Bear With Me

Squamish Estuary & Deep Cove B.C.

May 8th was a partly cloudy weekday and I wanted to hike around Squamish B.C. which is at the North end of the beautiful Howe Sound on the way to Whistler. I parked in town and entered the estuary at the North end. The photo below is from my Garmin watch showing the area along the Squamish River where I started and completed my 4 mile hike.

This photo was taken from downtown of the Stawamus Chief. It is solid granite and nearly 2,000 feet (710 meters) tall. I hiked to the top in 2018. The Mountain is sacred to First Nation indigenous tribes. Rhododendrons were at peak bloom.

A view of the marina looking West toward Stawamus Chief and Howe Sound.

Looking East from the marina into the Canadian Cascades

lush trail looking towards a body of water

The estuary trail starts at the North end of Squamish. I took the photo above just as I started the hike. The brush and trees are pretty tall on both sides of the trail.

I had not been walking on the trail two minutes when a rather large black bear appeared from the left side of the trail. I was only 25 yards or so from the bear.

I was so startled I could hardly move. I took a quick photo as the bear could not smell me as a strong wind was blowing toward me.

Suddenly, the bear looked right at me and I took another quick photo. As Al Pacino said in Scarface: "Say hello to my little friend" :)

Needless to say I did an about face and slowly walked in the opposite direction. The trail made a sharp left turn and crossed the Squamish River. As I looked out over the river, I saw the black bear coming down from the trail I was just on and proceed to wade across the river. You can see the bear enter the photos below from the left side and cross the river.

I was not carrying any "bear spray" As I was not expecting to see a bear so close to town. I checked my bear spray when I returned to my car and it had expired. I promptly spent $60.00 for a fresh supply that was larger than what I normally carry.

waterfall on a mountainside as seen from a meadow

This is a photo of Shannon Falls taken from the estuary trail.

This trail is beautiful as you look across the estuary with the mountains in the background.

This area reminds me of the scenery in the motion picture "A River Runs Through It".

meadow and with mountains in the background

I was still rattled and the wind picked up so I decided to finish my hike in town and cut it to 4 miles from the planned 6.

Beautiful purple Wisteria and more Rhododendrons

Downtown Squamish is beautiful and has a 1950's vibe with its architecture. Very expensive to live here unfortunately. I stopped at a cute coffee shop and bakery downtown.

The day previous to my Squamish hike was beautiful so I drove to Deep Cove B.C. I call it the "Sausalito" of B.C and have added some photos below from my walk around town. Below is the center of town with a traffic circle that ends at the harbor.

Below is a bakery and coffee shop called "Honey". They have fresh baked donuts of all varieties. It was packed the morning I visited.

An entire street of shops including a gelato and frozen yogurt cafe. There is also a theater for plays as well as Novel Book Store that also sells coffee.