Clayburn Creek Stairs

As I described yesterday, when you walk down the Clayburn Creek Trail you eventually come to a set of stairs that takes you back up to the west end of the subdivision.  My son-in-law had informed me that there were over 300 steps, so I was anticipating a pretty slow climb!

This is the view up the stairs from the trail.  I actually walked this trail twice, the second walk with our son-in-law and grandson.  That's our grandson, racing up the stairs ahead of us!  We had to tell him to slow down.

The stairs were truly remarkable, as I said, the best stairs on a walking trail I've ever encountered, and the view back down was really neat as the steps wiggled up the slope!

Along the way there were more moss-covered trees.

And big old stumps,

And lots more Sword Ferns.

But it was the stairs themselves that were so remarkable.  How often have you walked down stairs that are the wrong size, too wide for a single step, or too narrow for a double step?  We once walked down 973 steps in a village in Italy, where I swear the stairs were originally built for donkeys!  Every step was both too deep and too wide for comfort.

But these stairs seemed to be perfect all the way up, and the often diagonal steps meant you could choose where to step to be most comfortable.  Like all good outdoor stairs, they're fairly wide and shallow individual steps.  They're obviously fairly recently built, but there didn't seem to any disturbance of the slope; they just fit right in as if they belonged there.

Not only that, but they were really attractive, especially looking back down the trail.  When have you seen steps built like this!

 And they were very well built.  Not a loose step or board in the bunch.  And the combination of 4x4s for the edges and gravel in the step made for good footing, critical in a rainforest where wood would get slippery over time.

The best part was that I made it all the way to the top without ever getting seriously out of breath!  I did stop briefly a few times (to take the photos - all on my iphone), but it wasn't nearly as hard as I was expecting.  As I said, the best trail stairs I've ever walked up.

For anyone local who might want to walk the trail in either direction, check the map from yesterday's post to see where the stairs are to be found.  The tiny cul-de-sac at the west end of the subdivision is Tom Thompson Court, off Auguston Parkway South.  You can access the steps from an obvious path along the north side of the cul-de-sac.

I can't advise you which way to hike the trail.  I only walked it going downhill, but I did go up the 324+/- steps, and it wasn't that bad (as did our 6 year-old grandson).  On the other hand I suspect that walking down the stairs and up the trail would feel like a relentless uphill slope by the time you finished.  I walked from my daughter's home to the east trail entrance, down the trail, up the stairs, and back to the house in 50 minutes, in the rain, but stopping to take a few pictures.  I'd walk it every day if I lived there!

Tomorrow, the rest of the trail.

Clayburn Creek Trail

Clayburn Creek Trail runs down the ravine right beside the Auguston subdivision where our daughter and her family live.  But there doesn't seem to be much local information available, so I'm going to try and write 3 posts that will provide a good description and directions to find it.  I walked it twice, both times in the rain!

This is the map from a City of Abbotsford pamphlet on trails, showing both the subdivision and the trail.  You enter the trail on Blauson Blvd., just off McKee Road, on the right hand (eastern) side of the map.  There's another entrance from a side street, and you'll find a major set of stairs when you're opposite the west end of the subdivision, just where the small cul-de-sac shows on this map.  The trail itself continues downhill to Straiton Road.

This is the Google Maps satellite view of the northeast quarter of Abbotsford, just for any local walkers who aren't sure where the subdivision is.  Auguston Subdivision is in the upper right, totally surrounded by forest, and by McKee, Dawson, and Sumas Mountain Road.  Compare the maps and you'll see where the trail goes.

The trail itself follows the old roadbed of a narrow-gauge railway that served the brick factory in Clayburn, a village now inside Abbotsford.  Often 10 feet wide, it's really easy walking, and well maintained.  It's right on Blauson Rd., short red and white pipes preventing vehicle access.

There is of course a storm sewer under the roadway, but it still appears remarkably natural, with lots of big trees shading your walk.  The railway itself last operated in the 1930's.  

I was starting to try and figure out the trees, so this is a branch of the Western Redcedar, similar to our Easter White Cedar, but it grows much bigger!

And these are the needles of the Western Hemlock, quite similar to our Eastern Hemlock, but again, it grows much bigger.

There were lots of Bigleaf Maples around too, the maples of the west coast, a deeply cut but very large leaf compared to our Sugar Maple.

I really enjoyed the amount of moss on the deciduous trees, and those epiphytic ferns growing straight out of the moss.

If I'm right, these wet fern fronds are Licorice Fern.

I also saw a huge old stump of the former forest, here dwarfing two neighbours that are each over 18" in diameter themselves!  A good chunk of the stump is hidden behind the tree on the right.

As I'm quickly learning, moss-covered trees are pretty typical of this west coast rainforest.

