Edited on January 19, 2017
We moved to Vancouver at the end of last summer and between the anxieties of job search and settling into a new place, we made a lot of effort to get outside and explore this fantastic part of the world. But I always feel like we could be seeing and doing more.
I find it that once they are in a new place and think they will be staying for a while, many people tend to fall into thinking that they have all the time in the world to explore the new surroundings. And the act of exploring gets put off for the future. I am guilty of this too. We get busy and say we will check out that museum on “another day.” Or that this annual music festival will take place again next year. And since we now live here, we can always just do it next year. And so on.
But life is unpredictable. Last fall I was certain I would call Pittsburgh home for the next three or four years of my life. By the end of January, things were falling apart and I was planning my move back to Canada in March. I am happy to say that I explored quite a bit of Pittsburg while I was there so I did not feel like I haven’t taken the full advantage of the city when I was leaving.
The point is that we should try to make the most of what we have right now. Just because we think we will be in the same place tomorrow, does not mean that’s how our life will play itself out.
I would hate to think that one day when I leave BC I would feel like I haven’t taken the full advantage of Vancouver and its surroundings. To get myself to pay attention to my current world now and to make sure I take advantage of the opportunities I am currently exposed to, I thought up a list of things I absolutely have to do while living here. I call it My BC Bucket List.
1. Hike the Black Tusk in Garibaldi Provincial Park. I am too afraid to camp out in the bear country over night, so I want to do this hike as a day hike.
This was honestly probably one of the most impressive hikes I have done to date. Browse through my Instagram feed for more photos.
2. Hike Panorama Ridge in Garibaldi Provincial Park. Same deal here: I want to do this hike as a day hike instead of camping out over night. Both the Black Tusk and Panorama Ridge are in the same location, but it’s pretty impossible to do both in a single day. I am happy to come back as many times as it takes.
The Panorama Ridge hike is the same as the Black Tusk hike for about 2/3 of the hike. The trail later splits: to either take you up to the Black Tusk or over to the mountain ridge opposite from it. Seeing that region while hiking the Black Tusk felt sufficient.
3. Hike all three peaks of the Chief in one day. We went up the south peak already, but I want to come back and do all three peaks in one take.
We never came back to hike the Chief again, in part because we were driven to do more of the hikes we haven’t tried before. Now on our constantly evolving bucket list is to climb it one day.
4. Go whale watching and see orcas.
5. Take a road trip to Seattle.
7. Do the Grouse Grind once a month for the entire snow-free season.
May, June,
I’ve done the Grouse Grind three times in the year that I spent living in Vancouver. This is an ugly trail if you want a picturesque hike, but it offers an awesome, ass-kicking workout.
8. Take a dip in a hot spring. I would be okay with the commercialized Harrison Hot Springs, but it would be even better to drive to one of these watering holes that are out in the wild.
I don’t have the photo of the actual dip, but we took a trip to the Harrison Hot Springs and visited the public pool there which is fed by the hot spring.
9. Visit Victoria.
10. Run across the five bridges in Vancouver: Granville Street Bridge, Burrard Street Bridge, Cambie Street Bridge, the Lions Gate, and the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge.
*I walked or biked across some of these.
11. Bike the Spirit Trail in North Vancouver.
12. Swim in all the different beaches in Vancouver: English Bay Beach, Jericho Beach, Kitsilano Beach, Locarno Beach, Second Beach, Spanish Banks Beach, Sunset Beach, Third Beach, Trout Lake Beach. I already swam at a number of these beaches this past August, but I will keep my count fresh for the summer of 2016.
13. Go to the outdoor pools: Second Beach Pool and Kitsilano Pool are the two I would like to check out.
14. Hike in Hope, BC. There are so many awesome day hikes available in that region!
15. Go snowshoeing.
16. Go up Burnaby mountain and visit the SFU campus.
17. Explore Central Park in Burnaby.
18. Visit the national parks in Alberta. At least one of the great three: Banff, Jasper, or Glacier.
20. Watch an outdoors movie in the summer. Stanley Park, anyone?
21. Explore the wine country. I am itching for this weekend trip in the summer.
22. Check out at least 10 local events or festivals in Vancouver. This is to motivate me to do more in the city, for example, Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival, the Celebration of Lights in the summer, local theatres, etc.
Bard on the Beach (Othello), the Celebration of Lights (x3), Khatsahlano, one of the Canucks games, 4 local races, the Christmas Market, New Year’s Eve fireworks… I am losing count, but I am pretty pleased with how much we got out.
23. Do a day trip to Bowen Island. An awesome trip that does not even require a car.
24. Photograph five different neighbourhoods in Vancouver.
I think I stopped trying to do neighbourhood-oriented photo days shortly after I set this goal. I did take a lot of photos of Vancouver though. You can check them out on Instagram using this hashtag #vancitywanderers. The hashtag is now being used by others, so it is slowly getting polluted with images from other feeds, but I guess that’s just the nature of the online world.
25. Explore the abandoned train tracks in the suburbs of the city. I’ve noticed them once while riding the Skytrain through Burnaby and New Westminster and thought they would make for an awesome adventure on foot.
My goal is to complete the list by the end August (2016), which would be a year and one month anniversary of my move to Vancouver. Of course, we have done and will be doing things that are outside of this list as well. The point of the list is merely to help motivate and focus our efforts of exploring the world that is at our fingertips now. The list together with the deadline is meant to help create a sense of urgency that will motivate us to get planning, to have things to do every weekend and to get us outdoors as frequently as possible.
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