I’m not the most accomplished trail-goer, but what I lack in experience I make up for with sheer, possibly naive, enthusiasm.
I wake up on the weekends with a long list of places I’d like to walk, run or hike this year. As I open my eyelids and stretch my legs, I’m quick to check the weather and narrow down the options from there. As I feed the cats and fill my belly and brains with a bit of protein and caffeine, I decide whether I want something new or familiar, easy or challenging. I plan my day and decide how long I can escape for.
Then all there is left to do is jump in the car and let it point me toward the mountains.
A quick Google search will tell you there are more than 30 scenic hikes in the Chilliwack area, and well over 135 km of trails. When you factor in the ability to drive an hour in any direction, there must be thousands of kilometres to explore out there.
There are more trails than I could possible explore in a lifetime, all within one hour’s drive. But I can certainly attempt to see them all, right?
This weekend, that intuition for adventure landed me on the Qoqó:lem Trail, off Vedder Mountain Road. I had been there a handful of times already, but this time my intention wasn’t the full 2.5 km grind to the 330m-elevation-lookout. This time, I wanted to explore the old Vedder Rail Grade Trail for the first time in my life.
Qoqó:lem Trail intersects the rail trail at about the 1.5 km mark, about 150 metres from the valley floor. To me, it marks a junction where the new meets the old. For those unfamiliar with Qoqó:lem, it’s the newest trail in the area and carves its way up the northern side of Vedder Mountain.
And for those who don’t know what the rail trail is, well, it’s exactly what it sounds like. The Vedder Mountain Logging Railway was an active thoroughfare in the early 1900s, and parts of it remain on public land and passable by foot today.
Stepping off Qoqó:lem Trail and onto the old rail grade, time slipped away in every way. The sounds of the city became muted as I got further from the busier trail. I had been listening to an audiobook when I realized the voice in my ears was drowning out the exact reason I go into the woods.
I took out the earbuds and tuned into the world around me, taking in the sounds of water. The puddles splashing under the weight of my boots. The streamlets trickling down moss-covered rock walls. The rush of this late-winter runoff and January rain being pushed through culverts. And all of it making its way down to the Vedder River below.
A pair of what looked like sparrows - a brown female and a red-capped male, perhaps - tittered away in some bushes but disappeared when I stopped to watch them, and try to identify them. The mushrooms, lichen and moss along the way were easier to capture sight of, and I’ve found that photographing them close-up is a perfect way of slowing myself down.
I have a not-great habit of keeping up my busy pace out on the trails, and while it feels good to keep the heart pumping, I often get home realizing I missed the forest for the trees.
The rail trail reminded me to not do that. To slow down. To look closely. To listen. To admire it all, and sit with that wonderment if even just for a moment. It’s why I hike, why I camp and why I like to explore.
I also spent some time this weekend whittling away at my list of places to do those three things in 2024. From the Oregon Coast (a first) and the Sunshine Coast (a return trip), to some of my favourite secret spots in B.C.’s interior hinterlands, I have a lot to look forward to.
But between those trips, you’ll find me out there in the trees, enjoying the best that Chilliwack has to offer.
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