Drum Lake

We went up to the Coquihalla area for a Labour Day camping trip.  We chose the July Mountain area for a quiet long weekend.  Somebody put a bunch of money into these trails, but now the access roads are so over-grown we could only get to within 4km of the trailhead - and that's after we used roadside vegetation to scratch the paint off the side of the car.

This is Sarah on the way up.

We eventually got to the trailhead.  Immediately beyond this point the trail is nicely overgrown with alder and visibility was only a few feet.  We sent Maggie to the front to see if there were any bears waiting to eat us.  The bear poop looked old(er than it does on most of our hikes) so we just yelled like lunatics until we were through.

 We crossed a neat meadow on the way up.  Lots of blueberries to supplement our regular food.

 We went through early summer to early fall as we climbed up.  This one is early fall.

The final push up to the lake.  Sarah likes climbing big hills carrying a big pack.  I had to jog to keep up with her.

Some hellebore on the side of the trail.  This stuff is pretty toxic.  I've seen tourists carrying it in bouquets.

 The wind was howling when we got to the top.  We pitched the tent in a tiny open patch in a grove of sub-alpine fir to avoid having the wind buffet the tent all night.  We don't have picture of that.
This picture is of the following morning.  Nice view, but it was cold and not quite as windy as the night before.

 We took our sweaters, fleeces, coats, hats, and mitts off for this picture.  If it were a dozen degrees warmer we might have sat by the lake.

 We sat in a sheltered spot to read by the fire.  I thought it was nice.

Nice, if a little chilly.  We ended up deciding to head out early - we figured we'd be home in time to go to the pub and have a quiet Monday.

 I like this picture.  It looks steep.

 At sea level these come up in June.  It's a red columbine.

Out of order, but this is Sarah sprinting down the mountain.

This one truly catches Sarah's joy after climbing a large hill, sitting in the smoke of a fire during a class 3 hurricane, and hiking back down again the next day.  In boots that apparently hurt her feet.

R