Tag Archives: Sunnyside Urban Forest

Hemlock Park

March 11, 2014 Maurice 1 Comment

Bailey and I have been out for a couple of long walks through some parks recently. The first we went to was Sunnyside Acres Urban Forest in south Surrey. It’s one of my favorite parks, but man oh man was it in bad shape! The recent snow has created huge puddles that make a lot of the trails virtually impossible to walk. We had to back track several times in order to find a passage.

The trees have been damaged too – there are many trees snapped off in the middle, others have been torn up right at the roots, and branch debris litters a lot of the pathways. It’s kinda sad really. Such a lovely park. Hopefully the crews will get in there and make things better!

One thing really interesting that we saw was this bear! Yep, a bear in Sunnyside! Kinda scary – although I have to admit, having Bailey there to protect me made it easier to deal with.

On Tuesday we headed to a new park called Hemlock Park in north Surrey. It’s a medium sized park, with lots of paths through some very large Western Red cedars, towering Douglas Firs and of course lots of hemlock. The paths were very dry and we were able to navigate the whole park easily.

Nice park if you live in the neighbourhood, but a bit of a drive for us. Other parks in the area are larger, like Green Timbers and Tynehead. Still, was neat to see some of the large stumps leftover from the logging many years ago. This one Bailey is sitting in front of had to be thirty-five feet around, maybe even more!

About Bailey

Two parks with Bailey

June 13, 2013 Maurice 6 Comments

Bailey has been adapting to her new home quite well. She’s an early riser, though, that’s for sure! She has gotten me up at six, which is about an hour before I’m really ready to get up. I was thinking she needed to go out, but nope, she just wants to get her day started!

We’ve taken her to a couple of parks and she’s loved it. Hawthorne Park was one of Max’s favorite parks. It has a great big duck pond, and Bailey loved it, too. She wanted to hop down into the pond, but it’s fenced so she tried to sneak under it!

There is also a water park there, and we started up a bunch of the various fountains for her, and she lapped up the water. Pretty funny.

Today (Thursday) I took her for a run through Sunnyside Urban Forest. It’s a great park, with lots of trails through the forest. She is not great at socializing yet – she apparently had a very sheltered first year, and hasn’t had an opportunity to meet a lot of dogs. Well, that’s going to change with us, since we’re always in one park or another.

Today she met a couple big dogs, a Golden/Mastiff cross and something that looked like a short haired Samoyed, both female. She apparently has real issues with female dogs, but both meetings came off very well. I was very pleased with how that went, and not a little surprised too!

We’ve been continuing her daily training, and we’re teaching her a new trick – she is sitting in front of us, and we pretend to get her to come between our legs, but she darts around behind us, and comes through our legs from the rear! It’s darn cute. Hopefully we’ll get it perfected so we can take a movie of it.

Anyway – all is good. Well – not all – she does have a habit of drinking with her mouth quite deep in the water dish, and then dripping all over the place! It’s kinda funny, until you see she has dripped in huge puddles all over the kitchen and stairs leading to the family room! haha

All About Max

New Look

September 4, 2010 Maurice 2 Comments

When we were in Calgary for my Dad’s 80th, my sister gave us a little present for Max.

Max had been staying with Anna-Maria, our wonderful dog sitter while we drove to Calgary. She had taken him for a walk and he kinda overdid it, so we haven’t taken him out for a couple days. We’ve let him recuperate at home, but yesterday he seemed ready and eager to get out and about.

We took him down to our “fave park of the minute,” Sunnyside Acres Urban Forest, and we took a spin around Chickadee Loop trail.

Doesn’t he look sharp in his new outfit? I think he was getting tired of the green scarf! haha It’s a cool kinda scarf – it has a plastic snap clasp like a lot of dog collars, so it’s even easier to “tie on.”

Max says “woof woof!” Which apparently translates to “Thanks eh? Makes me look sharp!”

All About Max, Surrey Parks

Return to Sunnyside

May 20, 2010 Maurice 1 Comment

Pam and I both love Sunnyside Acres Urban Forest in South Surrey, so today we headed back for another tour. It’s a great space, so very neat to wander among these large trees. It was not very crowded so that made it even nicer. We came across only 3 or 4 other people, all walking their dogs!

The park is the source of Elgin Creek, which runs all the way to the ocean, but we have not been able to find the headwaters yet. We took the Douglas Fir trail, then branched off to the Moss Trail. We finally got back on Chickadee loop trail and back to the parking lot. The Douglas Fir and Moss trails are narrow, wide enough for one person only really. It’s a very neat walk, the trees and bushes brush against you as you meander down the hills. There are lots of berries coming into season, and Pam loves to stop for a quick snack!

Max is able to be off leash here, since there are so few people in the park. He loves to try to get the squirrels, but they just laugh at him. This joker pictured here had a nut in his hands, and plopped himself down on this branch and proceeded to drop the casings down on Max’s head! Quite a funny little guy. The park is full of them, prancing around the trails, inspiring Max to give chase.

It’s a great way to spend a couple hours!

All About Max, Surrey Parks

Sunnyside Acres Urban Forest

May 12, 2010 Maurice Leave a comment

Today we took a walk in a park called Sunnyside Acres Urban Forest in South Surrey, basically in White Rock. It was a really cool park, with nice trails, and a walking itinerary provided for you at the main parking lot. The site was logged early in this century, but has been naturally re-forested, as opposed to being re-planted.

The trees are quite enormous, and offered a wonderful natural walk through the trails. There are lots of paths that have numbered sign posts on them, and each of the sign posts corresponds to a pamphlet that you can pick up at the entrance. It tells you what might be growing there, and what to look for. It is a very well signed park, and really quite a nice experience.

Pam was quite impressed with the size of the ferns! They have a wonderful vibrant green, quite different from a lot of other ferns growing around the Lower Mainland. The color is a brighter, lighter shade of green. It was quite striking.

Also pictured here is a trillium! It’s quite late in the year for the trillium to still be in bloom, so we were quite surprised, but pleased to see one! We had been in Tynehead Park the other day and walked up Trillium Trail, but there were none left in bloom. Sunnyside had a Trillium Trail as well, and here was the last bloom of the season! Nice!