Monday, October 12, 2009

Dike Hiking in Tswassen


In the past, I've had a great time caching in the Ladner/Tswassen area and decided to head back to grab some of the more time consuming caches in the area. Now, for those of you who don't know me, I'm more of a numbers guy and I enjoy padding my stats but I still enjoy a great walk. When it comes to walking around here it would seem that any one of the dikes is always a popular choice.

My day started in Surrey, however, and I chose to grab a few caches on the way to my destination. I picked up a micro in an upscale neighborhood and then headed for Boundary Bay. At my second stop, I was unable to find parking and moved on to stop number three. At this location, I was greeted by a vacant lot, in a fairly remote spot, that seemed awfully popular with random muggles. At my next stop, it was soon discovered that the cache had been muggled. To recap, in the first 4 stops of my day I had found only one cache. It was starting to become readily apparent that this might be "one of those days."


I soon got my groove on though and started knocking some of the more urban caches off of my list. Eventually I ended up at a spot off of River Rd. to pick up a cache called Wellington Point. This cache was the start of a string of scenic stops along the water. I dropped off some trackables here that I had been hanging on to for way too long. With mountains lining the horizon and the sun shining off of the water I snapped a few photos.


After leaving Wellington Point, my travels took me to a dike on the shores of Georgia Strait. With Deltaport in the background and views of ferries coming and going I began a series of three caches in the area. Driftwood was plentiful along the shore and a local farmer had made a fairly spectacular patio off of the dike. With great views of the distant mountains I can imagine they have some awesome BBQ's on summer nights here. This section of the dike network was plenty busy with locals walking dogs and riding bikes. After walking 4km round trip to grab these caches I began to wish I had a bike to bring along with me. It was all worth it though as I made all 3 finds and was hungry for more.


A trip to downtown Tswassen allowed me to grab a few caches in some of the local parks and one tucked in behind the Boundary Bay Cemetery. I then traveled over to Boundary Bay Regional Park so that I could grab a few traditionals and complete the Earthcache. I have never been into this park before and am glad that Geocaching has taken me to yet another spectacular part of the Lower Mainland. I was blown away by how many different kinds of birds and ducks inhabited this area. Muggles were a plenty and with such a wide open landscape stealth was required to snag the caches I cam here for. The Earth Cache was very educational and made use of some of the many informational signs located along the dike trail. After completing the Earth Cache my day had pretty much drawn to a close. A long walk back to the Jeep allowed me to take in the sights and reflect on the day of caching. Can't wait 'til I return to this area...Point Roberts next...maybe.

1 comment:

  1. Enjoyed the write up, I've done some of those caches and have enjoyed some of the areas you've mentioned. I'll remember one thing from this post - "bring bike" :)

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