Wheelz

After too long without having a car, we're getting one soon.  I'll actually be able to get out to some parks once again!

Finally.

Golden Ears Park - Lower Falls

A couple months back my Mother-in-Law dropped by on her way out of town, and left us her Jeep.  So I finally got to really learn to drive a stick-shift, and we all managed to get a little ways out of town to Golden Ears Park.  We were looking for a nice family afternoon hike, and definitely found it.  This was the first time I've ever been there.

Golden Ears is biiiiiiig.  I think it took nearly 20 minutes just to drive from the entrance gate to the parking lot at the end of the road (Gold Creek lot, we skipped at least 3-4 parking lots on the way there).  From the norther you can go many different ways - down to North Beach on the lake, East or West Canyon trails, or as we did, take the Lower Falls trail up to the waterfalls.  We didn't even begin to touch this place.

This hike had all five of us - me, my wife, our oldest boy (5), only girl (4) and our newest (~7 months) tied onto my chest.  We tried to get him onto my back, but weren't able to get the wrap working properly that way.

One of the first things I learned about hiking and camping with kids is you need to bring a whole lot more water and food with you.  The great thing about 4+ year olds is you can give them backpacks with stuff in them.  It makes things a lot easier on the grown-ups.  Our newborn is not quite up to strength yet.

It took a minute to find the trailhead - it would have taken longer except I caught a glimpse of the sign driving in.  With bladders empty and water bottles full, we set off down the trail.  It was obvious a lot of work had been done on this trail recently.  It was hard packed gravel the entire way out to the falls.  A stroller with decently sized tires could easily handle it, and it was a joy to walk on.

The trail rolls gently through the woods, occasionally opening up to the river it runs along.  The first half of the trail is pretty much all in the woods, but the second half is much more open.  The view of the valley are majestic. Despite being less than an hour out of town, we felt completely removed from the city.

The trail is so large and well maintained you would have to try very hard to lose it, but there is still some flagging left over.  More helpfully, there are markers noting every 500 meters.  It's 2,700 meters to the viewpoint, but the major markers gave the kid something to look forward to and gave them a sense of progress.

It took us a little over an hour to get to the viewpoint, with a water break or two along the way.  Once we got there the kids were more interested in eating than looking at the waterfall, but they did like it.

The viewpoint is nice, but at least when we went, it's very wet from all the spray.  Use your sense - rocks are slippery, your camera will get misted, and your butt will get cold on the bench.  On the other hand, the spray and mist does add to the character of the falls.

Right before the viewpoint another trail goes up the hill.  Follow it up for a few hundred meters and it takes you to the top of the falls.  The falls are partially fenced off up here, but there is a clear way out to them.  There are some nice flat rocks for sunning on - I and the kids all preferred it up here to down below.  But be careful if you take young ones up here - the rocks go straight into the water, and you are right at the fall's edge - if not careful you could lose someone over the falls very quickly.

After being fed and watered, the kids were ready for the trek back.  Along the way we stopped at one of the gravel beaches along the creek to let the kids splash around the water for a bit and finish off our snacks.  The water was cold but they didn't care.  It started getting dark while we were there, though, so it was back to the trail and the Jeep.  Being in the valley, sunset occurs much earlier than out in the city - keep that in mind if planning an afternoon or evening hike.

Overall, everyone enjoyed this hike.  It was definitely an easy one - a good trail, pretty flat, with lots of river and forest areas to explore.  If you're looking for an easy hike that definitely give you that out of the city feeling, I'd highly recommend this one.

Rolley Lake - Postlude

Well, this post got rather delayed.

I decided to give mom a break and take the kids camping for one night, July 1^st.  This was a holiday Monday, so I figured a lot of people would be ditching their campsites to head back to work.  So when I pulled up to the Rolley Lake entrance and saw the “CAMPGROUND FULL” sign swaying like something out of an old western, my heart skipped a beat.  I resolved to camp somewhere that night, but figured after an hour drive I should at least check in at the campsite before making a call to Manning – maybe they just didn’t take the sign down yet, right?

