Two recent hikes

We've been out hiking a couple times since we've been back post-honeymoon.  We're determined to get back into shape after the wedding :)  

Slesse Memorial Trail (Chilliwack, 12 km round-trip, 860 m elevation gain)

This was early October (maybe the 2nd?) and it was a hard one!  Not only was it quite a distance for our out of shape legs, but it was UP UP UP!  I actually sat down at one point and said "That's it!  You go on if you want to, my legs are DONE!"  Remi trekked on, but I was close behind - the black flies were horrendous!  Here are a few photos:

We started by fording a river... as usual ;)

 

The view was quite beautiful.  The sun poked its head out for a bit, but it was quite overcast that day.

It's called Slesse Memorial because it actually marks the resting place of 62 poor souls who were lost in an Air Canada plane crash in Dec 1956.  Climbers weren't able to find the wreckage until 5 months later due to weather and snow condition.  There's a cairn marking the end of the hike with a few bits of the airplane included.

 View from the cairn.

Snow Camp Mountain (Manning Park, 17 km round-trip [a bit more to the true summit], 600 m elevation gain)

This hike was stunning!  Likely the longest day hike Remi and I have ever done but on a well-graded trail through beautiful Manning Park, it was a breeze compared to Slesse!  We just did this one last weekend, on a clear sunny Sunday.  We were up bright and early, out the door by 8 AM and at the trail head by 10 AM.

It was CHILLY!  Frost coated everything and was still frosty when we returned to the bottom at the end of the day.  Wherever the sun didn't reach, the frost remained.

 

And fresh snow too!  Not worthy of snowshoes, but at time our crampons (thanks Evan and Tim!) would have been very nice.  I was glad to have my poles which helped prevent me from slipping off the edge of narrow traverses at times.  Don't worry Mom and Dad, these weren't "drop off the edge of the world" narrow, just "slide down an embankment and have to climb back up" narrow ;)

 

The views were amazing - as usual!  There was something magical about this hike though.  It could have been that we didn't see another soul the entire day (which is quite stunning when you're out for six hours and it's a sunny fall day) or perhaps it was the "Grizzly bear in area" signs posted everywhere... (don't worry, we made lots of noise - grizzlies don't like running into people anymore than we would have liked running into one of them!).

Anyway, some pictures of the view:

 

Remi is pictured above with Hozomeen Mountain in the background.  This mountain is actually located in Washington State.  Manning Park is located on Hwy 3, which runs very close to the Canada-US border.  It's actually the highway we took when we drove out here with our trailer of stuff in 2005.

II

Ahh, the summit!  Final elevation 1980 m.  We stopped up here for lunch and used our new "overpriced" (in Evan's words) sporks.  Which are awesome, I might add!

One last view:

And that's what we've been up to lately!  Just this past weekend we made a trip to Fort Langley to buy our new king size bed for the mattress we had delivered last weekend.  My advice to our readers: get a king size bed!!  It is luxury with a capital "L".  We also did a nice walk close to home on Sunday as it was sunny again, plus a bit of gardening.  We've been lucky with weather so far this fall!  Hopefully it continues to hold.

We hope this finds you all well!  Remember to leave your comments so we know you've been here :)

S&R