see ripples spreading outward on the river and thought that someone above us was throwing rocks. Then it jumped again and this time I saw it, in all its pink-bellied splendour. It gave one more, much smaller jump and then that was the end of the show. There were no rapids where it was jumping so I'm guessing that it was trying to dislodge parasites. While that might have been annoying for the trout, for me it made a very nice ending to a pleasant, eventful day.
