Backcountry Extraordinaire!

For our second semi-annual long camping trip, Tim flew in from Ontario for a slice of normal BC life to make up for the tedium of living back east. After a dinner with a couple too many bottles of wine, we got up, packed, and were out the door by 8:30 towards the newly repaired sea-to-sky highway on our way to Downton Lake north of Pemberton.

Lucky for us the highway was repaired, or the trip would have been close to an hour and a half longer! (You may have heard about the rockslide which closed the Sea to Sky a couple of weeks ago for several days).

Because we were going on an 8 night trip, we had quite a bit of gear, so Tim had to share the back seat with Maggie and loads of misc. junk. It didn't bother Sarah or I though.

Maggie got to stick her head out of the window to get away from Tim's fetid odour. It also made for a cute picture. The drive to the trailhead was some 4.5hrs, with the last little bit on a pretty good logging road. There was one short bit where the car almost fell down a 20-30 ft cliff, but I avoided disaster with some fancy driving and a girlish scream.

Haha, I believe there was a girlish scream! I was quite worried myself as the car really seemed to be sliding over the edge. We would have died for sure! That's why on the way back, we all got out and left Remi to his doom.

The trail to Downton Lake is nice and easy, going through some nice alpine meadows and through some nice marmot colonies. Maggie ran around terrorizing them like a quadrupedal godzilla. It was fun to watch. We saw a few that somehow avoided getting mauled by the dog, but we could frequently hear their warning whistles.

She never even got close to catching one, but that didn't discourage her. We couldn't keep track of her! Even when you thought she was exhausted, she'd still tear around like crazy. The marmouts were awesome.

Here was our base camp. It was the nicest place I'd even set the tent. The lake was crystal clear and freezing, but we dipped in a little anyways. The mountains behinds were beautiful, but the rocks were too loose for safe scrambling.

Was that the nicest place you've ever pitched a tent, Remi? I wasn't sure, you only told us about 300 times... Anyway, amazing campsite!

That day we set off to explore the alpine and scout out a route to the summit of Downton Creek Peak. It was nice to walk around and be virtually alone in the alpine. The last hikers were leaving just as we arrived. And they were way across the meadow! We were pretty much alone here the entire time.

Some flying insect or something that we saw on the trail. Pretty neat. It's clearly a moth of some kind. Some zoologist you are!

Tim and I talking about a route for the following day as though we knew what we were doing. We later took the wrong route towards the summit, so Sarah and I were forced to abandon the attempt, partly because I was terrified, and partly because we were worried about the dog on the talus. If we'd taken the correct route (which Remi happened to be carrying as a map in his pocket) we totally could have summited.

I think I look like my dad in this picture. We took over 400 pictures. I love this photo too ;)

Trying to figure out exactly how much bushwacking we'll have to do in order to get back to camp. Turns out it wasn't too much, but Sarah's legs got wrecked, as usual. We have another picture like this from the last time the four of us (Maggie included of course!) hiked together at Albert Edward on Vancouver Island.

A villous cinquefoil, I think. There were lots of these. Then a handful of panoramics.

The meadows. Downton Creek Peak is the flattish one on the right.

Looking down towards the meadow. Our camp was at the foot of the talus slope on the right.

The meadow from the other side, with Downton on the right. Panoramics are the only way to appreciate the magnitude of what we get to see.

Back at camp for some pasta dinner. It turned out a little chewy because Tim put in way too much powdered milk. On the plus side, Maggie didn't mind eating leftovers. And she had powdered milk on her face for two days after... Bear bait!

We went to bed reasonably early, and woke up early when the sun came up over the mountains onto the tents. As we were around 2000m in elevation, it got chilly at night, and we woke up to frost. But it warmed up quickly. Yeah, I think within 30 minutes of this picture being taken, we were all scorching.

It wasn't that bad. Tim is a wimp. You'd figure after a year in the arctic he could handle a slight frost.

Our little lake was perfectly smooth in the morning, so Sarah got a nice shot of it.

In the meadows on the way to the peak. Tim and I chose the wrong route to the summit, so Sarah and I only made it slightly higher than that col, but Tim went right to the summit.

A tiny lake (actually named "Tiny Lake") below the talus slope to the summit.

On the way up. Don't be fooled, talus is horrid to walk on. It slides all over, offers no grip, at would be generally unpleasant to fall down. This picture is at the col. Thank god for my poles or else I'd be dead - I'm not joking.

Tim on the false summit. The real summit is behind him, but we couldn't take a picture of that.