Right!  A couple of facility operators were directing traffic, and cars were parked all the way down the entrance road.  Apparently the crowds had come out in force for a hot Canada Day, and the day use was spilling out pretty much back onto Bell Road.  I asked about the campsites, and she said they hadn’t even had a chance to look there yet.  After making about three quarters of a loop around the campground, I found an empty spot and parked our rental Corolla at the entrance daring anyone else to try and take it. 

My two bigger kids (5 year old boy, 4 year old girl) were happy to run around the woods and find creepy-crawlies while I set up the tent.  My six month old boy supervised the construction.  We settled into a nice gravel pad carved straight out of a second growth forest.  The place was nicely treed, with lots of distance between adjacent campsites. 

I was a little bit shocked while researching Rolley Lake to find it was $30 per night camping fees.  But that seems to be the standard fare for Lower Mainland area front country camping.  Not quite as cheap of a family getaway I had in mind. 

After everyone had a snack and drink, we headed back down the road to the lake.  There is a trail that is a much nicer walk, but I had the youngest in a stroller so we stuck to the road.  Later I found out the trail can be done with a stroller, though it's not ideal. 

The beach was pleasant enough, with lots of families there celebrating Canada Day.  This was definitely a family park – no cliques of teenagers or flocks of gangster wannabes trying to look like their not trying to impress each other.  Being 20 miles out of town on a Monday and not on a bus route probably keeps that crowd to a minimum.  Young kids abounded. 

The kids loved playing in the water.  The lake was reasonably warm – I expect it will get quite warm by mid-August.  It was a bit brown looking, but fine.  There is a roped-off swimming area at the beach. It’s fairly small and crowded; lots of people were taking their inflatables or canoes out beyond the ropes,

After the lake it was time to get a campfire going to roast some hot dogs.  Unfortunately there was none readily available for sale, and the park operators didn’t come around until much later.  Fortunately a neighbourly camper was very generous and gave us enough wood to make dinner and roast some marshmallows later in the evening.  My fire-starting skills are out of practice, it took me a good 15 minutes to get the fire burning solidly. 

The campground was pleasantly quiet.  One camper nearby ran a generator for an hour, but beyond that there was no noise to speak of.  I don’t know how it would have been during the weekend, but by Monday night any rowdies and drinkers that may have been there were cleared out. 

My daughter needed to go pee in the middle of the night.  As we came out of the tent, I got an excited “Daddy, the stars!”  It must not have been too exciting, as when she was done I asked if she wanted to look at the stars some more with me, and got a very polite “No thank you,” as she walked back to bed. 

We didn’t get to see the falls, though from what I’ve seen in pictures they’re nothing extraordinary.  We entirely missed the playground, despite driving by it at least twice. Both kids took the fishing program in the morning, and had a lot of fun with it.  No fish were caught, but my daughter did manage to hook my finger pretty good.  Fortunately they were barbless.  After turning the rods in, it was time to head back home.  

The good:

-          Large, well treed campsites

-          Lots of space between campsites

-          Lake was warm

-          Fishing program was fun and had terrific staff

-          Stroller friendly

-          Family crowd

-          No powerboats on the lake

The bad

-          lack of firewood

-          Lack of toilet paper - it was gone by early evening.  I brought my own roll, fortunately, but forgot it in the outhouse and it didn't take long for that to disappear either

-          Road signage could be better, we missed a few turns on the way there

The indifferent

-          semi-rocky beach, muddy waters

Rolley Lake - prelude

On something of a whim, I decided to take the kids to Rolley Lake on Canada Day for one night in the tent. I've never been there before, but it looks reasonably nice from the BC parks website and from Google Maps. 

As luck would have it, there's a children's fishing event on Tuesday, our second day there.  My oldest boy (5) has taken an interest in fishing this year, so hopefully it will be a good time for him.  Even better if he can land his first fish. 

Otherwise it looks like there will be a short hike to a small waterfall, and lots of swimming and hot dogs.  Other than the extreme heat, I'm really excited to get out there.