Telegraph Trail III

In the almost 150 years since work stopped on the Telegraph Trail, much of it has been renamed or grown over and forgotten. So to get from the last post’s section to the historic Telegraph Trail, I had to ride down the busy Glover Road and take a right on Rawlison Crescent.   The trail and roads have been winding downhill so now I’m slightly above level of the Fraser River to the north.

On Rawlison I might see one or two cars as I pass the “Golden Ears Farm,” a friendly horse and go under the railway bridge.

(Okay. I admit it. I photo shopped “Need for Speed’s” Ford GT into the last image.)

After the bridge, the road curves upward again where, on your right, these sights came as a surprise. Please excuse the poor quality as these were taken with just my 18-70mm lens.

The canine, mules and giraffes were a part of the Mountain View Conservation and Breeding Centre. The photos were taken a few years ago and since then the Centre came into some difficulties. Some of the giraffe died and there was bad press over the feeding of the canines.

As of March 11^th, their Facebook page states “The Society will no longer be operating wildlife conservation & breeding programs, nor our guided educational tours. We continue to offer support to the Northern Spotted Owl Program, that is now managed by the B.C. Ministry of Lands & Forests. The Vancouver Island Marmot program will conclude this year, after 15 years of successful breeding at Mountain View.”

Irrespective of the goings on at the Centre it was, for me, quite a treat to come across it on my bicycle ride. Even more of a treat was seeing their rhino and buffalo, which due to the camera lens and distance I had to combine some photos with Painter 10 to create the following:

 

Cave in the Snow

‘One time (a Togden) said to me: “You think we yogis are doing some very high, fantastic, esoteric practice and if only you had the teachings you also could really take off!  Let me tell you, however, that there is nothing I am doing that you have not been taught.  The only difference is that I am doing it and your aren’t.” ‘

Tenzin Palmo

Telegraph Trail II

In 1865, the goal of Perry McDonough Collins and his partners was to build a telegraph cable line from Los Angeles through British Columbia and Alaska, then to Russia under the Bering Strait and on into Europe. It was abandoned when a cable was laid on the Atlantic floor between Newfoundland and Ireland.  Nevertheless, Collins and his team had managed to string the line from its starting point in the US up through all of BC and into Alaska before they stopped.

My bicycle trips down the Telegraph Trail more modestly starts at

Where begins a nice patch of road that is notable because of it’s smoothness, intermittent buildings and lack of traffic. This last building reminds me of a fort.  Maybe the landowners designed it with that in mind.

As you continue down the sloping road you don’t need to peddle and the cars are few, so you can take in fields on the right.   And wonder, as I did, why this private residence needs a rail car?

Finally, some of the barns and farm animals on this stretch of the Telegraph Trail. FYI:  These last three barns were processed through Corel’s Painter 10 and 12.

 

 

The Book of Forgiving

Tutu Global Forgiveness Challenge: Day 13, Grieving.

 

“We cannot honestly name our feelings and be in denial at the same time. Prolonged denial of pain leads us to all sorts of trouble, and even self-destruction. Many have said that at the root of almost every addict’s or alcoholic’s tragic struggle is the denial of pain.”

Desmond Tutu & Mpho Tutu

Telegraph Trail I

The heritage designation that applies to the Telegraph Trail (or Collins Overland Telegraph Line) actually applies to only 2.07 kilometres in Northwest Langley but the road is longer than that. It’s beauty lies in its dips and curves, bends and narrowness. I love riding my bicycle on all of the Telegraph Trail available to me but to ride its heritage section leaves me feeling I’ve been transported to some high plateau in B.C.’s northern interior.

Horses are also a part of the heritage section.

As is the occasional house nestled in the trees.

 

Genuine Happiness

“When resting in awareness, can you see that there is no object that is awareness?  It is not a real entity.  It has no inherent identity of its own.  It is as empty and open as space itself.”

B. Alan Wallace

Deep Cove IV

Having hiked up the Baden Trail from Deep Cove you finally come to the top of Quarry Rock.  Your first site is the city of Vancouver on the horizon.

Off to your right you can peer back to where you started your journey, the dock and boats moored at Deep Cove.

Looking down there are more moorings.  Just after I took this third picture an enterprising young lad scampered down these rocks to where I don’t know.  I had no desire to follow after him with my camera in hand.

Finally, if you time it just right, looking south you’ll see boats leaving a perfect wake for you to photograph.  A perfect end after a long hike!

The Conquest of Illusion

“When we have seen the vision of Reality our world is changed, utterly and almost beyond recognition, and yet nothing has changed in things as they are, it is but that we have gained a new vision… It is the new vision, which is born when (we are) freed from the tyranny of illusion, that the whole world is changed and appears radiant with love and beauty, apparently utterly changed, though the change really is (within our self) alone.

J. J. Van Der Leeuw, 1951

Deep Cove III

The Baden Powell Trail stretches from the head of Burrard Inlet in Deep Cove to Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver.  That’s 41 kilometers of scenic trail.

These images show some of the trail around Deep Cove as you make your way up to Quarry Rock, an overlook over the cove.

Recognizing the Thinker

When a thought moves, simply recognise the thinker. The thinking then dissolves. No matter what the thought is about, the thinking and the thinker are empty. A thought in itself is not made of any concrete substance; it is simply an empty thought movement. By recognising the empty essence in a thought, it vanishes like a bubble in water. That is how to deal with any particular present thought at hand. Once you know how to let the present thought dissolve, any subsequent thought can be dealt with in exactly the same way, as simply another present thought. But if we get involved in the thought, thinking of what is being thought of, and continue it, then there is no end.

Excerpt from As It Is, Vol. 1 by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, 1999.