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Posts Tagged ‘Hiking’

5 late summer/early fall hikes near Vancouver from @VancouverTrails

Posted in life or something like it, neat-O gang, tagged , on September 9, 2015| Leave a Comment »

top-5

Mike Chang at VancouverTrails.com shares his top 5 favourite late summer hikes near Vancouver.

Mike says the best thing about a late summer hike….no bugs.

01) Garibaldi Lake – Check out that stunning turquoise water.

02) Wedgemont Lake – Mike says this hike is a challenge, but the temperatures are forgiving this time of year. And a glacier? C’mon!

03) Goat Mountain – First off, great name. Second, pair it with Grouse Grind and feel the burn. I think they serve beer up there somewhere too. Hey UBC, I see you!

04) St. Mark’s Summit – You’re gunna get some prime-time Howe Sound views.

05) Mount Seymour – You’ll need to hit this one before the snows. Winter is Coming.

Do you have a favourite hike in the area? Perfect for late summer and early fall? Post it in the comments…I am always looking for new places to explore when I get a day off.

Go with yourself.

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Listening to the pretty folk of The Wooden Sky and HIKING!

Posted in life or something like it, music, tagged , , , , on November 5, 2012| 1 Comment »


Toronto indie band The Wooden Sky play a soft, melodic brand of folk or alternative country.  Very pretty and lush…but also sad.  The music is sounding good on a rare bright November day in the Forest Kingdom with a cup of coffee as I get ready for my radio show.  I’m going to post a few songs that I enjoy from their third album Every Child a Daughter, Every Moon a Sun.  The Wooden Sky are back form a tour of the UK where Uncut magazine said, gentle melancholy & warm, minor key rapture on the opening track from the third album from Gavin Gardiner and his TO based bucolic rockers fast turning into one of Canada’s most impressive exports.”   Impressive.  The Wooden Sky are now back in North America (New York right now I think).  They’ll rotate the tires, hit the duty free and start west.  They visit Victoria on November 19th for a show at Club 9one9.  Now the chewnes….

That song “Take Me Out” reminds me of the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance in Back to the Future.  And I thought that…. then read the comments on the song and sure enough another bro thought that too.  Rad.

***


I got up to hiking adventures on the weekend in the rain.  Saturday I hit Gowlland Tod and my wanderings took me to a spectacular waterfall.  The walk was vigorous but doable for Madelyn… and with all those government ads saying, “kids need 60 minutes of play everyday,” I thought… Sunday Funday repeat with the family.  It definitely pushed my four-year-old but she managed and walked the whole thing.  We started the trek with a brief dry period, the rain fell half way along… then stopped again.  We were all huffing and puffing by the time we hit the parking lot.

Started at the parking lot for the McKenzie Bight.  Followed the road to the start of the Timberman Trail.  Cut off at the Cascade Trail. (there are signs… you’ll hit a fork that is obvious.  Take the trail that says “To McKenzie Bight”).  You’ll start heading down and it’ll get steep.  You’ll see a waterfall… then you’ll be at the beach.  Take the McKenzie Bight Trail back up the other side of the creek.  Its pretty much just an UP… and you’re back at your car.

Total adventure time (or TAT), with lots of breaks and a stop for lunch at the McKenzie Bight was about one hour and 30 minutes.  You’ll get your stairs and vertical in with this little hike.

Go with yourself.

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Living in the City >> Bourbon sours, Red Fish Blue Fish and Roche Cove

Posted in food, life or something like it, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 20, 2012| Leave a Comment »


I had so much fun getting up to adventures on the weekend.  And I had so much fun writing about adventures from the weekend.  It only stood to reason… I’d enjoy podcasting the adventures.  Introducing the second installment of Living in the City.  Please have a listen and share.

Soundcloud: Living in the City >> Bourbon sours, Red Fish Blue Fish and Roche Cove

Oh wow, the times we’ll share.

