Hiking Cheam Peak in Chilliwack
On Sunday of the August long weekend my brother and I scaled Cheam Peak located just outside Chilliwack, BC. A truly breathtaking hike through alpine meadows towards an unobstructed and panoramic view of the Fraser Valley. The peak is visible as a prominent landmark from the well traveled Trans Canada Highway that will evoke great memories every time I pass by it.
You can see the location of the hike on the map below, or a larger version here. It's just east of Chilliwack but getting to the trail head is no easy feat. It's a one hour drive from Chiliwack following Chilliwack Lake Rd to Foley Creek Forest Service Rd. From there you take Chipmunk Creek Forest Service Rd where you will need a four wheel drive vehicle with reasonable ground clearance. I don't recommend anything less as you are liable to get stuck, break your vehicle, or both.
You can download my GPX or KML files for use in your own GPS trackers or mapping tools.
Here is the hike profile.
Though we had a relatively early start to the day, there were already quite a few cars in the parking area at the top.
The hike starts off with a well marked trail and gradual rise.
As you continue to gain elevation, you catch sight of a peak in the distance. I initially thought this was Cheam but it turns out this is a different peak called Lady Peak. There is a trail to that peak as well and it shares the initial part of the route with Cheam. I'll have to come back to bag that one another day :)
Since much of the elevation gain was on the drive up to the trail head, you are very quickly walking through the upper alpine area. Views are just stunning (click for bigger).
At about the half way mark of the hike, there is a slight detour that will take you to a nice view to the northeast and a look at Jones Lake.
The final stretch is well above the trees, exposed, and when we went quite hot.
Looking back from the rise to the summit.
The final stretch to the summit of Cheam, panoramic views in all directions.
Views from the summit (click for bigger).
Views from the top.
Shots from the way down, just a stellar day for a walk in the mountains.
I'm testing the app Relive which will draw the hike on a 3D map and add photos. It's fun and the result is shown below.
Relive 'Cheam Peak'
You can view some of my other hiking related posts at these links:
- Hike to Saint Marks Summit
- Hiking the Binkert Trail To The Lions
- Lynn Valley Hike – North Vancouver
- Hiking Stawamus Chief South Peak – Squamish, BC
A Visit to Pacific Northwest Raptors
Last weekend, my wife and I visited The Raptors for an all-day raptor experience. Located a short drive from Duncan on Vancouver Island and definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. We enjoyed it so much we brought our kids and their grandparents the very next day so they could experience it as well. Not only did we get to hold some awesome birds on our glove, we got to see the flying demo and participate in the Hawk Walk. Overall, a great time and highly recommended if you want to get up close to some birds of prey.
Plenty of photo opportunities as well, here are a few of my shots. All taken with my new combo of the Nikon Z7 and Nikkor Z 24-70 f/4 S.
Golden Eagle
Gyrfalcon, which was also in the flying demo. Very cool.
Lindsay holding this beauty.
Great Horned Owl, possibly my favorite. During the flying demo he gets so close to the audience you can feel his wingtips on your head.
Bald Eagle. Just awesome to see such a beautiful bird up close.
Boomer, the entertaining Kookaburra
Spectacled Owl
Turkey Vulture
Red Tailed Hawk coming in for a landing during the Hawk Walk.
Saker Falcon
American Kestrel
Nikon Z7 : High ISO, IBIS, Focus Peaking
I took a walk around my neighborhood with my kids to look for fall mushrooms and flowers. I wanted to test a few aspects of the Nikon Z7 including high ISO shots, ability of the in body image stabilization (IBIS) to steady shots at slower shutter speeds, and the focus peaking (which none of my previous cameras have offered). To test, I mounted my 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro Nikkor lens on the FTZ adapter and headed out. It was late afternoon light with some heavy tree cover at times, I first tested focus tracking by trying to get some shots of my kids. I was quite disappointed with the performance of the Z7/105 combo, the tracking was terrible. The camera missed almost every shot, even with the kids just walking. The 105 was never a good performer in this regard and it continues it's poor performance on the Z7.
Regardless, I tested on some static subjects and the results were quite good. Fairly clean output at ISO 3200.
Test of manual focus with peaking, worked very well.
This squirrel was running around and I managed a shot. It's acceptably sharp for web use but not ideal.
This girl was moving on the web and the web was also moving in the breeze. Of 30 or so shots only two yielded results worth sharing.
This shot was at 1/80s hand held but I tested as slow as 1/5s and could get reasonably sharp photos. I don't think that would have been possible with my D810, even with a VR lens.
Nikon Z7 First Shots
One of my favorite places to visit is the Vancouver Aquarium, and that is exactly where I went to test out the new Nikon Z7. I only had a short amount of time so only two test shots but more to come soon.
