Tackling the trails less travelled
Teen’s second North Shore hiking book focuses on directing families to kid-friendly routes
Ask anyone in Metro Vancouver to suggest a hike on the North Shore and you’re likely to hear about Grouse Grind and Quarry Rock in Deep Cove.
And that’s why neither of the popular hikes are included in a list of dozens of hikes from challenging to easy in a new book written by a seasoned veteran of the mountains in West and North Vancouver and the Howe Sound islands.
“There’s a lot more to the North Shore than those two hikes,” said Harry Crerar, who at age 18 has been hiking the trails since preschool. Another reason to explore the lesser known trails is because “crowds kind of ruin the experience.”
And he said even though hiking is a safe and recommended activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, “it’s difficult to social distance on Grouse Grind or Quarry Rock.”
The book, Family Walks and Hikes on Greater Vancouver’s North Shore (Rocky Mountain Books), is the teen’s second book. He and his father, David Crerar, along with Bill Maurer, wrote the Glorious Mountains of Vancouver’s North Shore: A Peakbagger’s Guide.
“Peak bagging” refers to keeping a tally of mountains climbed or “bagged,” sometimes in a competition during a specified time frame, such as during the yearly Bagger Challenge. Crerar won the Harry Quaich award for baggers younger than 16 every year in that competition.
This book is designed to guide families who want help finding kid-friendly trails. And it focuses only on North Shore trails, whereas most B.C. hiking books include wider areas, he said.
“Some of my best childhood memories are hikes on the North Shore and I wanted to share that with others,” he said.
He, his parents and three younger siblings explored the peaks as a family of six and one of Crerar’s earliest and favourite memories is when he was five and he summited Goat Mountain.
“I remember the hike really well and getting up to the top,” he said.
Goat Mountain and Goat Ridge are among his favourites, along with Kennedy Falls, which “leads to a waterfall and has an old-growth cedar on the trail and you can see the ruins of an old logging camp.”
The book lists 44 trails, including Mount Artaban, Lynn Canyon Park, Whyte Lake, De Pencier Bluffs, Lower MacKay, Mount Seymour, Yew Lake, Eagle Bluffs, Hollyburn Mountain, Maplewood Flats, Lighthouse Park and Cypress Falls.
It includes a colourful map for each with photographs, directions to trailheads, seasonal information, round-trip distances, difficulty ratings and trail commentary, according to publisher Rocky Mountain Books.
The 2019 Mulgrave School graduate has finished his first year at McGill University in Montreal, where he’s studying biology.
“(Hiking in Montreal) is definitely different from the North Shore,” he said. “That’s the great thing about B.C., you don’t have to drive far to get to an awesome trail.”