Today Jeff and I set out for our first official™ hike in a year and Jeff opted to take us along the Diez Vistas trail, as 15 km trek above and between Buntzen Lake to the east and Indiand Arm to the west. It took us just under five hours to complete. It is described thusly on the BC Hydro website:
This route is recommended for experienced and fit hikers only. Spanish for “ten views”, the Diez Vistas Trail is aptly named. Offering spectacular views of Vancouver’s waterways and mountains, the Diez Vistas Trail commences near the floating bridge. Travelling uphill into the forest, cross the powerline and pipeline and continue along a series of switchbacks until the trail forks. The left trail leads to a viewpoint overlooking Indian Arm and the right leads to a view of South Beach and across to Eagle Ridge. After reaching the high point where the trails reunite, you travel along a forest trail that terminates at a BC Hydro service road. Keep right and follow the service road and transmission line (the Old Buntzen Lake Trail) back to the Buntzen Lake Trail, where a left turn will take you to the suspension bridge leading to North Beach. From here, follow either Powerhouse Road or the Buntzen Lake Trail back to South Beach.
And now the stats:
- 15 km hiked
- 3.1 km/hr average pace
- 740 m of elevation gained
- one billion calories burned (okay, more in the range of 2400)
Considering that neither of us are in peak condition and I was coming off a week of not running, not to mention having a still slightly sore back, this was probably more than we should have tackled but it was a fun challenge, even if by the end our feet were aching, our stomachs were grumbling and we both felt very tired.
Living up to its name, Diez Vistas (10 vistas) has lots of viewpoints along the way, though we didn’t check out all of them. The ones we did had spectacular views of Burrard Inlet and Salmon Arm, with the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island spread out far below.
Much of the ascent and descent is fairly steep and it’s the kind of hiking where you often have to pick where to place your feet, as the path is covered in rock and twisted roots. We each slipped a few times but neither of us fell, something of a miracle for me given my unerring sense of imbalance. We encountered at least a couple dozen people during the hike, not surprising given that it was a Sunday and conditions were mild (the two previous times we hiked in this area it was freezing and pouring with rain, respectively). A pair of smart alecks even jogged past us at one point while we were exhausted enough to be tripping over on our feet. Dang kids young adults.
Click the first image below to view them all in sequence or visit the gallery here at your leisure.
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