You’ll learn:
1) How to make a bourbon sour from Katie McDonald, Veneto Lounge
2) How to make Malt Vinegar Syrup from Kunal Ghose, Red Fish, Blue Fish & Top Chef Canada
3) How to find Roche Cove Regional Park

***neat, here is an article about Kunal Ghose from the Times Colonist.***

We so excited. I love living in the city!

Go with yourself.

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I drank this, I ate that and I went there

Posted in ...this is your father speaking, food, life or something like it, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 19, 2012| 5 Comments »


The weekend was a gem.  And I watched a ton of Jem.

Got up to all sorts of adventures and like many of you, it probably had a bit to do with St. Patrick’s Day.  However, I did not get up to the green beer festivities.

Pol Plastino‘s lady Elea celebrated her birthday on Saturday night.  I was feeling like making cocktails because I see Simon, Josh and Katie make them all the time at Veneto and it seems fun.

Pol said Elea’s favourite cocktail from the bar was the Jenkins.  That one is too hard for me to make, but her next fave is the Bourbon Sour.  You’ll see the instructions above.

I brought a bottle of Baker’s bourbon… a giant bag of lemons, simple syrup (just dissolve equal parts sugar and water), bitters, egg whites (bought the carton from the grocery store, $3-ish)… a shaker, strainer, and juicer thing… and away we went.

I love the ice globes they serve at the fancy cocktail lounges and really REALLY wanted them to drop in the red solo cups (you know, to class it up).  Shawn from Clives Classic Lounge gave me a bag full of ice globes!

I will say, after jamming out cocktails for folk’s at the party… its a lot of work.  And I was only making Bourbon sours, or Bourbon Old Fashions… if I had to know anymore than two, my brain would have exploded.  AND I had Jess helping me.  Good times and great people at Elea’s birthday!


Sunday was sunny… Coral was in a Sunday movie mode, so Mads and I hit the town.  And I’ve got her into fish and chips.  Its turning into a weekend thing to head downtown, and lately our place to go is Red Fish, Blue Fish right on the water.

With the weather cooperating, the line for a fish taco stretched along the wood planks of the wharf.  But it was pleasant and Mads was in a good mood, so we waited and chowed down on Cod Fish and chips (with three dips!  That is important for Madelyn, so we had ketchup, their tartar sauce and then the Malt vinegar syrup) .  And I had the scallop taco and the Pacific Fish taco.  Mmmmm.  I’ll NEED to try the chowder sometime and the poutine.


After fish, and dropping some deep-fried pickles off to Mom… Mads and I hit the trails.

My brother had taken me to Roche Cove before… and I remember us thinking it would be a good place for a little one.  So I went back on Sunday with Madelyn.

I like Roche Cove because you get a lot going on with a fairly easy walk.  Ocean, rivers, lakes, rain forest, easy trails/or/muddy trails.  I also like the drive out to East Sooke.

Drinking with friends, eating fish tacos and hiking with Maddy was the best weekend EVAR.

Go with yourself.

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anyway you choose me, it won’t be wrong

Posted in ...this is your father speaking, tagged , , , on May 28, 2011| 2 Comments »

Finished my first little hike with Madelyn today.  It went pretty good, considering she is three-years-old and at no time during the journey was there a Treehouse break.

Basically a hike can be summed up as thus:

First 1/4 of the hike, “slow down.”
Last 3/4 of the hike, “hurry the FUCK up.”

We made out way to Mount Douglas Park, but instead of going up the hill, we walked down to the ocean.  I dunno what it is with people, but the ocean… rocks… people need to throw them.

Madelyn bee-lines straight for the shoreline and gets hucking.  Water spilling over her gumboots, everything soaking wet.  I have fantasies of me going all Hasselhoff and Baywatching it into the sea to drag her out.  She is a rock throwing machine.  When I finally used our picnic food to drag her away some UVic kids wandered down.  And they too made a straight line to the shore and started hucking rocks.  Funny how that is.

If there is any advice I can bestow after just one little hike it is this; bring snacks.  I am pretty sure another Mom told me that, but it works.  In my little half sack I packed the trail-mix with the smarties, pepperoni, apple and water.  Mads loved the rustic snacking on the shoreline, sitting on a piece of driftwood.

