Are we in Phase 2 of the pandemic? And what does Phase 2 really mean? These are the questions that kept our organizer up at night, wondering how to safely Loop this month. The late-breaking solution was to suggest a route where Loopers had room to walk in pairs, two metres apart, while people not quite comfortable with that yet (or tired of waiting for the official word) did their own thing.

Thus, 12 Loopers met at Garry Point Park, planning to walk on the West Dyke to Terra Nova and back; six met at Gates Park in Port Coquitlam; and two stayed distant on the Cheam Wetlands.

Garry Point to Terra Nova and back

The starting recommendation to the Garry Point crowd was to walk in pairs, appropriately distanced, and to change partners every 2 km. This sort of worked, albeit with a touch of the usual Looper anarchy.

We did a one-way loop through Garry Point Park at the start. It was a glorious day, beginning with a cold breeze off the water but moving quickly into pleasant warmth with blue sky and fluffy white clouds. The dyke is totally flat, but the panoramic view of sea and sky is spectacular. Closer to Terra Nova, we walked through more vegetation. Terra Nova is a park at the end of the West Dyke, containing wooded trails, a couple of adventure playgrounds and a community farm garden area.

At the end point we considered icecream from the concession stand — but the lineup was daunting, so people dispersed to their homes for afters.

PoCo Trail

A Looper subgroup of six gathered in Port Coquitlam at the standard 10:30 start time: Lise and Chris; Joette and Fred; Jean and Michael. Our starting point was the parking lot in the NE corner of Gates Park, which many will remember from previous Looper walks.

We walked a section of the PoCo Trail, also known as the Traboulay Trail, starting out by following the Coquitlam River upstream, then heading east to what turned out to be our snack stop and turnaround point, near the Deboville Slough. About 13 km was the total distance walked, out and back.

It being a sunny Sunday, there were lots of others on the trail, on foot and on bicycles, particularly in the early stages, beside the river. Not always easy to maintain social distances under these conditions, but we did our best. Six seemed to be a good group size (in addition to obeying Dr. Bonnie’s directives): large enough to feel as if we were taking another baby step towards the old “normal;” small enough to permit conversational clustering with others, in twos or threes. We closed with takeout coffees etc. from Waves, before dispersing to our respective isolation pods. A good time was had by all.

Cheam Wetlands

In the valley it was cool, showery and cloudy. However, Anne and Maurice ventured out for an 8 km walk around the Cheam Wetlands which is an area allocated to the preservation of bird habitat. It is located beneath Cheam Peak, which overlooks the land east of Chilliwack.

A collection of images taken around the reserve shows the general layout of the sanctuary for birds.

Who knows what next month will bring?

Photos from Angela, Jon, Liz, Maurice, Michael, Fred