Hiking Mount Harvey
Interactive 3D map of the hike via Relive also available
I completed this hike on October 7, 2020 but didn't post until Feb 2022. I guess I'm a little behind in my site updates. Mount Harvey sits between The Lions and Brunswick Mountain and is a significant peak close to Vancouver. I have been up all three peaks and they are all worth climbing for the stellar views and the challenge. In this post I'll cover part of the route and show some images from the summit No hardcore scrambles but there are technical sections, good boots and decent fitness are necessary. The profile is shown below, with grades in excess of 30% it will give even experience hikers a challenge.
I knew I wanted to hike Harvey when I saw it from the top of Brunswick, seen here (below) looming over the valley.
Harvey, Brunswick, and the Lions can all be accessed via the same trail starting at the end of Sunset Drive in Lions Bay. Parking is limited, get there early and make sure you pay or you will get a ticket. The trail to Brunswick peels off first (to the left), but stay on the trail marked for The Lions/Harvey.
It starts fairly easy, a nice wide trail through the forest.
After a while you will find another set of signs, but these are not as well marked and the trail for Harvey is not that obvious (quality of the photos isn't great either, sorry). Here, the big trail carries on to the right and will take you to the Lions but to the left (and up) you start your climb of Mt. Harvey.
The next while is a fairly steep slog though the forest following what is, at times, a poorly marked trail.
You eventually come out of the timber, trees give way to a meadow.
Views are spectacular, despite still needing to cover some vertical to reach the summit. You get a good view of The Lions, and the peaks beyond.
The summit is spectacular, definitely worth the climb.
A view of Brunswick Mountain, the tallest peak in the region. This angle makes it look relatively tame but the summit is amazing.
A few more images from the summit. It was such a nice day, I didn't want to come back down.
One more shot as I started my descent. The hike took 8 hours start to finish, with at least an hour on the summit to refuel and enjoy the panoramic views.
East Van Visitor
Moon shot with Nikon Z7 and AF-S Nikkor 500mm f/5.6 PF
Just a quick post showing the great performance of the Nikon Z7 combined with the AF-S Nikkor 500mm f/5.6 PF lens. Significant crop from the full frame, edited in Capture One and Photoshop.
1/500s, ISO 200, f/8, 500mm
Birds, Bunnies, and Bugs with Nikon Z7 and Nikkor 500mm f/5.6 PF
Not my usual post as I just want to share the images and not write too much about an otherwise uneventful day. These images were shot at Jericho Beach in Vancouver, BC using the Nikon Z7 and Nikkor 500mm f/5.6 PF lens. The rabbits are feral and while technically wild they let people get fairly close. You certainly don't need a 500mm lens to get decent shots here. A few of my favorites from the day first then the rest.
Hiking Brunswick Mountain
You can download my GPX or KML files for use in your own GPS trackers or mapping tools.
Brunswick Mountain is the tallest peak in the North Shore Mountains at 1788m and has a panoramic view of Howe Sound and other popular peaks including the Lions. My Garmin told me I climbed 1561m over a 17 km round trip with grades over 40%, which made for a long day. The effort is worth it in the end though, it's not often you get to look down on Mt. Harvey, Sky Pilot, the Lions, and everything else around. The hike starts at the end of Sunset Drive in Lions Bay, but there are only a handful of parking spaces and this is the trailhead for several popular hikes. It's pay parking and they will ticket you. Nothing is free these days, not even hiking.
The 2D profile for the hike is shown below. It gets progressively more steep as you go.
The trail gets into dense coastal forest immediately. I took a different route up on the lower slopes than I did coming back (see map above), and it was steeper so I don't necessarily recommend that section of trail. I did find an old truck frame though which is slowly sinking into the forest.
From the initial section of gravel trail you will come to the route marker showing the way to the Lions and to Brunswick. Don't miss the marker otherwise you are climbing the Lions. The way to Brunswick is narrow and over grown, easy to miss. Once on the Brunswick trail you start climbing through the forest with only slugs to see. The trail never seems to end and around every corner is just more of the same. New views at all, you just have to get through it.
As I was hiking I started to encounter fog/clouds and I was worried that the summit might be in cloud cover but I pressed on hoping for the best.
The trees eventually start to thin out but the trail gets even steeper from this point.
After more climbing, you start to see the first views through the trees. You have already gained significant elevation by this point, but there is plenty ahead.
You will come to an intersection with the Howe Sound Crest Trail and there are makers on several trees. You can head left to Brunswick Lake, Hanover Lake, or Deeks Lake. To the right is Mount Harvey, the Lions, and eventually Cypress. Straight ahead (and up) is Brunswick, it should be somewhat obvious at this point.
The trail isn't always obvious, but there are orange markers to help lead the way.
The views are starting to get good though, making the effort easier.
The last section of the climb is steep and sometimes loose.
You will reach a plateau where you can finally see over the mountain, but the true summit is just to the right.
Some views before the final summit push.
The summit is actually three separate peaks. This is peak 1 (which you can see in on the map at the top).
If you want to try and tackle the other two peaks it is possible without any special gear. This view doesn't show it clearly but there is a definite gap between all three peaks with the gap between the first and second being the most tricky. Obviously a mistake here has high consequences so I don't recommend it unless you are comfortable with such hiking.
The gully between the first and second peaks. It's a long way down.
Raven keeping me company.
The approach to the second summit is a bit sketchy. I'm not a fan of heights and I just mad sure not to look down too much.
Once on the second peak, you will find some remnants of a structure that is now a bench. You can see the view back to the first peak here as well.
Final push to the third peak.
The third and what seems like the highest peak of the three. Standing on the highest point in the north shore, which is a very cool feeling.
It's a harsh life for the plants and animals up here.
Hikers on the first peak. Don't want to slip here.
Some final views from the summit, then the long road home.
Mount Harvey in the valley, Lions in the distance, Howe Sound to the right.
Focus Shift Shooting with the Nikon Z7 and 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro-Nikkor
None of my previous cameras had the focus shift feature so I decided to give it a try today. We had great light and my wife's flowers are in full bloom and made for good test subjects. There was a very slight breeze but the alignment seems to have done a good job with the slight movement between frames. If you don't know what focus shift shooting is you can read a bit about Nikon's implementation here. Essentially, the camera will take a series of exposures while slightly adjusting the focus between each frame. This allows a razor thin plane of focus to actually move through the subject thus getting it all in sharp focus. You need to stack the files into a single image using post processing techniques, today I tried this in Photoshop and Zerene Stacker. I had better results in Photoshop but admittedly I'm a rookie with Zerene.
One thing to note, despite having a very fast computer, processing 30 or so images, each a 45 megapixel raw file, brought the PC to its knees :) Might be time for another upgrade. I did four stacks with Photoshop and I'm sharing my Zerene shots at the end, they have issues.
I think all of the flowers shown here are varieties of dhalia.
Detail
Flower 2
Detail
Flower 3 (my favorite one)
Detail
Black and white conversion. Might need a bit more work but that is all the time I have today for editing :)
Detail
A couple of samples with Zerene. I tried both the DMap and PMax types but preferred the Photoshop stack to either. The DMap one has some very strange artifacts in the OOF areas, no idea why.
Vancouver Aquarium Macro
I have been to the Vancouver Aquarium many times before and always enjoy the visit. Today I took my six year old twins once again, and brought along my macro lens for some shots. Before we left the house, I noticed some of our flowers had recently been covered by rain. 
Even though the tanks and displays don't change too often, you always witness new and interesting behaviour by the animals that live there. It's always worth a return visit.
The best part of our visit today was that there were many butterflies on display in the tropical section. The kids loved it.