Our day ended with a trip downtown.  I have had a mad lust for the Smashing Pumpkins‘ Siamese Dream album.  Coral is at the Sasquatch Festival and Madelyn is doing back-to-back sleepovers and during my down time, I actually get to put on a record and just sit for a moment.  I had a lot of stress balled up over the past little while, but today during my hike and just now before blogging it evaporated.  I could actually feel it unwinding during a few stretches of hide-and-seek in the forest.  It was kinda scary actually.  Like a reverse panic attack?  odd… but ultimately a good feeling.

I can’t wait to free up my Saturday nights (its in the plans for after wedding season) and actually take more than an afternoon to hike and sit.

Go with yourself.

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everyone high-fiving everyone

Posted in life or something like it, music, tagged , , , , , , , on March 15, 2010| 15 Comments »

Coral and I went for a nice hike on Saturday before the rains came.  We headed up to Mount Doug park.  It was the first time in a long time that I went for anything that resembled a “proper” hike.  We had to trek over mud, across puddles, under felled trees and scramble up rocks.

We must have looked pretty comical.  I was wearing white hipster street shoes and and huffing and puffing away.  Coral and I didn’t want to carry anything, so we left the water bottle in the Jeep.  yeah, bad idea.

But in the end, we felt really good getting our  hearts pounding (and pounding and pounding) in our chests (and throats).  We’ve decided we like doing a nice walk that is more challenging than a stroll but not running around a track on pavement.  We’ll try it again and again till we get ‘er that we can easily trail-blaze to the top.  Then maybe run down!

I had to hit Mountain Equipment Co-op today and buy some shoes.  That was fun… I put on a pair trail running shoes and couldn’t believe my feet.  Years of hipster slip-ons and  Chucks had me thinking that feet were supposed to just hurt all the time.  This is like walking on angels.  A road made out of baby angels.  so soft.  I am going to DJ in these shoes.

My new shoes ::Vasque Light Trail Shoe

It was pretty scary going into MEC and seeing the wall of shoes (and really all the out door stuff).  Luckily there was another gentleman in the shoe area buying shoes and he seemed the hiker type.  When I was explaining to the clerk lady about my needs and weekend warriornessisms… the dude interjected and said, “buy these shoes.  I am actually here to buy my next pair of them because the first ones were so so so good.”  Thanks old teacher hiker guy at MEC!

We’re going to hike again mid week.  Tuesday its supposed to rain and I am meeting with an accountant anyways… but Wednesday onward looks spectacular to get outside.  Then I was telling Coral about how in my youth Bob and I used trail run all the time at Buntzen Lake.  Next time we’re in Coquitlam I’ll have to take her.  Maybe we’ll need to drag Vancityrockgirl as she likes the nature hikes too and its her neighbourhood!  When I’m rich I am going to move to Anmore or Belcarra.  As kids, we used to explore back up in that area a lot.  The best shape I was ever in my life was the summers when Bob and I would trail run in the hills at Buntzen (didn’t hurt that I was like 17 at the time!).

***
What do you think of the name Ottoman Empire?

I’ve been thinking about a name or brand for DJing.  The easy answer is just to use my name.  People know it.  But boring (no offense Mom) and I wouldn’t mind splitting off from my radio DJ persona for the music I want to present and create as a DJ.  Sometimes I find when I DJ and people find out its ‘Jeremy Baker’ they get confused if I don’t lay down a Pearl Jam song and tell them the weather in the bar.  Weird, but true.

I like Orc as well but Coral was pretty meh on that.  I like Orc because its super nerdy and is short.

She sent me DJ Beatdown… but that sounds way to aggro for the chillwave/indie/classics that I normally lay down.   A spin on that that I like is Beatmonger.  Like a fishmonger, but of beats.  get it?

The other name I liked is National Sound Company because… well I love the National, so its like an homage to my favourite band.

Any thoughts you have are always appreciated.  I can use a name or maybe no name and keep trucking along under my actual name.  Whatever works I guess, just let it come naturally.

Go with yourself.

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