Nature Vancouver

16 May 2009 This trip was announced after the most recent newsletter was published, but the word still got out and fourteen of us explored Cypress Falls Park and the hills beyond on a generally overcast but mostly dry day.   We started from the lower trailhead off Woodgreen Place; getting out of the parking lot was our first challenge, surrounded as we were by a dawn chorus (okay, a 9am chorus) which included Black-headed Grosbeak, Purple Finch, Olive-sided Flycatcher, and Wilson’s, Townsend’s and Black-throated Gray Warbler. Cypress Falls Park, not widely known outside of the local neighbourhood, is centred on the middle reaches of Cypress Creek (the same creek that runs from Yew Lake higher up) with two impressive waterfalls. The forest holds a number of significant old-growth Douglas-firs; the trail on the west side of the canyon is cut through one fallen log, which has been measured and marked as over 400 years old. On the hike down, we also noted at least one large western white pine on the lower section of the canyon. We hiked up to the Eagle Lake Road and to the McCrady Bridge at the top of the canyon. A good winter hike can be made on the roads and trails west toward Nelson Canyon, and the TransCanada Trail runs north above the west side of the creek towards Cypress Provincial Park (taking a high route then doubling back down to avoid British Pacific Properties land). But following a route based on a trip from Jean Cousins' book Easy Hiking in Vancouver, we crossed the bridge and about 200m east on the road past the BC Hydro transformer station turned up a road following under the power lines. The hiking gets rather less easy as the road climbs and gradually deteriorates into a trail, but the views south to Lighthouse Park and west to Bowen Island were good, the birding was excellent, and we found a good variety of both native and non-native plants.   The trail crosses to the west side of the hydro cut and moves into mixed woods dominated by western red-cedar and western hemlock but with a number of large healthy western white pines. After a brief rough and steep pitch it re-emerges into the hydro cut on a rocky bluff where we found an excellent lunch spot. Continuing from this point after lunch the route became sketchier; Jean Cousins mentions a trail going back into the forest near hydro pole number 05, but at this point there was only a pole with 06 on it. One rough route appeared to go back downhill on the east side of the cut, but we ignored it and chose to continue climbing higher. A rough route was occasionally discernable but was heavily overgrown and covered with deadfall. Relief came at the top of the next bluff, where a picnic table and a sign confirmed that we had reached the better maintained TransCanada trail. After catching our breath we followed it east toward the second switchback on Cypress Parkway and the Quarry Lookout, then from there back down a rough old road to the Eagle Lake Road; a quick jog left led to the trail back down through the east side of Cypress Falls Park to the trailhead.   A clear and dry day is strongly recommended for this trip and for the upper powerline section in particular. And as with much of the north shore, this area is honeycombed with many unofficial hiking and mountain biking trails and old roads so there are many routes to explore. However, careful routefinding is important; every map available shows different routes so don't depend on any one.   Many wildflowers seem to be late in coming this cool spring so a number of expected species were only starting or were absent. The highlight was the Pacific bleeding-heart (Dicentra formosa), a common species but of a notably deep purple colour: one single plant was on the roughest part of the climb up the bluffs, and a larger patch on the roadside going into the Quarry Lookout. We saw three different species of yellow violet: the evergreen violet (Viola sempervirens), stream violet (V. glabella) and round-leaved violet (V. orbiculata). Red-flowering current (Ribes sanguinaeum) were common, and one good patch of black gooseberry (R. lacustre) was in flower on the north side of the road just east of the bridge. The trail passes through a large patch of Labrador tea (Ledum groenlandicum) along the west side of the powerline though it wasn’t in flower yet. Finally, near the end of the trip a large patch of spotted coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata) was just beginning to emerge in the woods near the lower falls in Cypress Falls Park.   Birds seen or heard: Red-tailed Hawk, Sooty Grouse, Pileated Woodpecker, Rufous Hummingbird, Western Wood-pewee, Hammond’s Flycatcher, Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, Common Raven, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Winter Wren, American Robin, Varied Thrush, Orange-crowned Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Townsend’s Warbler, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, Dark-eyed Junco, Spotted Towhee, Black-headed Grosbeak, Purple Finch   References: Jean Cousins, Easy Hiking in Vancouver (6th edition). Vancouver: Greystone, 2005. Randy Stoltmann, Hiking Guide to the Big Trees of Southwestern BC. Vancouver: WCWC, 1991. Also see the section on Cypress Falls Park in Nature Vancouver's recently published Parks and Nature Places in Vancouver.