Park Crest Diner and a Hole in One Fence- May 31st 2025

Iain writes:-

Well today was a day. The forecast was not great, rain pretty much all day but since we had breakfast booked at 0900 in the Park Crest Diner in Burnaby we were going anyway. In the end seven of the eight scheduled members turned up at Waterfront Station with wet weather gear and bikes. The eighth member let us know in plenty of time that they would not be attending, because of the weather, good job! Thankyou for that.

The first part of the journey was pretty fast, we then slowed down as we headed south east through Beecher Park and the Andrew Long Green Trail, the latter of which was a real city escape. At the diner we were greeted like long lost friends after last year’s visit, we even had the same tables. The menu is classic breakfast, eggs, hash browns, sausages and so on. We were tempted to stay for pie and ice cream but felt this was better left for another day. The diner is well worth a visit, lovely staff and a genuine retro feel about the place, a classic diner.

While we were in the diner the weather had deteriorated so we came up with an alternate route back downtown that didn’t involve the trip along the Fraser. Off we went southwards, crossing Still Creek and passing the Christine Sinclair Community Centre and Deer Lake before the steep ascent through Buckingham Heights. After that the navigation fell apart (I’d failed to restart it) and despite the number of times I’ve cycled through New West it’s still tricky. Anyway after a few stops and starts we picked up the BC Parkway.

The journey back was event free and we all split up to go our separate ways and head for home to get warm and dry and put the kettle on.

We were glad we went, it was a 40km day out in pretty miserable conditions. In the way of outdoor activities as we returned home the rain stopped and the sun came out. And we didn’t even get to the First Hole in the Fence, next time.

The route was split into two, here is the first part and here is the second part