Vancouver BC Hiking Tips: Hiking Clothing

1. Don't wear cotton: Cotton Kills! It quickly gets soaked with rain, or sweat, and takes too long for it to dry. When cotton gets wet it loses 100 percent of it's insulation properties. Wet clothes wick heat away from the skin.

2. Don't wear jeans: You'll be hiking in BC rainforests, not herding cattle in Saskatchewan. Jeans are heavy, and don't insulate when wet. Cotton sweatpants are just as bad.

3. Wear Synthetic Fabrics: Synthetic fabrics don't retain water easily, they insulate when wet and dry rapidly.

4. Dress in Layers: Layer 1 should be comfortable thin synthetics ( ie T-shirt and shorts). Layer 2 should be for warmth (ie a fleece jacket/vest and long pants). Layer 3 should be for protection (ie goretex jacket, toque, gloves)

Vancouver BC: Non-motorized transportation to promote zero or low-emission transportation as a means to combat climate change

Meet Colin and Julie.

Colin and Julie are only two people but they're changing the world. If Colin can travel 43,000 kilometres without producing any greenhouse gas emissions, we can all start taking small steps to use less energy and to walk and cycle more, even if it is just One Day a week.

The couple's journey, which started out with Colin and Vancouver-born Tim Harvey, involved cycling, skiing, canoeing, hiking and rowing through BC, Alaska, across the Bering Sea and through Europe. Julie and Colin traveled across the Atlantic to Costa Rica - a 156-day rowing odyssey, with Julie being the first and only woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean from mainland to mainland. From there it was an 8,300 kilometre ride back to Vancouver.

The couple, living in Courtenay BC and getting married this summer are available for speaking engagements and public presentations. They have played a big role in supporting the Vancouver Park Board’s Active Communities Program. The goal of their expedition and speaking tour is to show just how far you can take non-motorized transportation and to promote zero or low-emission transportation as a means to combat climate change. Click here to find out more about their work and look for Colin’s book, "Beyond the Horizon", to be released March 27. (info from One Day Vancouver)

Ottawa gives $700,000 to fix park: Pacific Rim was badly damaged by winter storms; funding means West Coast Trail to open on time

Jeff Bell, Times Colonist

Vancouver Island’s Pacific Rim National Park, home to the famed West Coast Trail, is getting $700,000 in federal funds for recovery efforts stemming from December’s devastating windstorms.

The winds brought down more than 2,000 trees, triggered a mudslide, and toppled two cable cars and a suspension bridge on the well-travelled 75-kilometre hiking trail. Cleanup work has already begun.

“Pacific Rim National Park Reserve is one of the jewels of the West Coast,” Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn said yesterday as he announced the funding at Parks Canada’s Sidney Operation Centre.

Lunn’s words echoed those of federal Environment Minister John Baird, who in January called storm-damaged Stanley Park “a national treasure.” At that time, Baird gave $2 million in federal funds to help repair the urban Vancouver park, which suffered about $9 million in damage.

Of the funds announced yesterday, $500,000 will go toward general restoration work, said Lunn, MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands. The remaining $200,000 is part of a deal between Parks Canada and the Ucluelet-based Central Westcoast Forest Society to restore Sandhill and Lostshoe creeks and improve their salmon-spawning capacity.

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve encompasses about 50,000 hectares along the Island’s west coast divided into three areas: the Long Beach Unit, the Broken Group Islands and the West Coast Trail. Established in 1970, the park attracts millions of visitors from around the world, including about 5,000 a year who hike the West Coast Trail. Read full story