The Baden Powell Trail

Ted. Back in 1971, Vancouver area Boy Scouts and Girl Guides constructed a 30 mile long hiking trail to commemorate British Columbia’s Centennial.

This sturdy trail runs through some pretty rugged forest from Horseshoe Bay on Howe Sound to Deep Cove on Indian Arm (sort of the northern part of Vancouver Harbour). 

While Judy and I try to take a good walk every day, it had been a while since we actually dusted off our boots and poles for a proper hike. So on Friday, we took the bus to Lynn Canyon for an 8 mile hike to Deep Cove, the eastern end of the trail.

The first thing that is apparent in this forest is the size of the trees. No wonder the loggers had a field day here! The firs, hemlocks and cedars are massive. The trees are routinely over 200’ tall and many are 5’ or 6’ in diameter. 

But what really stuns are the massive trunks of the trees that were cut a hundred years ago. These are often a good 12’ across; real grandfather trees! 

You can still see the springboard notches in some of them and most serve as nurse stumps; essentially giant peat pots where baby trees sprout and develop. “Life finds a way!”

Since we’re in the Pacific Northwest, ferns abound and everything is draped in green beards of moss. Owing to the drought, the streams aren’t flowing much but we still saw some charming rivers and falls. 

The construction of the trail through this terrain is impressive. Those Scouts don’t play! It is usually about 5’ wide and covered in gravel. The areas that are normally boggy have cedar boardwalks and sturdy bridges cross the many streams.

It wasn't all smooth going, though. This was a much tougher trail than we imagined.  It took over 6 hours to finish and Judy said a couple of bad words.

We didn't see many folks along the trail but were surprised that it is a popular area for trail runners as there were some very challenging stretches. Mark, our trail running buddy would love this but he would need to be careful; as the name of one side trail implies.

It is easy to get all knotted up about the challenges our world faces today but by taking a little time with these old giants, we were reminded of just how insignificant we really are.