Attempt on Mt Outram

Having been unsuccessful at finding someone to go camping with me (read: no friends), I decided to go alone to Mt Outram, a 2400 something meter summit just outside of Manning Park, east of Vancouver.
The trail winds up quickly from the parking lot to get to this old road, made in the late 19th century during the Gold Rush. The route was mapped out by Sir Sanford Flemming, in case you were interested.

This is a view from part way up. I was pretty tired by this point, the trail climbs 1800m to the summit over 9km, with an average grade of 20% (that's steep).

Somewhere around here my idiot dog decided to chase marmots for a while, and totally disappeared from sight. After I yelled like an idiot for a while, she eventually deigned to come back up to meet me.

Here she is... the quality of this picture isn't very good, but I don't feel like fixing it.

Anyhow, this was merely an attempt at Mt Outram. This lake, somewhere around 2000m up (1400m or so up from the parking lot), where I was planning on spending the night, also turned out to be used by a large black bear. I stumbled across him just behind that ridge on the right. I'd have taken a picture, but I had to choose between the bear mace and my camera, and I knew I had the wrong lens on, so I went for the mace.

I sat here for a while, had lunch, and debated whether or not I should still stay the night. Being upwind from the bear, I decided against, figuring he'd be over that rise before he knew I was around, and I'd end up shooting the bear spray into the wind. Two strikes against staying. Having already suffered enough carrying a bunch of now useless gear up the hill, I decided against working towards the summit, and shot a few more pictures before heading down.

There was a nice cool wind, and it would have been a refreshing night, with a spectacular sunset, but it just wasn't worth getting mauled over.

Your fearless author, shortly before running down the hill like a crazy sissy, talking to himself to avoid startling the bear.

Sarah comes home soon. It'll be about time, these adventures are more fun with her - we wouldn't have chickened out if we were both there.


R