The main ceremony will take place from approximately 6:15 to 8:00am, rain or shine.  If you don’t want to take part in the main event, residents are encouraged to turn out along the route that the Torch will be taking to help cheer the torchbearers on.

The Torch will be leaving the area of Telosky Stadium around 7:06, and travel west along Lougheed Highway, where it will turn and go up 227th to Dewdney Trunk Road.  The route will continue west to 224th, where they’ll turn south and head into Memorial Peace Park.  For the trip to Pitt Meadows, the Torch will head south on 224th, turning right at Lougheed Highway again, and moving west all the way down to Harris Road.

Please be aware that there will be rolling road closures on that morning, which means that those needing to get across the Pitt River Bridges may be impacted at some point.

Now, getting away from all of the ‘headache’ news about the Torch Relay – come out and take part in a celebration the likes of which Ridge-Meadows has never seen.  A Continental breakfast will be served, and there will be a min-torch run for the kids, along with some interactive games.  Along with a flag-raising ceremony (complete with O Canada), there will be a Spirit of Wood unveiling to mark the event, and an appearance by some of our Home Town Hero athletes.

Show your Canadian spirit by wearing red and white, and come and take part in a very special part of the Olympic experience.

For more information, please contact Pat Shiratti at 604.467.7342 (or email pshiratti@mapleridge.ca)

Andrew Douglas (ad@ridgemeadowspost.com)

I have to admit to being a little disappointed that there weren’t more submissions.  Maybe when the readership is higher next Christmas, we’ll have more submissions.

Regardless, here are the displays, in no particular order.  While I don’t have specific addresses (except in one case), I’ve included the closest intersection.

203 St. & 123rd Ave.

Unfortunately I didn’t get photos of this one.  But without a doubt, this is one of the longest running light displays in Maple Ridge that I know of, running back to at least the late 1990s.  The display doesn’t appear (in my opinion) to change a whole lot from year to year (and if it does, I’m sure I’ll hear about it), but it’s still a great display.  The first major light display that I can remember coming across in Maple Ridge.

21456 122nd Ave.

This was a submission from the owners, Bob & Gail Watson, and I’ll include the information on the display from their email:  It’s that time of year and once again Bob & Gail Watson have turned on the Christmas lights.

Santa and his dancing penguins are next to the north pole.   Rudolph and the gang are there too.  The ferris wheel, igloo, a chevo-sleigh, and do not forget the nativity scene.  This is all highlighted with flashing stars, snow flakes and Christmas ornaments dancing in the air.

Donations gratefully accepted for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. 

I haven’t been able to visit this house yet, but we should be going on a light tour this evening after we watch the CP Rail Holiday Train run through Maple Ridge on its way to Port Moody. 

Cypress Place & Somerset Dr., Pitt Meadows

This was one that we discovered on one of our “light hunting” drives.  The kind where you just drive around slowly looking for the glow of lights that’s just a little brighter than expected coming out of side streets.  This is one that we’ve seen in the past, but I had completely forgotten about until we came across it the other night.

It looked absolutely great with all the snow that we had last week.  Thankfully I was able to get a couple of pictures, one of which is included to the right.  One of the good things about this display is that it’s off the main roads a little bit, so if you wanted to take the family, you don’t necessarily have to worry as much about little ones and traffic.

This is another long-running display that you should try to visit each and every year.  It’s worth the drive, without question.

216th Ave. & 122nd St.

This is the one that you may have already seen on the local CTV news.  Over 40,000 lights were put into this display, and from what I can tell, they all appear to be LED lights, as well.  Remember when you were a kid looking at huge light displays and your parents always used to wonder about how much the hydro bill would be to run that thing for a month?

Not an issue here. 

This is one that my wife had found, and she took me out one night, saying that this house had a “pretty cool display” that I might want to see.  Boy was she right.  The photo that I was able to get really doesn’t do this display justice.  The whole thing just seems to spread out forever, encompassing the whole yard, including the hedges, fence and mailbox.

Displays that we were informed of but haven’t had a chance to check yet, include:

• 228 Ave. & 128 St.
• 232 Ave. north of Dewdney Trunk Road

Thank you so much to Sue Van Balkom for those listings.

So there you have it.  The light display submissions that we received this year.  Unfortunately we haven’t had a chance to visit them all yet, but should be taking care of that this evening.  When I get photos of some of the others, I’ll include them as well.

