Mt Seymour and surrounds - So close yet so far away.
Its Friday after work and yet again we are looking to leave the city and explore a little BC. Our destination of choice this weekend is the deep cove and Indian arm regions. Deep cove is amusingly close to downtown Van. And yet, the picturesque cove filled with sailboats, kayaks and paddlers makes us feel far away. 
We decide to drive up to Mt Seymour in search of a campspot. The hill (lets be honest, this thing was little more than a gentle incline on the way out of deep cove) is almost too much for E’s souped-down carbs, but on the 3rd attempt and a bit of switchbacking from one lane to the other...we make it up the hill out of deep cove and on our way to the peak. As we climb, we pass an AMAZING vista of the below town we just came from. Bry suggests we pull over and watch a flick on the ipad while taking it all in. tempting but we decide to continue on. As we climb we pass some wildlife and tons of bicyclists. Apparently they hitch a ride up to the top and then come down either via the road or via the vast network of trails. Pretty cool. At the top, we find ourselves in the middle of the clouds, the temp has dropped and there are these annoying bugs that fly right into your face, bouncing into your head merciless. We return down the hill in search of a warmer temperature and an escape from the kamikaze bugs. 
Aha. We spot a little mousehole of an opening which leads to a tiny pullout surrounded by trees and voila - we find our home for the night. We make a fire and grill some trader joes sausages and sip a stout in celebration of international beer day. Bry jammed a little with the jerry Garcia band on his new harmonica (thanks Elwood) while karma the dog was taunted by the tiniest mouse I have ever seen poking in and out of holes in the ground. The 3 of us crawled into E and crashed. 
The next morning, bright and early and bry still snuggled up in bed, and I’m right outside the bus brewing a little stumptown coffee when suddenly 4 adrenaline junky mountain bikers rip down the trail right next to us. It was pretty awesome because here we are enjoying the peacefulness of an early Saturday morning out in nature… and next thing you know these 4 screaming guys having a total blast racing downhill in full gear and totally out of breath are right before us. We say good morning, they tell us we have a sweet van and then they turn onto the road and ride off. 
Saturday is all about exploring. There are plenty of provincial and regional parks in the area: Indian Arm, Becarra, Pinecone, Buntzen Lake to name the big ones. We figure our day is pretty easy. Find a spot to crab and fish, explore a little bit, and then find a spot to camp for night 2. Little did we know the obstacles. Little did we know we were going to run into so many dead ends. Indian Arm is only accessible by water, Pinecone is a backpackers dream, but no real bus camping, and Becarra and Buntzen are day use areas. We searched for forest roads hat would take us somewhere off the beaten path but no such thing. Well we got our day use out of the area, crabbing for a couple hours, letting karma swim for an hour or so, driving down plenty of tree lined roads but honestly we came up short in the camping arena. 
And hey we are literally less than an hour from our cute bach in kitsilano. So we headed back to van, grilled up some spicy shrimp tacos popped in a movie and chilled on the white leather sectional. Kind of reminds me of this backpacking trip a few years back where we hiked in 7 miles into Eagle Creek in the rain and then soaking wet and craving spicy food, we decided to hike back out and hit our favorite thai restaurant for some panang curry. Another not so shabby weekend.
