In search of the Trans-Canada trail West Vancouver April 11, 2009

One of the goals that I would like to be able to accomplish before I have to hang up the spurs as the saying goes is to bike, hike or explore as much of the Trans- Canada trail in BC that I can -I have done most of the route from Horseshoe Bay to east of Chilliwack and parts of the Kettle Valley but one section on the North Shores has eluded me for any number of reasons and that is a short section from the Caufield overpass to Cypress Falls park - their have been a number of changes in access to this section - not the least of which is the changes brought on by the new inland section of the Sea to Sky Highway.

Yesterday dawned dry so it was an opportunity to check out what I wrote before - it turned out to be a good little rekkie - between what I saw for myself and what I picked up from a couple I met on the trail I can now plan on adding this section to my list of sections completed.

I started yesterday walk from Westport Rd at this trailhead figuring if I headed up I should connect to either the TCTrail or the Baden-Powell trail. I ended up finding both.



After about ten minutes of hiking and one side trail I came to this junction which is the TCT trail coming from Cypress Falls.



It was marked as the 5KM mark - that would be from Horsehoe Bay - the trail is multi-use here but some becomes hiking only as the cyclisst have to take a different route.



It appears to be one of the many old roads that dot the area from logging and West Van's water system from years ago.



The route now becomes more of a trail and starts to drop down to the Nelson Creek drainage.



This is another important junctions - there is now a newly improved trail put in by West Vancouver Parks that will connect the TCTrail with the Baden Powell trail - I follow the connecter trail for a short distance.



The trail here is slowly dropping to the Nelson creek drainage.



New bridge over Nelson Creek - this was my turn around point as I wanted to backtrack and explore some more of the TCT.



Nelson Creek - it has a nice flow at this time of the year as the snow melt has slowly begun here on the west coast.



One last look at the bridge and surrounding area.



I now retrace my steps back to the junction and follow the TCTrail for a short distance until I meet with the couple that I referred to early and they were able to provide me with the info that I was looking for - if I was to continue down the TCT I would end up at the Caufield overpass on Highway 1 - so I now know the missing link access point. - that will be a walk in the near future on a drier day than today.

I also followed the TCT pass my connector trail to Westport to see how it leads to the Cypress Falls Park area - it appears from checking some other photos to be about 1.6 K M to my last walking point.

I think I know how to do this a hike and bike loop so I am going to look into that.

Time for lunch

Cheers

Dennis