Sarah wondering why I drag her to these places and thinking up new ways to tell me she doesn't think we should do this sort of thing.

Tim paying his respects to the mountain.

On the way down. We had to choose between hard unstable rocks or steep and slippery snow. It's a toss up, but I prefer the snow.

Since we hadn't yet had enough, we took off across the meadows towards a ridge to see if we could get to the top. We didn't. I don't think we even got halfway ;)

Back at camp.

Tim, the following morning. This must have been around 6:30 or 7:00 before the flies came out. It was a nice time of day. It was the frickin' mosquitos that got me! Tim counted and I had SIXTEEN (yes, 16) bug bites on one shoulder!

We decided to take a "rest" day, and just play in the area around camp. We had a game of scrabble on that rock.

Tim has an underwater camera, so I tried a few pictures. This was the best.

Tim and I climed the talus slope above our camp (at the lake below) to see if we could push big rocks down (more on that later). There were some pretty good views.

Tim crawled under some ice to see what it was like. Kinda neat. Later that day we met Evan in Pemberton. With all of us packed in the car and some fresh food for the days to come, we drove off and found a nice site on the Lillooet River. However, as soon as we had our tents set up, we noticed the water rising pretty quickly, so we packed all of our stuff and took off towards our next trailhead. (I wasn't overly sad to leave, although it was beautiful... When we first arrived we had to cross part of the river and I sunk up to my thighs!! I was terrified I was going to drown! Evan laughed at me.) We ended up camping on the side of a logging road. It wasn't scenic, so there are no pictures here. On the plus side, we got up early and made the trailhead in no time and with only minimal wear on the car. Speaking of which, it was roughly at this point that the trunk decided to stop working for no apparent reason. The car must have realized it's a GM. On a side note, some may think that the reason that GM is losing buckets of money is because they failed to invest in fuel efficient cars, but this is not the case. It's because they can't even figure out how to build a functioning latch for a trunk. If they can't do that, how are they going to figure out how to build an internal combustion engine, let alone a hybrid engine?

On the next trail towards Semaphore Lakes.

There was a glacier immediately above our camp (i.e. a few hundred meters up talus slopes), so we went to check it out.

The next day we decided to go on a Man-venture (Sarah and Maggie held down the fort) up Face Mountain, seen behind us.

We stopped early on to refill with some glacier fresh water in the morain below the mountains.

Evan climbing the snow fields.

After an hour or so we came to this steep snow cliff. It was no match for my ice axe. Evan and Tim had trouble.

This was the high point of the walk, we missed the summit due to some seriously sketchy traverses we didn't want to risk (see next picture)

We knew when we pulled out the cheap nylon rope that we were in way over our heads. We turned around at this spot.

Because the forecast for Saturday was rain, we decided to stick around camp for Friday and attempt to ascend Locomotive Mt on Saturday.It was a slow, but relaxing day. I got to ID all the plants in the area, and even collect a few that actually survived the trip back home.

Tim and Evan got bored and distracted themselves in whatever way they could. While they re-enacted scenes from a cowboy movie that won an oscar or two, Sarah and I took off for a nearby hill to see if we could get some nice views.

There's some neat dead trees in the alpine.

This was the last we'd see of Face Mt.

Ditto Locomotive.

This was Locomotive in the morning. Because I was slightly annoyed at having missed our only chance at the mountain the day before, I decided to attempt to get at least to the ridge where we had spotted a couple of lakes on our Face Mt attempt. I was a bit surprised when everyone else decided to come along, but who was I to complain.

Here we are traversing towards the lakes.

Back at camp we split our time between hibernating in our tents and shivering below the tarp as driving rain and hail kept us from playing around camp.

And here we are on our way out. The rain let up long enough for us to get our gear stowed before everything got soaked.

Below are some of the videos taken during the trip. I think it would be best to say that viewer discretion is advised, especially when ice cold water is involved.

Mt Pierce & Tricouni Peak

Last week I joined Duane and Theresa for a hike with the North Shore Hikers, a hiking group that goes out a few times a week. Our destination was Mt Pierce not far from Chilliwack. The weather didn't look great, but up we went anyways, hoping for a clearing. This first picture is from part way up, in the clouds.

This is the first lake, still partly frozen. We stopped here for a brief lunch.

This is the still mostly frozen lake at the ridge just below the summit. The view still wasn't improving. We tried for Mt Pierce itself, got to the false summit at 1850m, and decided to turn around. The view wasn't getting any better, so there was no real point.