Now we want to hear from you.  What do you think is the best light display in Maple Ridge?  One of the ones listed above, or one that we didn’t cover?  Let us know in the comments, and on December 24th, I’ll announce the most popular display of 2009.

Andrew Douglas (ad@ridgemeadowspost.com)

The Holiday Train will be stopping in Maple Ridge again this year, at its usual stopping point, across from the Billy Miner Pub, on Friday, December 18th from 7:45 to 8:15pm.

If you’ve never had the opportunity to get out and see the train as it rolls through your community, you really should.  The train is decorated with lights, and makes the journey across the country, ending up in Port Moody, usually the weekend before Christmas.  Maple Ridge is the last stop on the tour before the train rolls up to its final destination.  CP has put up a photo gallery from past years, and there’s also video footage around if you know where to look.

This year’s entertainment consists of Shaun Verreault, the lead singer for Wide Mouth Mason, and alt-rockers The Odds.  Not to be exceedingly picky about it, but the music does tend to be a little louder than I’d want to bringing children to, but at the same time, getting that many people moving around and dancing when it’s a dark, cold, rainy night in December is always a welcome thing.  And hey, it’s all about celebrating Christmas, and helping out the local food banks.

Be sure to get there early as this is an event that’s extremely popular, considering that the train only makes three stops in the Lower Mainland (Agassiz, Maple Ridge and Port Moody), and it always feels like you’re having to park about a mile away from the site where the train stops.

Nonetheless, head out to the pub on Friday night and catch the train as it rolls through, and please don’t forget to make a donation, whether food or cash for the Friends In Need Food Bank.

Andrew Douglas (ad@ridgemeadowspost.com)

The annual Maple Ridge Santa Claus Parade is a tradition that’s not to be missed, and this year’s Christmas in the Park and Santa Claus Parade takes place this Saturday, December 5th from 4-8pm at Memorial Peace Park.

It’s supposed to be cool on Saturday, so make sure that you bring your mug and have some free hot chocolate.  A lawn chair might also not be a bad idea, as sitting on the cold ground isn’t really a fun way to spend an evening, particularly when you bring the kids along.  They’ll love all the lights, colours, and sounds of Christmas, including the carol sing-along.  They can even get their photos taken with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

The parade starts at 6pm, but getting there early is recommended, as the dry weather is going to bring even more people out.  Especially if we get the snow on Friday that the weather forecasters have been hinting at.

For more information on the festivities, email mapleridgechristmas@gmail.com

We’ll be there on Saturday night, and will have photos on Monday morning.  We’ll also be at the celebration in Pitt Meadows on Friday night as well.

Andrew Douglas (ad@ridgemeadowspost.com)

So we want to hear from our readers.  Where are the best lights displays that you’ve seen lately, in either Maple Ridge or Pitt Meadows? Do displays get bigger each year, or smaller?  Do they change each Christmas, or do people have a tendency to put up the same display year after year?

I’m the first to admit that while we generally try to have a look at some interesting light displays, there haven’t been a whole lot of the big displays out here.  We always check out the one at 203rd St and 123rd Avenue, but other than that, it’s really a guessing game of driving around (hopefully on a night that it’s not pouring rain) and looking for that familiar glow down side streets that signal that you might have come across a great setup.

So we’d like to hear from you.  Where have you seen great Christmas light displays this year?  You can send us either the complete address, or just an intersection.  Or just tell us the street that the display is on.  If you’ve got pictures, by all means send them in.  On Friday, December 11th, we’ll run a post with the details on all the best light displays in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.

You can either comment on this post, or email me at ad@ridgemeadowspost.com

Andrew Douglas (ad@ridgemeadowspost.com)

Come out to the Spirit Square in Pitt Meadows on Friday, December 4th at 6:30pm for the lighting of the Christmas tree.  Hot chocolate will be provided, along with entertainment.  Requests for more information on the entertainment weren’t returned by the time this post was published.

For more information, contact the Pitt Meadows Community Foundation at 604.465.4772, or email mdhayes@telus.net

Andrew Douglas (ad@ridgemeadowspost.com)

The Farmer’s Market will be holding their annual winter market on Saturday, December 5th, from 10am to 3pm at St. Andrew’s Haney United Church (222nd St and Dewdney Trunk Road).

Stop by and get some gift ideas, or consider some of the baking, meat, or seafood that will be available for sale.

The students of Odyssey Community School have come up with a Silly Santa concept.  Make sure you get your photo taken with the Silly Santa.

