On the weekend I was recruited to go on a last minute hike at a park I've never visited so of course I said yes and threw a bunch of film and lenses into my bag and went off.

What I didn't know is that I would be struggling through some narrow trails in a mostly vertical incline for half an hour. Also stupidly, I'd eaten very little before going -- counting on half a pack of Gummi Bears to provide some energy. That stupidity caught up to me mid-way through the climb and crashed hard. Only eating an apple got me out of that.

Overpacked and overweight

Since moving I've gained a few pounds as I'm only three blocks from my daily bus route where before I had to walk at least a mile to the train. So, it probably wasn't a great idea to bring all three of my Mamiya's lenses (80mm, 150mm and 45mm) and my tripod. Even though my Benro sticks are carbon fibre, I found it was just getting in the way as I bulled my way through wet undergrowth and tried to keep my balance on top of rocks. It was just one more thing hanging from my body.

(Contrast that with my hiking buddy Nick who bounded up the trail with his Bronica in a tiny fanny pack.) His dog Mitzy was everywhere - underfoot, blazing through the bushes, and possibly wondering who was huffing and puffing so far back.

Murrin Park

Murrin Provincial Park is a small wilderness just off the Sea to Sky highway between Britannia and Squamish. All the years I've driven that highway I never bothered to stop by the little lake and picnic site between those two places, assuming that little lake was all there was. Now I know that beyond the lake there is a network of unmanaged trails that snake up towards a rock face. Once under the rain-forest canopy we met one rock climber who saw us and then disappeared. Were we not supposed to be there? Or was he not supposed to be there?

Not knowing any of the routes we got up as high as we could before it seemed like only climbing gear was preventing us from getting anywhere for a landscape view. Myself, I was out of gas, and was happy to leave that for another day. Taking another trail, we emerged on the edge of a quarry that was inactive for the weekend.

On this hike we saw no wildlife but heard the thumping of some mountain grouse. The empty quarry was full of downed machines like the one above here. I like big hulking machines since our age lacks dinosaurs. I took several portraits of this machine that helps render large pieces of rock into smaller pieces.

Very green Fuji 160NPC

I've been working through a lot of expired Fuji 160NPC in 120 format and finding it very green. On the one hand it would be no large matter to correct this in Lightroom (I have a version of the above picture in a more natural color) but I decided to publish these as is. I'll be looking at others' images to see if that is just how the film is. On 4x5 I've shot Fuji 160NPS and also found it greenish.

On one side of the divide we have a lush west coast rain forest and one road later we have a big chunk being taken out of a mountain. These are my only landscapes since this was the only open area I discovered. I'll come back another time and try and make it to the top in the park itself.