With the end of summer officially upon us this weekend, it seems the perfect time to do a roundup of my favorite outdoor activities in Vancouver. They all happen to be summer activities, give or take, but that's just how I roll. Pun intended.
As soon as the weather gets shitty, and it certainly will soon, I'm driven indoors. My wet weather activities include kickboxing, walking in the rain with my best friend and her dog, and climbing the stairs of my 23 story building up to six times a day. (Going downstairs is not exercise and is bad for the knees so I take the elevator down and walk up.) Not fun, but it gets the job done. My calves could crack walnuts.
But contemplating the stairs is a chore for another day. We are here to talk about the best trails to skate and bike in and around downtown Vancouver... Let's roll!
1. Prospect Point, Stanley Park
Skating or biking around the Stanley Park Seawall is fun enough, especially if you go during the week when it's not crowded with tourists, scooters and ebikers (no offense, but please get out of my way!), but the real fun is taking the steep climb all the way to the very top, to the Prospect Point lookout area.
Catch your breath, drink some water, then speed skate the exhilarating corkscrew descent all the way to the bottom, which goes by way too fast but is an incredible reward after the arduous uphill climb.
If you're feeling like you deserve a reward at the top, there is a delicious ice cream shop with an espresso bar right next door. I've heard the restaurant is okay, but I've never been hungry enough to order fish and chips at Prospect Point. Maybe one day.
Another great thing about skating around Stanley Park is stopping at Third Beach, which is about 3/4 of the way around the park. It's an excellent way to balance the workout of skating with the joy of sunbathing for several hours. Bring drinks and music and you've got yourself a perfect summer day.
2. Arbutus Greenway
Fun for biking and skating... If you start around 6th Avenue, you can take the beautiful Greenway all the way down to the end, just past 76th Avenue, where you can see planes landing at the airport in Richmond very close by. Round trip from downtown takes about an hour and a half on a bike, longer on skates.
Bonus points for the absolutely gorgeous community gardens in the southern half of the Greenway and plenty of benches where you can sit and tan along the way. There is a Honolulu Cafe just off the trail, and a Choices Market in case you want to get some grocery shopping done on the way back.
3. Seawall, Science World, Granville Island
Since I live downtown, skating around the Seawall is an obvious choice, whether I go right towards English Bay and around Stanley Park or left through Yaletown, around Science World and past Granville Island.
The bike/skate trail gets a bit too cobblestoney for my tastes around Granville island, which is great for biking but considerably less so for rolling, so I like to take the Seaside Bypass detour, down Lamey's Mill Road—which offers some blissfully low-traffic stretches of smooth road and challenging hills with fun, steep descents—before heading back across the Burrard Bridge to downtown.
Now that the long-awaited Granville Bridge upgrades are underway, the bike lane heading south is in good shape but I haven't skated it yet. The Cambie Bridge is also great for skating and biking.
4. Northwest/ Southwest Marine Drive
Definitely a biking trail, not a skating trail, this is the longest city bike path I've braved on my own, coming from downtown and biking almost all the way to Spanish Banks, past Wreck Beach and the sprawling UBC campus.
Follow the shared bike lane all the way down Northwest Marine Drive until it turns into Southwest Marine Drive, then take the Arbutus Greenway back downtown. This particular route took me about three hours, with a couple of tanning stops along the way.
I know that one can theoretically bike in the rain, if one were so inclined. They make fenders that keep the water from splashing you and rain gear to keep you dry, but it's just nowhere near as fun. As soon as the weather gets wet and cold, my bike goes into the underground storage locker and stays there until spring time.
Skating is pretty much impossible when it's wet out, because bearings can rust and accidents on skates are easy enough in dry weather, let alone with the added challenge of slippery terrain.
5. Disc Golf courses
This is a bit of a departure from skating/biking, but when my partner and I have the day off together, disc golf is often on the agenda. Queen Elizabeth park has a lovely disc golf course that's currently being expanded to more than twice its original size called Little Mountain disc golf course.
All that's missing is bathrooms, unless you count the numerous trees and bushes. Maybe one day they'll remedy this oversight, especially as more women get into the game.
Quilchena Park is another good one, if you don't mind competing with dog walkers and the occasional picnicker. It's around 37th Avenue, just off the Arbutus Greenway so you can bike up there and take a disc golf break halfway through.
My favorite disc golf course was partially under construction this summer but it is by far the best in Vancouver, Jericho Hill disc golf course near Point Grey. It combines an arduous, hilly hike with challenging but not discouragingly difficult baskets. About half of it was closed this summer because the school with which it shares its grounds was upgrading their soccer fields and whatnot.
Not exactly downtown but pretty close, is Robert Burnaby Park, appropriately enough in Burnaby. This is a really nice park which combines the best features of the others while being far enough away from downtown so it's always less crowded than Queen Elizabeth Park.
6. Paddleboarding
I almost forgot this activity because we didn’t actually get out on the water this summer, except very briefly on Okanagan Lake. English Bay is usually amazing for paddleboarding, but this year there were some water quality advisories that kept us on shore.
I always feel at the end of summer that it hasn't lasted nearly long enough, that I was somehow cheated out of a full season, but this year was probably above average in all fairness. I know I shouldn't look back on 2021 with yearning because that was the year of the "Heat Dome" and most people in Vancouver were miserable, but I loved every minute of those dreadfully overheated days and muggy nights.
I could have done without the several days of smoke from nearby fires that blanketed the city in a toxic orange haze, but it still didn't stop me from getting outside and skating, or even enjoying the beach. Yes, I'm a diehard summer girl.
Honorable mentions include all the amazing pop-up disco and rave parties, street fairs, music festivals, DJ boat cruises, Bard on the Beach (Vancouver's version of Shakespeare in the Park), and numerous other cultural events...
And that brings me to the end of my fun in the sun activity roundup. We are truly blessed to live here.
Happy last day of summer, everyone! :)
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