Lighthouse Park

This hike took place on unceded, ancestral territories of the Coast Salish peoples (Squamish Nation). This land is currently managed by the District of West Vancouver. Here’s their website: https://westvancouver.ca/parks-recreation/parks/lighthouse-park

I really like going outside. I like moving my body. I like breathing the air (preferably salty and/or cold). I like the feeling of sun on my face, the rain pelting down on me, the chill in my coastal bones. Even just for thirty minutes or a km or two is enough of a jolt to help my mind clear up and my heart pump some blood. I’m often trying to get outside with a kid in tow. The kind of kid who would rather live in the forest than go to school, but who will resist and complain incessantly about the act of going outside. Like the get up and go isn’t there for him or something. But once we’re outside the magic happens. Hollow logs become ninja headquarters, sticks become tools and bendy, breathing ferns become instant hideouts for on-the-trail versions of hide-and-go-seek. Even racing, running up hills becomes fun for the both of us, my janky backpack–weighed down with snacks and water to share–swinging behind me as we scramble over roots or slide down well groomed trails.

A few weeks back we set out in the pouring rain, hoping for a dryer window that never actually came. Resistant kids who forgot, instantly, how much they didn’t want to be outside played their own creative version of Minecraft in their actual environment. Lighthouse Park is a sea of well worn trails kind of on the edge of town. In the summer and on the weekends it can be super busy, but on this rainy Sunday in mid-January it was quiet and chill. I think we got out for just over an hour and it was a great reminder how, in the middle of winter in this gloomy city, that the outside is literally RIGHT OUTSIDE and that getting out there may feel really difficult and hard but it’s so worth it, even for the doomy, gloomy views.