The Dunbar Village Business Association is hosting its annual Harvest Festival on September 19th with family-friendly entertainment, games, and activities for all. I’ve heard that a must-see is the Vancouver Rabbit Agility Club demos as well!
Dunbar Village Harvest Festival
Where: Between West 26th & West 30th on Dunbar
When: Saturday, September 19, 2015 from 11:00am to 3:00pm
Tickets: No tickets required, free. RSVP to the event on Facebook for updates.
Stop by to check out fitness classes, live music, bouncy castles, bubble sumo wrestling, and carnival games. There will also be giveaways and sidewalk sales from the businesses that make up the thriving Dunbar community. Cotton candy, helium balloons and an old-fashioned fire truck will add to the spirit of the day. Children’s entertainer Jenny Wright will be on stage, as will the Toy Story characters Woody and company. Whisky Minstrels or Tatiana Speed & Her Band will also entertain along with acoustic guitar favourites Rogue Messengers.
Stong’s Market is providing a dunk tank and barbecue with proceeds going to the Canadian Cancer Society, while proceeds from Shoppers Drug Mart’s sidewalk sale benefit Children’s & Women’s Health Centre of BC Foundation.
A pop-up art installation called the Working Holiday Still Life Harvest Project will feature artists Elisa Yon, Leah Weinstein, and Jaspal Marwah from the Artists in Communities Residency, sponsored by the Dunbar Community Centre/Vancouver Park Board. Visitors are asked to bring a non-perishable food item to contribute to the installation and they’ll go to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society.
Follow the Dunbar Village BIA on Twitter and Facebook for more information.
This post has been contributed by Sam Cousins, Stewardship Coordinator with Stanley Park Ecology Society (“SPES”). I have been following SPES since I moved into the West End a decade ago and I have been a member for three years. I wanted to offer the team an opportunity to share their news, events, and work so I have created “SPES Saturday” where they contribute and share stories with my audience once a month.
Upcycling in Stanley Park
Art and science are taking conservation to a new level in Stanley Park. With the help of environmental artist Sharon Kallis, the Stanley Park Ecology Society’s (“SPES”) volunteer Eco Stewards are restoring a damaged bank along North Creek in Stanley Park.
Eroded site along North Creek (Photo: Sharon Kallis)
North Creek is an ephemeral stream that flows into Beaver Lake. It supports a number of species of insects and amphibians that are threatened by the erosion of tread material (gravel, wood-chips and soil) from the adjacent North Creek trail.
To stabilize the creek banks and prevent erosion and sedimentation in the stream, Sharon Kallis is reusing Himalayan blackberry stems as fencing material, English ivy vines woven into bio-netting for bank stabilisation, and yellow flag iris leaves as mulch for planting. Normally, these invasive plants would be removed and discarded as waste. Sharon has other plans for them.
Volunteers weave a wattle fence
from blackberry vines. (Photo: Sharon Kallis)
For the last few weeks, Stanley Park Ecology Society volunteers braved blackberry thorns to harvest the needed stems.
The team has just completed making the fences using the old traditional method of wattling. These fences are intended to block off and decommission trails and discourage people from walking down to the creek – one of the primary causes of the erosion.
The fences will also help protect the planting that is happening this fall. The planting and the addition of woody debris will help to stabilise the area and enhance the natural habitat for the species that call North Creek their home.
English ivy vines
“crocheted” into bionets (Photo:SPES)
The final phase of the North Creek project will be happening in October with the installation of “bio-netting” woven from invasive English ivy.
Laid upon the eroded slopes, these organic nets help stabilize newly planted native species while the yellow flag iris mulch protects and nourishes the roots.
This project would not have been possible without significant volunteer support. A big thank you goes out to SPES’ intrepid volunteers for braving the dirt, scratches and weather to make this project a continuing success.
The work at North Creek is part of the larger Creative Upcycling in Stanley Park project. Funding for this project is provided by:
This month marks my 10 year anniversary of being a West End resident and I have to say, in my completely biased opinion, it’s Vancouver’s best neighbourhood. You can check out just a slice of what makes the West End great this weekend at the Robson Community Fair.
What 2nd Annual Robson Community Fair
Where 1600 Block of Robson Street in Vancouver
When Saturday, September 12, 2015 from 10:00am to 4:00pm
This event brings together businesses and community groups for a sidewalk sale and customer appreciation event. The West End BIA is also coordinating entertainment and activities:
The Cardero Stage will feature some of Vancouver’s best up-and-coming talent including Isaak Salomon, Gabe and the Oh Yeah’s, The Response, Monika Schwartzman and Hint of Lime.
Vancouver en Francais will host Film en Ville, a film-inspired city scavenger hunt starting and ending at the Robson Community Fair. To register your team, please visit their website.
Whole Foods Market Robson is planning a Whole Kids Foundation fundraising event in their parking lot (1675 Robson Street) from 12:00pm to 4:00pm.
The WE Arts Art Market will feature handcrafted items from local artisans and live collage painting. Single Line Theatre are debuting their “Verse & Verve” video series, a showcase of the West End’s creative community made possible through Neighbourhood Small Grants.
For all of this information and more, follow the West End BIA on Twitter and Facebook.
