Leader: Jon

Eighteen of us gathered on 4th Avenue at the south-east corner of Jericho Park, with several regulars missing for various reasons; you know who you are. At first it seemed as if we would start our Looper year with rain: there were clouds overhead at the start, and light drops were falling as we arrived, the ground of Jericho Park soggy. But there were also some patches of blue sky to the west, which gradually pushed the clouds away, and the day proved to be propitious after all.

The meeting point was very familiar to those of us who’d spent time at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival at some point during its 46-year run, and the ghosts of Folk Festivals past were everywhere as we walked north from 4th Avenue towards the bridge for our starting selfie (above). The Festival’s main gate has always been at that south-east corner of the park; it was the starting point for each morning’s legendary “Birkenstock 500 Blanket Run” towards the Festival’s Main Stage; and Stage 3 was always in that grove of trees to our left. Post-selfie, Folk Fest regulars tried to visualize where they’d place their blankets for Folk Fest 2024, upcoming in mid-July: we imagined ourselves in warmer weather on our blankets somewhere in front of Main Stage, with our backs towards the glorious mountains of Vancouver’s North Shore and stars twinkling overhead. In the meantime, though, we had a walk to walk, a loop to Loop.

As explained elsewhere, this year’s Looper theme is “Follow the Leader”, with each month’s walk being planned and led by an individual Looper, sometimes two. For January’s walk, Looper Jon had planned a route through Pacific Spirit Park, the route continuing west from our starting point, through Jericho Park, taking us at great personal risk near an ominous colony of black bunnies, who no doubt spend their days nibbling on grass and plotting to take over the world.

Successfully evading the elite members of the BBA (Black Bunny Army) we pass through another ghost site: the waterfront location of Habitat ’76 Forum, a UN conference on human settlements, also known as Habitat 1 (some interesting photos from the Vancouver Archives can be viewed here). The hangars which housed Habitat exhibits (re-decorated by Bill Reid for Habitat) were once part of the Jericho Seaplane Base. A few fragments of Habitat ’76 remain (such as the sculpture lurking behind Larrie in the photograph below), though the hangars themselves are long gone, as is the “marginal” wharf which used to occupy part of the foreshore (some sections of the railings which ran along the wharf’s perimeter survive, visible in a couple of the pictures below. Jon points out that these railings originally came from Lion’s Gate Bridge, when its railings were replaced many years ago). 

Next up on our route was the Jericho Sailing Centre, followed closely by Jericho Pier, damaged in a winter storm but now slated for repair. Then through Locarno Beach Park to Spanish Banks, the first of a long stretch of beach-front parks which lead one inexorably to Wreck Beach and optional nudity (not, I imagine, all that popular at this time of year). Spotlit by the sun, a small white cruise ship lay at anchor offshore. This month’s leader and tour guide notes that this mysterious cruise ship is intended to serve as a floating hotel for pipeline construction workers (see here for more info).

After pausing briefly at a seaside memorial known to some as Sepi’s Special Place, we crossed N W Marine Drive and entered the woods of Pacific Spirit Park, following a trail which led us towards the top of the escarpment, where we paused for a snack break with views to the north.

After our snack break, we continued along the trails through Pacific Spirit Park, crossing Chancellor Boulevard, and—eventually—University Boulevard, where we admired a new development featuring stainless steel spheres decorated with an indigenous motif (one can never have enough stainless steel spheres decorated with indigenous motifs).

South of University Boulevard we re-entered Pacific Spirit Park, following trails which skirted the perimeter of the golf course of the University Golf Club. Along the way we paused to consider a forest giant, felled by a windstorm, and to pay homage to a decorative stamp known to many (well: to our leader, at the very least) as Mr. Grumpy Stump. As a measure of his fame, a rap song has recently been composed in honour of Mr. Grumpy Stump; you are encouraged to boogaloo along to it here.

The trails of Pacific Spirit Park eventually released us at the corner of 12th Avenue and Blanca, where we turned north to head back towards our starting point, which we reached by following a random path through a West Point Grey neighbourhood that holds memories for several of us (one Looper’s first apartment was on West 11th between Sasamat and Trimble; another Looper’s first wedding took place at St. Helen’s Anglican Church; and two Loopers first lived together on the main floor of a small house on West 12th near Blanca. Please contact the author of this post to have your West Point Grey memories added to the list).

The last stretch of our loop was downhill, so that we virtually coasted back to our beginnings. Afters took place at La La Island (though no photos of this subgroup exist), and at Darby’s Public House.

Photos by: Jon, Liz, Adrienne, Andrew, Carol, Bruce, Michael, David S, Angela H.