Tubing the Coquitlam River and Hiking Dennett Lake
Adventure is what happens when things don’t go according to plan.
This past weekend Yuki and I organized a tubing trip down the Coquitlam River. In preparation, we went to two Canadian Tires on Friday night to buy inner tubes because the first didn’t have enough for our group of 4.
Frances and Jamie joined us on Saturday and after getting some breakfast we drove out to Port Coquitlam. We stopped beside the road near the river and pumped up four truck tire inner tubes with a bike pump. This was good exercise, but we were somewhat jealous of the vacuum cleaners that some other groups were using nearby for the same purpose.
Eventually we got all of the tubes pumped up and took them down to the river. We were optimistic about floating down the river, though the water turned out to be rather cold. We got on our tubes and started floating downstream. Shortly thereafter, Yuki lost her tube in some rapids while trying to help Frances over a log, and we had to scramble downstream to get it before we lost it. We ended up losing and chasing after two more tubes, one of my flip flops (later recovered), and Jamie’s sunglasses that were knocked off her head when she flipped over and bumped her head on the rocks.
The trip was supposed to take 3 hours and cover approximately 8 kilometers, from Upper Coquitlam Park to Lions Park. Due to the cold water and the shallow river depth, we made little progress and both Jamie and I were shivering most of the way.
Midway through, we found a sunny rock to stop for a snack break. After that, the river got a bit deeper and less rocky; with sticks, we were able to propel ourselves better. Every so often we had to get out of our tubes and carry them over some rapids, but we moved along smoothly in the slightly deeper sections.
When the sun went behind the trees, it started getting really cold and we wanted to get out of the river. Eventually we found a park to exit to and found out that we had only traveled a total of 2–2.5km. We had originally planned to call a cab to take us back to our car at the starting point, but with such a short distance, we elected to walk back.
We joked that we should have started from where we exited, because it seemed like the river was a lot deeper there. After talking to some locals, I found out that the best part of the river is around Lions Park, which we never got to.
Right before I went tubing on Saturday, Melissa messaged me about a hiking trip on Sunday so the next morning I got up early and met up with Melissa and Mark for a hike in Pine Cone Burke Provincial Park. I’ve never been to that park, so it seemed like a good opportunity. The park is between Coquitlam Lake and Pitt Meadows Lake, which are north of Port Coquitlam.
We didn’t leave as early as we wanted to because I was late, but that didn’t seem to bother everyone. On the way down Quarry Rd to the trailhead, we saw a bear wandering down a side street. The only other wildlife we saw after that was a woodpecker.
The cool thing about the trail is that the vegetation changed several times as we gained elevation towards alpine meadows. Melissa got a cramp in her side barely 30 minutes into the hike but soldiered on for the rest of the day, refusing to give up.
Up at the first lake, which was more of a marsh, we ran into a lot of bugs. Fortunately they weren’t mosquitoes; just small flies that liked to buzz into your eyes, mouth, and ears.
Our goal was to get to the second lake so we continued onward, but the trail turned into a bushwhacking trail through the undergrowth and we soon realized that it was the wrong path. We backtracked and skirted around the lake on the mushy ground and eventually found the right trail.
At the first of several water crossings, Melissa almost fell in — but it probably wouldn’t have mattered much because her feet were already soaking wet.
Eventually all of us would put at least one foot in a puddle, and sometimes two feet. The wet bushes and trees didn’t help either, as they soaked through our pants.
We were really happy to get to lake, which is probably really nice on a clear day. The overcast skies turned to rain as Melissa put her wet feet into the lake and we huddled under some trees to eat lunch.
The descent was less enthusiastic and when we got to the bottom we heard some popping sounds. It turns out some guys were using the trail as a pellet gun shooting range. They didn’t know it was a hiking trail and packed up when they saw us, which was nice.
Naturally, when we came out of the forest the sky cleared up and the sun was out. We celebrated with a Mars bar and then went to a local pub for drinks, though the outdoor patio was full.
Though it was a long hike, we all had a lot of fun and agreed that it was certainly an adventure.