It’s one thing to spend your life looking over at an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano and it’s another to actually hike at its base. Mount Baker, visible from Vancouver on any sunny day, is located in Washington State and is a part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc in the North Cascades. It’s easy to get to from Bellingham, which is just across the Canada/USA border and there is a series of walks and hikes for all skill levels in the Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest.
Hiking in Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest
From Downtown Vancouver, it’s about 1 hour and 45 minutes to the Public Service Centre in Glacier (along Mount Baker Highway), and if you’re starting out from Downtown Bellingham the drive is about 50 minutes.
At the Public Service Centre you can pick up your National Forest Recreation Pass for $5/day. You can also purchase online in advance but be sure to get the right pass. The pass for a National Park like Mount Baker Snoqualmie is different than a state park pass.
The service centre will have maps and detailed daily information about the trail network as well as park rangers on hand to answer any questions you might have. Most of the mild to moderate hikes depart from paved parking lots, with primitive restroom facilities, and have well-marked paths with signage.
On a clear day, I would have seen a volcano there
The original plan for our group was to head to the very end of the road at Artist Point but it was so rainy and foggy that we could barely see the road, let along Mount Shuksan or Mount Baker (which is also know as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan). We parked just south of Artist Point, at the Heather Meadows Visitor Centre, which is at milepost 56 on the Mount Baker Highway.
Heather Meadows Visitor Centre
Overlooking Bagley Lakes, this visitor centre is open daily from 10:00am to 4:00pm from mid-July to late September. You may still find snow in the parking lot in early August so this is definitely a late summer hiking destination. At the Heather Meadows Visitor Centre, which we made our home base for the day, you can purchase, books, maps, get trail and wildlife information. The roaring fireplace also helped us warm up after getting soaked on our hike.
Bagley Lakes and Wild Goose Trail
From Heather Meadows we walked down between Bagley Lakes and traversed the mountainside, crossing waterfall streams that flowed down into the bodies of water below.
We crossed back over the water and caught up with the Wild Goose Trail that took us back up to the meadow high above the lakes below, returning us to the visitor centre.
Horseshoe Bend
After warming our gear and eating a packed lunch, our group was up for one more adventure so we descended from Heather Meadows and drove down toward Glacier (to milepost 35.4 on the Mount Baker Highway). We stopped at the Horseshoe Bend trail — across from Douglas Fir Campground — that follows the Nooksack River. We hopped out for another hike in the pouring rain as the rushing river alongside us flowed ferociously, replenished by the first significant rainfall of the summer.
The terrain here, 20 miles down from Heather Meadows, was much different. The sharp basalt rocks and stones were replaced with lush fern beds, and fir trees covered in fuzzy moss and lichens thriving in the warm, moist forest canopy.
Thoroughly soaked to the core once again, we piled into our van and headed back to Bellingham with smiles on our faces and puddles in our shoes. It really was a lot of fun to explore the Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest, even if the star attraction didn’t make an appearance from under its cloud blanket.
I’m already planning a return trip with John so that we can do some similar hikes as Shuksan and Baker look on. The best part is that we can head out there on a clear morning with a good weather forecast that day since it’s so easy to get to from Vancouver. If the rain starts to pour and the clouds block out our mountain views, I know we’ll still enjoy a rainy hike, and a good warm up back in Bellingham at the local brew pubs.
View my full album of photos from my Bellingham Adventure Tour on Flickr
Other Hike Options
Here are the best trails recommended by Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism, all of which were options for us in late August, should the weather have cooperated:
Heather Meadows & Austin Pass Picnic Area (at mileposts 55-56)
Picture Lake (1/2 mile / .8 km)
This short easy trail, which is also wheelchair accessible, is not short on views. Get your camera out for the spectacular shot of Mount Shuksan reflecting in the lake. It also offers nice fall colour. Parking is on the Mount Baker Highway at milepost 55.
Fire and Ice Trail (1/2 mile / .8 km)
This is a self-guided interpretive trail, and is wheelchair accessible. Several other trails also begin at this point. Park at the Heather Meadows Visitor Centre at milepost 56.
Artist Point, Mount Baker
Artist Ridge (1 mile / 1.6 km)
This self-guided interpretive trail takes you to overlooks with great views of Mount Baker and other peaks. Trail begins at the east side of the parking lot at Artist Point.
Chain Lakes Trail (1+ miles / 1.6+ km)
The first mile of this trail is nearly level, although on the side of a steep slope. It takes you to a junction with a closer view of Mount Baker. At this point the trail splits and ambitious hikers can continue to Chains Lakes or Ptarminagn Ridge (4-5 more miles). Trail begins at the south west end of the Artist Point parking lot.
Table Mountain (1.5 miles / 2.4 km) No dogs
The first part of this hike is steep and zig zags up through lava cliffs. (Not recommended for young children). It ends at mountain top with panoramic views. Trail begins at the north west side of the parking lot at Artist Point.
Resources
Always be prepared for any kind of weather by bringing layers of clothing and plenty of water. Pack out what you pack in, follow signs, stay on the trails, and don’t always count on your cell phone for GPS. Stop into the visitor centres for physical maps to bring along as well.
For all of this trail info and more, follow Bellingham Whatcom County on Facebook and Twitter, as well as the National Forest Service on Facebook and Twitter.
