Alouette Mt.

With Sarah away, I got bored (didn't take long), so Maggie and I headed to Alouette Mountain in Golden Ears Provincial Park for a short (22km) walk. This is the view from the summit. Usually I prefer something nicer, but we can see this mountain from our house, so now I can at least say I've climbed that bump.

I had lunch here, so I played with my camera while my legs came back to life. I got to the trailhead at 8:30, so everything was still covered with dew. By the time I reached the summit I was soaked through. Luckily, few people try this trail (wimps), so I could sit in my underwear while everything dried off (no pictures of that - sorry).

 Another picture from the summit. Looking north.

This is Blanchard Peak. A bit too extreme for my taste, but it makes for a nice view.

Maggie did pretty well for an old girl. I thought I'd poop her out, but she was still game for a walk this morning. This is her in the backyard this morning.


That's all I've been up to so far, I may go camping next weekend though, we'll see how that goes.


R

Joffre Lakes

We have been busy this summer, with lots of outings, adventures and other interesting things. So busy, in fact, that we haven't had time to post blogs. This trip, to Joffre Lakes, near Pemberton, was actually before the trip to Semaphore Lakes (below), but it got lost in the shuffle.
With the long days of summer, we've been going as far as possible from Vancouver on Friday nights so we're near the trailhead in the morning. This picture was taken in Pemberton in the evening. Pemberton has to be among the most beautiful villages in Canada (contrast to Sudbury).
Devil's club. It's very photogenic, but seriously painful to touch.
Joffre Lakes is in a provincial park, and rightly so, the spot is quite beautiful. This is the third lake, right below the glacier.
The glacier in question.
Usually I think it's stupid to filter this glacier water, it clogs the filter, and it's pretty much pure anyways. Unfortunately, idiot visitors tend to make a mess of things, so here it was probably necessary. A new friend, Jérôme, and his girlfriend Coleen, came up with us... they elected to carry water for the whole trip. Newbies.
I only prepare my President's Choice pre-packaged hot chocolate with glacier water, and ditto my Tuna Helper (take that snobby Torontonians who reserve it for their Scotch)
The place was ridiculously busy on Saturday night, but most of the tourists had left by noon the next day, leaving relatively peaceful for Sarah and I.

We climbed about the lake, just for something to do. A very neat spot. Mountaineers like it because they can climb the terrifying mountains nearby.
That's about it... Pretty ho hum. For those of you who don't really follow the blog (mom & dad), there are a couple of recent posts below.

Hail storm video

Semaphore Lakes - round 2

We have more updating to do, but this is our most recent camping trip. We went to Semaphore Lakes a couple of years ago with Tim and Evan (friends from U of Guelph) and decided to head back there to introduce our new friend, Celia (who just moved to northern BC from northern SK), to the great BC outdoors (specifically the Pemberton area).


We did some yoga.

We saw a hummingbird.

Remi and Celia hung a bad ass bear-hang.

We had our tents in a gorgeous location. To the other side is the mountain range containing the glacier.

We climbed up to the glacier.




We made it!



Then we made our way back down - significantly faster than going up!


Maggie barked.

Celia left us a day early to meet up with a friend in Whistler, so we hiked her part way out.

Maggie tried to tag along.

On her way out, presumably to deter bears, Celia sang to herself. She wrote this rap:

I'm hiking in pemberton, central bc
I really like camping w friends Sarah and Remi
I may get a soaker but it doesn't get me down
Because I'm so happy to get out of town
The views are great and it's really very cool
To take a dip in a glacier pool
To see the glacier, We scramble snow androcks
And we don't care how the clock ticks and tocks
Sum of four peaks is a really great time
And unlike whistler, it doesn't cost a dime!

Thanks for joining us, Celia!

A little sun bathing the next day.

Then it was our turn to hike out!





Below is in Pemberton. We love it there! Too bad there's not a big hospital with clinical pharmacy services and lots of jobs for fisheries biologists ;)

The logging road on the way out was a little bumpy and close to the drop off! But we made it. Below are a couple of videos. One of the logging road (the Sunfire can handle it!) and one of us descending the mountain. There were no bears this time but there was a giant hail storm! I'll attach a video of that too ;)

Sarah