Adventure to Jug Island
Do you have people in your life that bring adventure around every time you get together? We do. Our friends Justin and Lorene (or as Nathan would say “Alorene and Dennis”). How can I be surprised though? They are on a round the world trip as Missionaries right now. If that doesn’t scream adventure, what does??
It’s not a bad thing though, we love adventure! And thankfully Nathan does too!
They are back from their trip for a few weeks and we got to spend the weekend with them last weekend. On Friday, we headed to Belcarra Park. But Colin wanted to go to this more “secluded” spot that was a “one kilometer walk” away from the parking lot.
So we load up the stroller and off we head up the “Jug Island” beach trail. The first part is ok. It’s nice to be in the trees on such a hot day. Then we see the first trail marker:
5.5 km round trip? That’s a lot longer than this preggo lady wanted to go. But outnumbered, I pressed on.
We came across some marshy parts that were interesting to maneuver around with the stroller. Luckily this stroller was free from junk week so we don’t really care if it gets dirty.
It wasn’t too long before the trail started heading up. And not “gradual up”, but “climbing boulders and stairs” up. Did I mention we had the stroller? Even though it is a jogging stroller, NO stroller is equipped for what lay ahead.
The further we went, the more Justin and Colin had to carry the stroller. King Nathan sat in his throne, actually white-knuckling it a lot of the time. But he did enjoy it, luckily.
After we’d been hiking for an hour, we came up to a sign that said we still had 2km to go! WHAT? They said it was a 5.5 km ROUND trip! If we still had 2 km to go, that means we only went ¼ of a kilometer so far? I don’t think so.
ARGGGH. We’ve come this far, why not keep going? So we trekked on (without a SINGLE complaint from the preggo lady…there were actually many, MANY complaints) for the promise of a secluded pristine beach at the end of the yellow brick road.
We ran into someone we know on this trail heading back from where we came. He took one look at us and could tell he thought we were absolutely CRAZY for bringing the stroller. He kindly let us know that we were only half way and the terrain gets much more difficult from this point on.
One would think we’d turn back and head to the other not so secluded beach that is about 50 steps from our car, but we decided to ditch the stroller in the bush (who in their right mind would want to steal a stroller and carry it all the way back, and besides, it’s free) and see how Nathan would do walking.
We stopped about 10 steps later at a lookout to rehydrate and try to keep Nathan from jumping off a cliff. Things weren’t going so smoothly with him not strapped into the stroller.
We had a chat. Ok we have to figure out if we’re going to continue to secluded beach or head back to regular beach. It’s decision time. Lorene suggests that the pregnant lady gets to decide. And just at that moment, a divine intervention!!!! One of those moments where you swear you hear a heavenly “Ahhhhhh”.
A whole class of noisy (is there any other kind?) teenage girls pass us.
We ask: “Are you headed to the beach?”
Girls: “Hee hee! Yup! It’s like a field trip or something”
We ask: “Are you spending the day there?”
Girls: “Only until the end of the school day!”
The 4 of us look at each other and no words needed to be spoken. We turned around and headed back to regular beach. Afterall, what is the point of secluded beach if there are 30 teenage girls there?
It’s not a bad thing though, we love adventure! And thankfully Nathan does too!
They are back from their trip for a few weeks and we got to spend the weekend with them last weekend. On Friday, we headed to Belcarra Park. But Colin wanted to go to this more “secluded” spot that was a “one kilometer walk” away from the parking lot.
So we load up the stroller and off we head up the “Jug Island” beach trail. The first part is ok. It’s nice to be in the trees on such a hot day. Then we see the first trail marker:
5.5 km round trip? That’s a lot longer than this preggo lady wanted to go. But outnumbered, I pressed on.
We came across some marshy parts that were interesting to maneuver around with the stroller. Luckily this stroller was free from junk week so we don’t really care if it gets dirty.
It wasn’t too long before the trail started heading up. And not “gradual up”, but “climbing boulders and stairs” up. Did I mention we had the stroller? Even though it is a jogging stroller, NO stroller is equipped for what lay ahead.
The further we went, the more Justin and Colin had to carry the stroller. King Nathan sat in his throne, actually white-knuckling it a lot of the time. But he did enjoy it, luckily.
After we’d been hiking for an hour, we came up to a sign that said we still had 2km to go! WHAT? They said it was a 5.5 km ROUND trip! If we still had 2 km to go, that means we only went ¼ of a kilometer so far? I don’t think so.
ARGGGH. We’ve come this far, why not keep going? So we trekked on (without a SINGLE complaint from the preggo lady…there were actually many, MANY complaints) for the promise of a secluded pristine beach at the end of the yellow brick road.
We ran into someone we know on this trail heading back from where we came. He took one look at us and could tell he thought we were absolutely CRAZY for bringing the stroller. He kindly let us know that we were only half way and the terrain gets much more difficult from this point on.
One would think we’d turn back and head to the other not so secluded beach that is about 50 steps from our car, but we decided to ditch the stroller in the bush (who in their right mind would want to steal a stroller and carry it all the way back, and besides, it’s free) and see how Nathan would do walking.
We stopped about 10 steps later at a lookout to rehydrate and try to keep Nathan from jumping off a cliff. Things weren’t going so smoothly with him not strapped into the stroller.
We had a chat. Ok we have to figure out if we’re going to continue to secluded beach or head back to regular beach. It’s decision time. Lorene suggests that the pregnant lady gets to decide. And just at that moment, a divine intervention!!!! One of those moments where you swear you hear a heavenly “Ahhhhhh”.
A whole class of noisy (is there any other kind?) teenage girls pass us.
We ask: “Are you headed to the beach?”
Girls: “Hee hee! Yup! It’s like a field trip or something”
We ask: “Are you spending the day there?”
Girls: “Only until the end of the school day!”
The 4 of us look at each other and no words needed to be spoken. We turned around and headed back to regular beach. Afterall, what is the point of secluded beach if there are 30 teenage girls there?
We eventually made it to regular beach, and there was practically no one there. So it ended up being a secluded beach afterall. Once there, we had a snacknic (a picnic lunch made entirely of snack food), relaxed on a blanket, and splashed in the ocean. Fun day!
The city of Port Moody is going to hear about the faulty signage on the Jug Island Beach Trail.
posted by Nancy @ 11:59 AM
4 Comments:
so what happened to the stroller, did you take it back down with you? What a story!
You are such a good storyteller Nancy. I was there and I was still laughing my head off reading this post!
WOW! You are AMAZING! I am so impressed that you did as much of the walk as you did, I would have for sure been complaining. Last year when I was about as pregnant as you are now we went to some Mariners games in Seattle. After ward we decided to walk back to our pick up point for the bus to our hotel. Well, needless to say the preggo lady got tired of walking and we ended up taking a cab. My hubby would be so impressed with you!
We did that hike when Jaxon was a baby and was in the backpack carrier. Not fun at all!
I think you can go one way to beach and its shorter-like 2K. then around the other side its the 5.5 K. Either way its too long!
I think we went short way there and then got stuck on long route back.
yeah signage sucks
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