Convergence Zone
Local clubs are beginning to make known their New Year's Eve lineups, and they're looking like winners across the board.
By Geoff Carter | December 8, 2005
Hike of the Week
There's just no easy way to get to Granite Lakes. They're within the Mountains-to-Sound Greenway, well hidden by a riddle of mysterious roads and defended by walls of salmonberry.
No signs offer guidance to seekers of these seldom-visited lakes, and the spur ends short of them. Most hikers are unwilling to shoulder their way through waist-high brush with stickers to get to the lakes, but there's still enough scenery to satisfy those who try.
By Karen Sykes | December 8, 2005
Short Trips
The eagles have landed at Goldstream Provincial Park on Vancouver Island, and for good reason -- their fall and winter feast has arrived.
For the rest of this month, bald eagles flock to parts of the Goldstream River -- just 12 miles north of Victoria -- to feast on the dead and dying carcasses of thousands of chum, coho and chinook salmon that return to spawn each year from mid-October until the end of December. One Canadian naturalist predicted 30,000 chum salmon would make the migration this year.
By Jeff Larsen | December 8, 2005
Mountain biking on swervy-curvy technical trails named for various intestinal ills is tough enough when the sun is out. So why do it at night when it's cold and dark, and you have to rely on artificial lights that cast shards of kooky, imagination-fueling shadows?
By Mike McQuaide | December 8, 2005
