Whit's Travels: Lynn Canyon

Hey everyone. Today Alex and I embarked on a mission to see Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge. Amelia kindly gave us some transport tickets so we didn't have to spend a dime.

Cause it was my birthday we decided to buy breakfast... also we had eaten all our supplies. We had our hearts set on waffles since we went past a waffle place in Victoria. We walked up and down Commercial Drive but finally had to settle for French Toast and Pancakes. All for the princely sum of $10.00. We know how to find a bargain.

So we set off on the SkyTrain. Without meaning to, we actually committed the offence of fare-evasion (we couldn't figure out what we were meant to do with our un-validated tickets). It didn't actually matter as no one came to check, but I did wonder if there was a clause in their punishment policy that allowed for confused Australian backpackers on their birthday. I like to think there is.

So after our illicit activities on the SkyTrain we headed to our second mode of transport for the day, a strange slug-shaped vehicle called a SeaBus. It's pretty much like the ferries on the Swan, except bigger and with a weird cabin on the top. So we piled into this rather absurd looking creature as it crawled across the Fraser Creek. This time we did get our tickets validated... not as bad ass as we thought. The SeaBus was pretty good at giving us a view of North Vancouver. The city is so close to the mountains, you can actually see the ski runs from the street.

Our final step on the public transport front was the 229 bus. We had to ask the driver to let us know when the stop we needed to get off at came up. Luckily for us he was very obliging.

After a few minutes walk we reached the Lynn Canyon Park and Ecological Centre. As it was entry by donation Alex and I decided to take a look. After donating a solid 55c (don't judge us, some more rich looking people than us didn't even donate anything) we had a look around the centre and learnt a few things about Black Bears, the Sulphur Cycle and how slow Canadian forests are at regenerating after forest fires (it can take them like 200 years!!). We also saw part of a tree that was 1000 years old, like it saw the first settlers landing, as well as the start of WWI. It was pretty rowdy, nature style.

So after geeking it up in the ecological centre, we decided to head out and learn some stuff about the area first hand. The Suspension Bridge was pretty damn tall and unfortunately too skinny to be of any use in a game of Pooh Sticks (if you don't know what that is you seriously need to get your A. A. Milne on). The water was rushing like crazy down the granite stones, and even though it looked several metres deep it was like crystal clear. Alex had obtained a little booklet with some info about the trails, so we set off upstream to try and find this pool they mentioned.
A few minutes walk through the dense green forest and we were there. I swear I have never seen anything so darn green. The leaves are green, the floor is green, the water is green even the bark is green with moss, and the stones. So much darn green, so not used to it!

We got to the pool and it was so pretty we decided to chow down on the apples we bought from BuyLo Foods (we managed to spend $5 each on groceries and it will last us to the end of this week. Maaad budgeting skillz). We sort of perched ourselves on a rock and were admiring the view when these 3 kids caught our eye. They were brothers messing about on the waters edge. Their Dad showed them a quarter that someone had chucked in the pool and dared them to go swimming for it. Everyone who was watching chuckled to themselves. There was no way those boys were going in the water, it was so cold, most of it was snow melt fresh off the mountain slopes. Like icier than you can even imagine. However, one of the kids, to everyones surprise, stripped off to his boxers and was seriously about to go for it. We watched on, somewhat tranfixed. Him and his brothers messed about in the shallows a few times until one of them fully stacked it and got soaked. Hilarious.

We decided to stop being strange weirdos watching kids and take the downstream path to the Twin Falls. It was a nice walk, plenty of stairs and rocks to climb over. We eventually came to a small bridge crossing the river. To be perfectly honest I don't actually remember seeing two falls at any point so the twin thing was kinda lost on me... but the water was nice. Some parts looked like 6 metres deep but I swear you could still see the bottom. Crazy glacial water.

We decided to head home but not before we tripped out to 'Dollar Giant' - Alex and my new best friend. You can check out the incredibly healthy nature of our purchases in the photo at the bottom.

Anyway better dash, we're getting up at 4:30am tomorrow to have a feast before Alex's taxi arrives and I am abandoned for the day!!