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Winter Hiking News


The view at Mt Fromme at the end of January.

We’re at the end of January and the mountains have been pretty lackluster for skiing and snowboarding this year. However, the low amount of snow on the local mountains has made some trails more accessible than usual for hiking. Here’s a recap of some of the recent outdoors/ hiking news around Vancouver:

1.  65-year-old Burnaby man dies of heart attack hiking BCMC Trail on Grouse Mountain. @Vancouver Sun
2. Two hikers caught going up Crown Pass without gear. @News 1130
3. COVER STORY: New details in the search for Tom Billings. @North Shore Outlook
4. North Shore mountain resorts welcome snow. @North Shore News
5. Should cameras be installed on popular hiking trails? @CBC News
6. Cypress Mountain and charging for rescue. @Oplopanax Horridus
7. Vancouver on the Cheap: Lynn Canyon. @Vancouver is Awesome
8. Body of missing senior found by hiker in North Vancouver. @News1130
9. Ruckle Provincial Park Photowalk. @Miss 604
10. Weak layers causing unstable snowpack. @News1130
11. The Best Gifts For Getting Lost In the Woods. @Gizmodo

Fall Hiking News


The view at Elfin Lakes early October

It always seems that the summer comes as goes way too fast. While the snow will be shutting us off from the higher elevation hikes and the rain will soon be tormenting us, there are plenty of good hikes that can be done throughout the fall season.

The following are a few of my favorites. Guides are from Outdoor Vancouver and Vancouver Trails.

1. Norvan Falls (North Van)
2. Quarry Rock (Deep Cove)
3. Sendero Diez Vistas (Anmore)
4. Maplewood Flats (North Van)
5. Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta)
6. Pacific Spirit Regional Park (Vancouver)
7. Minnekhada Regional Park (PoCo)
8. Alice Lake (Squamish)

Also, here’s a roundup of the recent hiking news.

  1. Veteran search leader says volunteers need more government help
  2. Child not injured on Grouse Grind, says school district
  3. Vancouver Icons: Stawamus Chief
  4. Rescued Vancouver Island hikers admit: ‘we made a mistake’
  5. North Shore Search and Rescue against charging recreation fees on outdoor pastimes
  6. Unprepared hikers saved from ‘heinous’ conditions on North Vancouver’s Mount Seymour

 

Great Hikes of Vancouver now Available on Google Play

Google Play
Alright Google Books fans – the eBook is now available on the Google Play store for download. You can view a preview and purchase the book directly from the store.

You can read the eBook from the Play store via the Google Books iOS and Android Apps, or through your browser on your computer.

Happy reading!

Roundup of Hiking News around Vancouver

Hanes Valley
Photo from my recent hike in Hanes Valley

We have begun to enter the tail-end of the summer but now is the best time to get outside and go hiking. There’s been a lot of hiking-related news recently, so I thought I post a round up of all the recent articles I’ve come across. Most of the articles are hyper-local, but I also found a number of interesting articles from the US that are related to hiking and the outdoors so I included those as well.

I might make this ‘article roundup’ a regular feature of the blog:

  1. ‘We do not charge for rescues’: North Shore Rescue. @News 1130
  2. Lost North Shore hiker chose to stay lost rather than pay non-existent fine. @Vancouver Sun
  3. Group of 45 hikers, trapped by weekend mud slide near Duffey Lake, freed by BC forest service. @Ottawa Citizen
  4. Vancouver young man, once a ‘sick kid’, takes run at Grouse Grind record to raise funds for B.C. Children’s Hospital. @Vancouver Desi
  5. Grouse Grind rated one of 10 most dangerous hikes on Earth. @The Province
  6. Vancouver woman who fell off Chief in Squamish identified. @Vancouver Sun
  7. 3 hiking tips you’ll never forget. @CBC News
  8. How to Plan for a Successful Family Hike. @My Kids Adventures
  9. Friends of Garibaldi Park Society Trail Work. @North Shore Hikers
  10. Hikers capture footage of mysterious ‘Bigfoot’ figure near Mission. @Fox News
  11. Two Pacific Crest Trail Records Set On Successive Days. @The Adventure Blog
  12. 80 percent of US children may never see a starry sky. @The Verge

The Great Hikes of Vancouver now Available on Smashwords

 

Kindle_Ranking

Launch Result (so far)

After the book was published on July 13, I did an official book launch on July 21. The initial response has been amazing!

The eBook was announced on Outdoor Vancouver, its newsletter, Twitter, Facebook, a Press Release, etc, and the book shot up all the way to #147 of the top paid Kindle Books on Amazon.ca! (It has since fallen, but as of this writing its still doing well). Not bad considering it was only 47 spots behind Dan Brown’s Inferno!

Thanks to all my friends and family, and everyone who grabbed a copy. I hope I can sustain the sales for the next month or so before the summer weather begins to taper off, but even the sales-to-date have exceeded my expectation for it only being on the market for one week.

Now Available on Smashwords

Other good news.

Smashwords is a popular distributor of eBooks, and Best Hikes near Vancouver is now available the Smashwords website for sampling/ purchase. The book can be purchased directly from Smashwords in a variety of formats from ePub, Mobi, PDF, etc – so you should have no problem download the book on any device (contact me if you do). With Smashwords you can download the file in all the different formats and only need to make the purchase once, which is nice if you like to read on different formats on different devices.

It will be a few weeks yet before you can find the book directly on Apple iBookstore, Kobo, Sony, etc, but those formats are coming soon!