“On est bien ici”

28 August 2022 – On est bien ici reads the little plaque on a bench in Volunteer Park, foot of Macdonald Street, facing north into the waters of English Bay in Burrard Inlet. I agree, one feels extremely contented in this tiny parkette — but it’s just my departure point, not my destination.

I’m going to head down these steps, this breezy bright day …

for a walk along the wild foreshore (i.e. no paths, no development) on east to Kitsilano Beach.

I get my bearings, look west for a moment…

even plonk down for a further few moments onto this chair-shaped tree stump, because who could resist?

And then I start walking east.

“Nobody is happier than a wet dog on a beach,” I say to his amused owner…

“unless it’s a wet dog who has abandoned his pink toy bone in order to snuffle around for a lovely dead fish to roll in,” I add (memories of my beloved Kim-dog strong in my mind). “Shush!” she replies. “I’m not telling him there’s a dead seal farther along.” We agree to keep it our secret.

Rocks & stones & pebbles & seaweed & mussel shells & oyster shells…

and a quizzical couple who wave hands at it all and ask, “Why are there so many oyster shells, and no oyster beds?” We agree we don’t know, and further agree not-knowing does not interfere with our enjoyment. Not even slightly.

A sheer cliff face to the landward side…

and piles & more piles of huge logs, flung around like so many toothpicks by winter storms.

Quiet riffs of acoustic guitar float above the logs.

I eventually see a human head (and a guitar neck) poking above one great tangle of logs. I raise a thumb in appreciation; Guitar Guy says “Thanks!” and we chat. No, your music is not too loud; yes, I know you need to keep your fingers limber; yes, I bet it’s total joy to tuck down among the logs and make music on this beach. I think of adding his riffs sound a bit Leo Kottke-esque to me, but I’m not sure enough of my genre-ID skills to take the chance. (And now I wish I had…)

On east, a few more humans, who are a lot more visible. Yoga Girl and Backpack Boy and (far left) Phone Girl on Giant Stump.

Yoga Girl steps out of her pose, and begins to chant. Backpack Boy is startled, looks back to check it out, and then, reassured, with a shoulder twitch starts walking again.

Phone Girl was, is, and remains oblivious to the outside world.

She has her phone, and her two busy thumbs, to connect her to her ether world…

I’m taking a small gamble as I walk on east. i’ve passed what might be the last staircase to the city above, and a young woman headed west confirms the only way up beyond here is a rock scramble plus steep sandy track by the Kitsilano Yacht Club pier. But hey! I say to myself, it’s all walking. (The long-ago observation of my Tuesday Walking Society co-founder, and only other Society member, who rightly took the position that since we were out for a walk, it didn’t really matter whether we were advancing per Plan A or back-tracking in a hastily concocted Plan B — walking is walking.)

In time I’m approaching the pier and the rock scramble. I’m still far enough from it to tell myself it’ll be easy-peasy… until I see a woman very carefully, very laboriously, very one tricky-step-at-a-time, make her way down the sandy slope and over the rocks. Nope! Not even with my trusty walking poles! It’s Plan B time, and I backtrack to the steps at the foot of Trafalgar Street.

Where I climb back up to Point Grey Road…