Hiking at Night was a Great Idea

What do you do when you are slightly bored of the norm? I’m actually not sure… Normal is never a very boring concept to me. But I can tell you what I do when I get a great idea in my head! I do it! At least 64.37% of the time.

This idea started with an amazing sunset that we had in Vancouver on July 17. I was playing softball with some coworkers when we had an insane sunset to the west. Although it appeared as though everyone else in Vancouver had their cameras out, I did not. I was standing impatiently at 3rd base, waiting for the game to be over. Unfortunately, by the time the game had ended, it was dark, and the amazing sunset had disappeared.

The next day, I was determined that I was going to head out and get some amazing pictures of whatever sunset would be produced that evening. Unfortunately, the clouds did not materialize as they had the day before, and so it didn’t look like there was going to be much of a show. Either way, I called up my buddy Graham, and asked if he wanted to go hiking. “Sure”, he says… “What time do you want to leave”. It was at that point that I responded with a casual “7… PM…”. Graham was game though, and so I picked him up at 6:30 and we headed up to Cypress Mountain on the North Shore of Vancouver.

We left the parking lot around 7, and started our 2.5 hour hike to our destination. We arrived at Eagle Bluffs (highly recommended hike) just as the sun was setting. This was going to be perfect!

And it was. There we amazing pictures to be had in EVERY direction! Here are just a few of the good ones! 

Of course, by the time we had taken in the sunset, the sun had set. This caused one issue, which was that it was now dark. Luckily, we had anticipated this, and had brought along some great light sources (thank you BlackDiamond!). So, we turned around, and walked back through the woods in the pitch black!

No hike would be complete without seeing some form of wildlife. On the return hike, through the circle of light that our headlamps produced on the trail ahead of us, were several piles of berry filled poop. Now, berry filled poop means only one thing…bears. I do not believe there is a connection in the naming of bears and their favourite food, berries, but I could be very wrong on that one. Regardless, seeing such a large amount of (very fresh) bear poo on the train ahead of you when you are walking through the pitch black can be rather intimidating. Our pace picked up significantly!

We were back in the car 5 hours after we had begun, just after midnight. It sure was an adventure, and a great night!