Eventually you arrive at the stairs back up to the other end of the subdivision.   Tomorrow, some pictures of the stairs - the best built stairs I've ever encountered on a walking trail!  You'll enjoy the pictures.

Swans and Eagles

We hardly ever see Bald Eagles or migrating Swans here in southern Ontario.  The Eagles are returning slowly after the banning of DDT years ago, and I have seen one in the valley.  We see Swans every spring for a brief 2-3 weeks as they pass through.  But in Abbotsford there were Swans feeding on the fields and apparently settling in for the winter.  And we saw about 20 Bald Eagles in at least 4 different locations!  It's just a different world for birds.

Driving down Whatcom Road off the mountain, we caught a brief glimpse of Mount Baker about 25 miles away, mostly hidden behind the clouds.  But you have to snap fast to avoid the hydro lines!

Down on the flat farm fields, right beside the Trans-Canada Highway, was a flock of about 100 Swans.  Notice the eagle's nest and the lone Eagle sitting in the tree?

I played around cropping pictures to try and highlight the Swans.

But a few days later we were past the field again.

This time the Swans were closer to the road, and I got some closer pictures.  These are either Tundra or Trumpeter Swans, though I can't tell the difference without a much closer look, or a better chance to judge the size.

Here's a closer cropped look at the eagle's nest and the Bald Eagle sitting nearby.

Then we spotted another Bald Eagle sitting high in a dead tree on the other side of the field.  A cropped view makes it seem so appropriate - a Bald Eagle in the mountains, rather than a Bald Eagle sitting above a farm field!

And more snow-topped mountains in the Cascade range, in the distance further east down the valley.

McKee Peak

The lower peak of Sumas Mountain nearest to where our daughter lives is known as McKee Peak.  It has a number of mountain bike trails, though finding a map is a challenge.  But our son-in-law, grandson and I all headed out on the next afternoon for a walk.

We just parked at the end of a street, Treetop Drive I think it was, and followed a path into the woods, up the slope.  At first it was pretty easy walking.  Mountain biking volunteers have done work on the trails that help carry you past the difficult parts.  I was glad the boards on this bridge were rough split cedar; 2x4's would have been treacherously slippery.

We came upon a tiny waterfall - not the one we were looking for, but interesting.  And lots more of the big Sword Ferns, here on the walls of this ravine.

And here I started seeing smaller ferns growing straight out of the moss on the tree trunks.

These ones are growing out of a huge fallen log.  Based on the small field guide I was able to pick up, I think this is Licorice Fern, Polypodium glycyrrhiza, known to be an epiphyte.  Epiphytes are plants that grow on another plant, gaining their nutrients and water from the air and rain, but not harming the plant they're growing on.

The moss on this rotting stump was glowing bright green in faint sunshine.

This moss looks like a tiny forest itself.

Our grandson liked the moss 'caps' on a line of fenceposts we came across.  Part of this land is still grazed by cattle, though compared to pastures here I couldn't believe it!

We did come out to a viewpoint, but it was on a very narrow footpath along a steep slope at the top of a cliff, so we satisfied ourselves with a look through the trees - here across the Fraser Valley, the Trans Canada Highway in the foreground, and the Cascades on the U.S. side of the border in the distance.

Don't ask me how.....!  These are narrow trails through dense woods high up the slopes above the suburbs.

As we headed back downhill on another trail, we came to an area of quite large trees in a more mature forest.  I think this was a Western Hemlock.  I've got so much to learn....

Eventually we went past that little ravine again, past the fern tree, and back to the car.  A good challenging outing.  I was tired, but I doubt if our grandson was even worn out.

Farm Markets

On the way home from our first adventure, we stopped at the Lepp Farm Market, a farm store selling meat, produce and dairy products.  Our daughter does a lot of her shopping there.  And I have always been interested in local food and the chance to buy directly from the farmer.

Obviously not all the products here come from one farm, but these types of stores gather produce from a number of farms in the Fraser Valley, so you can go to one place to get them.  And they label it if it's not local.  In the end there are only a few other things that you need to go to a regular grocery store for.

There were big bins of squash and apples out front.

And your choice of 50 lb. bags of carrots, or smaller amounts of the traditional orange plus yellow and purple ones.

And my favourites, Brussels Sprouts.

We ended up at two other farm markets over the week, including this one where we stopped in late afternoon on the way home from one of our adventures.

For the first time I can remember, there was an educational display for children attached to this store, with a working dairy operation.  They had turkeys, pigs, a pony and a goat in open pens for you to see, but they also had a big sign with each one giving you a bit of information.  The operating dairy has a full-scale educational program where students and families can visit to see a robot milking the cows, and learn about how they are cared for.  I'm all in favour of any efforts like this to educate people about how their food is produced.

I look forward to visiting in the summer, perhaps in berry season, when we can see more of all these local farms and farm markets.  Meantime, it snowed here last night, about 4-6" of heavy wet stuff.