North Vancouver are the mountains I see from my bedroom window, and it’s amazing how city and nature can blend — you can be taking an elevator of a high-rise one minute and be trekking through the forest the next.

Okay, maybe that’s a far-fetched analogy but the truth is, if I want to do some hiking or trekking, it’s only an hour and a half’s journey by public transport from UBC at Vancouver, but within half an hour the moment you are in North Vancouver.

Anyways, there is the much hyped-about Capilano Suspension Bridge (tourist trap) that stretches over 137 metres and 70 metres above Capilano River. It costs over $20 to enter. Then there is the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge that boasts to be as entrancing as Capilano’s, and is free of charge. Guess which the thrifty (not cheapskate ok) Squareface decided to check out?

Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge is suspended at 50 metres high, and the best thing about going to Lynn Canyon Park in contrast with Capilano Suspension Bridge is that we can actually walk down to the falls and rivers in Lynn Canyon Park. Which we did, and actually spent quite a bit of time doing so because I couldn’t make the little leaps of faith, but more on that later.

This is how the bridge looks like. I took minimal pictures because I am not a fan of walking on such a shaky architecture suspended high above a shallow rushing river (yeah the height bugs me, I admit).

But the nerve-wrecking walk across the bridge (okay, it’s actually reported to be 100% safe) is worth it when you get to trek down to the river.

And observe such serenity.

However, my gung-ho friend decides to leap on the rocks in the midst of the rushing river to get to the other side. Another friend was clever enough to escape from our gung-ho friend’s persistent urging and walked over to the other side on safe ground instead. I, on the other unfortunate hand, was pushed to join her in the leaping from rock to rock.

This picture shows the start of the journey. The destination was many rocks away. Most of the rocks had pointed tops so I was very hesitant to step on them for fear of tripping and falling into the river. It should have been easy, but I handled it the hard way because I hesitated at every step. The trick to getting across is to keep going unthinkingly. Find a rock quick, and step on it only to step on the next in a second. Stopping at every step only made me worry endlessly about the next rock being unsteady and the fear of falling got enormous. Make the little leaps of faith.

I did feel a sense of accomplishment after, though in a lower magnitude than when I completed the Grouse Grind, but the push factor at every step comes not from wanting to go forward, but because there is no turning back (it’s hard to turn your body on that small space your step takes on the rock).

Aren’t you happy for me that by doing these things I spout such aphorisms?

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 14th, 2007 at 6:41 pm and is filed under Cameras. Pictures., Canada, Canada Explorations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.