There will also be crafts for kids, and tickets for the Breakfast with Santa held at the church on Saturday, December 12, will also be available for sale at that time.

For more information, email hfminfo@haneyfarmersmarket.org or call 604.467.7433

Andrew Douglas (ad@ridgemeadowspost.com)

I don’t know what it is, but I happen to have a thing for wind storms.  Not for the damage that they do, obviously, but I love being inside watching the wind blow.

Thankfully the flood warnings have been canceled, though.  There’s absolutely nothing fun about flooding, and having to fight to try and save your home from being destroyed because a river broke its banks, as happened on Vancouver Island over the weekend, is something that you hope that no one ever has to go through.

Regardless of whether or not you tend to lose power during storms or not, it’s always a good idea to have an emergency kit ready just in case.  BC Hydro explains what you should have in your home preparedness kit.  Our home is pretty well set, although I should probably pick up some more batteries for the radio.

What do you do to get ready for what seems to be the all-too-common November storms around here?

Andrew Douglas (ad@ridgemeadowspost.com)

As I get older, though, Remembrance Day ceremonies seem to take on more and more significance.  Had my father-in-law not been hidden by Canadian soldiers during the German invasions, he wouldn’t have been able to make it to Canada after the war, and I wouldn’t be married to my wonderful wife.  That’s a thought that can sober you up pretty quickly.

While most ceremonies tend to take place on a cold, rainy morning, the almost pleasant weather seemed to bring more people out for the Maple Ridge Remembrance Day ceremonies at Peace Memorial Park last Wednesday.  Not that I’d like to see fewer people coming out, but I have a bit of a preference for the cold, gray, dismal morning, simply because I don’t believe that war should be remembered on a warm sunny day.  There’s nothing pleasant about it at all.

Andrew Douglas (ad@ridgemeadowspost.com)

What the heck is ‘geocaching’?  Essentially, it’s a game of hide and seek with worldwide participants.  Using a handheld GPS receiver, participants try to locate a ‘cache’ which at the minimum usually contains a logbook that those who find the cache are able to sign, although it may contain a few small trinkets that can be traded for something that the person finding the cache has brought with them.  But the whole point of the game is the thrill of the hunt.

What does a cache look like?  It depends on the person who hid it.  A cache can range in size from the size of your little finger (known as a nanocache), although it could be as large as a 5 gallon plastic bucket.  The typical cache, though is a small waterproof container (ie, Tupperware) or an ammunition box that has been placed somewhere for others to find.

“But wouldn’t someone just take the cache or vandalize it?”, you might be asking.  Perhaps.  But some caches have been hidden and available for a fairly long period of time.  Most people would be quite surprised to learn that there is a cache hidden in a parking lot somewhere in Maple Ridge that has been there since May of 2006!  It’s been found 10 times since the end of August, and five times in October alone.

In fact, checking Geocaching.com, a site which lists the co-ordinates to caches in a given area, I was able to find 140 caches listed in a 10km circle around Lougheed Highway and 216th Street.  Some of those are across the river in Langley, and some may be as far east as Poco, but you could spend a lot enjoyable time hunting for caches just in the Maple Ridge area.

So what do you need to participate?  A handheld GPS receiver for one thing.  The versions used by hikers for example, work better than those used simply for assisting you with driving.  Although I do know of someone who uses the ‘driving GPS’ for geocaching because it also shows the latitude and longitude co-ordinates in real time, which can provide an extra bit of a challenge when trying to find a cache.

Now, you may be reading this and thinking, “I don’t know about this,” and it goes without saying that having people poking around looking for hidden treasure could draw the attention of the local gendarmes.  Most geocaching websites and organizations encourage those who hide caches to exercise a little common sense when placing their caches.  Placing them near schools and playgrounds is frowned upon for obvious reasons, as well as placing them on private property that isn’t your own.  Hides near courthouses, banks, government offices, etc., are also discouraged.  Caches have been detonated by bomb squads simply due to the location they were hidden in.

All of that goes without saying, though, that for everyone who chooses to participate, it’s a very enjoyable hobby – certainly better than sitting in front of a computer all summer.

Why not pick up a handheld GPS, sign up on Geocaching.com, punch your postal code in and see how many caches are hidden around your place?  Trust me – you’ll be surprised at just how many there are.

Andrew Douglas (ad@ridgemeadowspost.com)