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Four of us met around 10 am in Leg-in-Boot Square. Two cycled from North Van and one of us bicycled from Richmond. Before heading to UBC along the seawall, I tried to remind my friends the story behind this square:
“… Leg-In-Boot Square in Vancouver gets its name from a century old mystery that the police at the time dealt with in the laziest and likely the most disgusting way possible.
As the story goes, in 1887 a full half of a human leg washed up on the shores of nearby False Creek, still wearing its boot. Baffled by the severed extremity, the constables seemingly decided that rather than pounding the pavement trying to find its owner, they would simply spear the leg on a pike and leave it outside the precinct office in case the owner came looking for it. Unsurprisingly, the lost leg was never claimed and after two weeks was assumedly thrown out or simply given to a stray dog in keeping with the police’s disinterest in expending any man hours on the project.
The police station that once sat in the area is long since gone, and now the spot where the washed-up appendage once sat like a meaty flag is now a cobbled shopping plaza, with a giant musical anvil as a sculptural centerpiece. No one has yet to claim the leg. “ Leg-In-Boot Square – Vancouver, British Columbia
Then we cycled along the seawall until Balsam St. Balsam St turned into Point Grey Rd. until Jericho Park. We just had a quick stop at Jericho Beach View point to refresh our minds with the names of mountains and islands. Our next stop was around Spanish Banks West Extension. Someone had made a flower arrangement in a rectangular concrete pot with a small tree and seasonal flowers around it. While munching a few goodies from our bags before riding uphill, I tried to explain why this beach has been called as Spanish Banks and the Bay as English Bay. Do you know?
“Although the first European explorers in the Strait of Georgia were the Spaniards Juan Carrasco and José María Narváez, who sighted Point Grey in 1791, the Spanish Banks were named in commemoration of the meeting of the English under George Vancouver and the Spanish under Galiano and Valdés in June 1792. While Vancouver’s maps do not show the bank, Galiano’s charts of 1792 and 1795 do. The Hudson’s Bay Company came to call the area Spanish Banks for these reasons. The name was bestowed upon them by Captain Richards of HMS Plumper during his survey of Burrard Inlet in 1859.”- Wikipedia
But the City of Vancouver was incorporated in 1886!
“English Bay and nearby Spanish Bank were named c1859 by Captain Richards, RN, in commemoration of the meeting here in June 1792 between the English under Captain Vancouver and the Spanish under Captains Galiano and Valdes.” – BC Geographical Names
After Chancellor Blvd and NW Marine Dr junction, turned to Cecil Green Park Rd, cycled along the gravel road until Trail 4. Three of us locked our bicycles and hiked down through the stairs. We saw only one guy climbing up while we were going down and a lady on the Foreshore trail when we sat down over the tree logs on the beach. During lunch we were trying to catch water birds or seals on our eye level on this grey day…
After hiking up the stairs, we kept going along SW Marine Dr until the ViewPoint. This is one of the neat spots along SW Marine Drive where you can look out across the Strait of Georgia towards Vancouver Island and very close to the extension of Iona Beach and the North Arm of Fraser River. Afterwards, we crossed the SW Marine Dr to enter into the Pacific Spirit Park’s trail. Later on we cycled on the Midtown cycling route after Camosun St until Cypress Route. One had left around Arbutus route to go south. I bicycled with my North Van friends until W 7th along the Cypress route.
The weather was supposed to be sunny. But all of us were happy not to be sweating or needing any sun screens…
Here is the link to see my photos during the ride on May 5: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmVxfUpC
I had done recce last Sunday. You can see the photos of Tower Beach from here: https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=72304470%40N00&sort=date-taken-desc&text=tower%20beach&view_all=1
See you on the trails…
Bengül
No problem, Matthias!
I have been reading Derek Hayes’ Historical Atlas of Vancouver and the Lower Fraser Valley nowadays. Derek Hayes’ book or atlas of Vancouver’s history has full of original maps and the info. It is fascinating…
See you on the trails!
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