Skytrain to Fraser Foreshore and Back
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
With the snow lying deep in many of the outlying areas, we decided to do an urban walk from Metrotown down to Fraser Foreshore Park and back up to Edmonds Station. This is one of my favourite local walks; I enjoy its highlights of Kaymar Creek, the Fraser Foreshore, Anton's delightful restaurant, Byrne Creek and the hundred steps up its magnificent canyon to Edmonds Station at the top.We met at a small cafe by Metrotown Station to provide a warm meeting place to have coffee before we set off. We then crossed the road, headed west on BC Parkway towards Patterson Station, angling left by a highrise tower just before the station to enter Central Park by some tennis courts The path through the park here is often icy and sometimes we have to hug the edges but today it had a firm footing. A work crew was moving small fallen trees to cleared areas for stacking. The native Douglas squirrels were enjoying themselves as they usually do here.
At the lake, we crossed to the golf course facility and went round it to the pedestrian crossing on Imperial Street. Crossing, we headed left to enter Ocean View Cemetery. There is nearly always something new to discover here. We passed the original mausoleum, then down to the chapel where there is a wall for memorial plaques and storages for urns. Then we went across to the smaller garden plots for individual graves and past the new mausoleum. I always think of Gray's Elegy here with its "each in his narrow slot for ever laid". When we went in to the mausoleum once, we asked a worker how much one of the slots would cost and he told us they vary, but the one we were looking at would be $450,000. When we indicated surprise, he said he could sell his present house and buy a place in the mausoleum which would house him a lot longer. Certainly one way of looking at it.
Going out the west gate, we turned left and left again along the south side of the cemetery through Suncrest Park. We rounded the school to the crosswalk at its front entrance. The traffic lights counted the seconds down as we crossed Rumble Street and turned left, heading east on the south side of the road. When we found what looked to be an empty lot, we followed the downtrodden grass path since this is actually the way through to Kaymar Creek Trail - one of Burnaby's charming surprises and a great way to get to Marine Drive. We once met a couple looking for a lost boy here and I often wonder if they found him. I never saw any adverse report, so I hope so.
Coming out on Marine Drive, we crossed and went along Rosebery almost opposite. We usually take the first lane on the left which leads to Patterson Trail after a short bushwhack from the lane's end. However, given the ice I decided to continue on the road and turned left on the trail just before Marine Way, coming out onto Patterson Trail at the approach to the pedestrian bridge over Marine Way. Over the bridge, the path opposite led first to the railway, then to North Fraser Way and finally to the trail along the Fraser River's bank. (On our previous visit, the section south from Glenlyon had been flooded and we had had to detour.) A short walk east along the path brought us to the entrance to the Foreshore Park and we went out to Byrne Road and briefly north to find Fraser Park Restaurant in an industrial compound on the left.
It was about 12:15 and the restaurant showed its usual bustling lunchtime activity. We ordered four half-portions of the Special, which was Anton's Beef Dip. Anton is a German butcher who prepares all the sandwiches and food he offers, even making his own ice cream. He has some percussion and a piano by the door which he plays on Saturdays and for which he provided a pianist while he cooked, when Doris celebrated a birthday here after a Wednesday hike. He is helped by his wife Sylvie and some enthusiastic helpers.
After lunch we headed back to the east side of Byrne Creek and followed it north. Two visits ago, we had only made it out to Marine Way by bashing down large numbers of overhanging blackberry brambles - an unpleasant experience. On our last visit, we had therefore only followed the creek's edge to the road just north of the railway and had then gone out to Byrne Road. However, we had looked behind the new industrial complex under construction and found a work crew building a wide creek-edge path. So this time we determined to follow the path all the way out to Marine Way and were successful, other footprints in the snow confirming that others had done likewise.
It is an unattractive walk along Marine Way to the traffic lights, up Byrne Road to Marine Drive and along to the foot of Byrne Creek Ravine but you just bite the bullet and do it. You are compensated ny the grandeur of the canyon's tree cover and the enjoyable climb up the hundred steps to the plateau at the top. We took the small track out to go round the tennis courts and we hugged the canyon lip to reach the footpath and continue to Edmonds Station.
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