It’s easy to forget that Richmond, BC, is an island, with an island’s watery charms. I grew up there, so I say this with some authority. On the descent into Vancouver International Airport, you stare down on this busy suburban city at point-blank range and are faced with a hard, flat expanse of roadways and rooftops and retail. But look to the edge of the frame, to the soft-ripened spot where the dyke holds back the relentless Fraser River: now that’s a place you want to get to know—especially in springtime.
Richmond is on average, 1 m (3 ft) above sea level and the 49-km (31-mi) dyke that protects the island is one of the city’s key selling features—and not merely as a safety measure. It’s at once a backyard fitness track for locals, a rich habitat for migratory birds and a quiet refuge for the world-weary.
Walk it in spring, when warmer weather wakes up the abundant wildlife: start at Steveston village, where the annual farmers’ and artisans’ market gets underway in the parking lot of the historic Gulf of Georgia Cannery every Sunday from late May until September. Grab a cone of fish and chips from Dave’s or Pajo’s, and then settle down at nearby Garry Point Park to catch the serendipitous photo-op of the day: Japanese box-kites, or colourful fishing boats, or wizened old ladies practicing Tai Chi. Stay long enough, and you might even catch an epic sunset—a not-soon-forgotten magenta stain in the sky over the distant Gulf Islands. 
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