This last weekend, however, the weather was amazing, so Duane, Theresa and I (Sarah as a a bachelorette party) piled in the car and headed to Tricouni meadows. The road was pretty horrible, but we got to about a kilometer of the trailhead, where we gave up and started walking up the road. After a few minutes in the heat and dust some generous souls in a pickup drove us the rest of the way up in relative luxury.
The trail starts in moist (i.e. muddy) alpine meadows but quickly reaches the snow line and a few nice lakes.

Duane and Theresa above the lake.

This is the view from just below the highest lake. We aimed for that pointy peak right in the middle of the picture, 2100m.

After some trudging we got to this bowl between the mountains and traversed to the false summit (the little pointy one on the left of the summit in the panoramic shot).

If you've ever wondered what traversing is like, this pretty much sums it up. It's hard work and you usually have to make sure you don't slip, although this particular stretch was quite easy. Mostly we try to focus on the route most of the time, taking breaks to take in the views and allow our heart rates to return to a more reasonable level.

To reach the summit we had to scramble (rock climb) up some steepish exposed ridges. Maggie had some trouble, but intrepid dog that she is she made it up and proceeded to beg bits of sandwiches from everyone in sight (we ran into another party and sort of joined up). Unfortunately for me, my vertigo took over so I quickly downed my lunch and got off the tiny summit to a more comfortable spot to have the rest of my snack.

This is the view from the ridge up to the summit. Pretty neat.

And your fearless (or fearful, to be strictly accurate) author, working on a beard. Call me Amundsen.

Flora Lake Loop - A Tale of Two Summits

This past long weekend we went to Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park for a 4-night trip. Here are the pictures and video. Uploading these takes a lot of work, so appreciate the effort.
All of our trips start like this - with Maggie whining.

A short hike got us to Lindeman Lake. A beautiful little lake with perfect clear water. Unfortunately, a bunch of loud jerks also found the lake and ruined it for the rest of us. Not a big deal though, the next morning we were up bright and early and we were outta there!

(This is Sarah) Beautiful and cold this lake was! And yes, those jerks were unfortunate. They had a dog with them that barked all night, which is probably why so many people are anti-dog in provincial parks out here.

Of course Maggie had to have a quick swim.

After a horribly steep climb, we got to a gently valley that led to our next destination, Flora Lake. Of course the valley crosses countless rock slides, so our progress was slow and dangerous, but we made it unscathed thanks to our designer leather Italian leather boots.

That's right, designer boots ;) Thank God for the boots though! I don't know how many times I lost my balance or toppled a bit only to be saved by my boots! If you're planning on doing any hiking out here with us (will anyone ever visit us??) get a good pair of hiking boots.

The valley in question

Flora Lake. Notice how the snow comes right down into the lake. It was FREEZING!!

The view from our camp just before bed. I trudged that tripod all the way for this shot alone, so enjoy it.

Our camp. You'll notice the snow on the left and in the background. This site gets sun for about 2-3 hours a day, and we were gone for most of that time. Not a huge shame because the water was very cold. There is also a creek to the right and one to the left, actually. But the one to the right brought down a very cool breeze, so we cuddled up with a campfire and fleece blankets at night.

The first of the two summits. This was a pseudo summit, but it was high, and there was a good view - and we climbed it - so it counts.

And what a climb it was.

Seeing as we didn't hurt ourselves on the way up, we tried our best to do so on the way down.

Still trying. For the record, this is quite a bit of fun. Way better than jumping off of wimpy cliffs in Killbear, like some people I know.

This is our second climb - up Flora Peak. A bit more demanding, as you might be able to tell from this picture. I decided to become a quadruped for this climb. Maggie's really on to something! There's a good reason she always reaches the summit at least 10 minutes before we do ;)

But the view was spectacular in all directions.

Chillin'. Below is a panoramic showing Chilliwack Lake, which we didn't visit, but is the namesake of the provincial park we spent the weekend in.



I have terrible vertigo, standing like this is pretty hard for me. (i.e. Remi's a big wimp)

Like this too. It didn't help that this is what we had to go down. Flora Lake is in that little depression at the bottom. This is roughly 600m above the lake, a little more than the CN tower.



The last three videos are kinda fun. It takes an hour to go up, 10 minutes to go down.

Maggie was pooped!


Walking across the rock slides.

The day after climbing up to Flora Peak we decided to walk back out the way we came in and spend our last night at the other lake (Greendrop) near the Flora Lake Loop. Our other option was to haul our giant packs up over the ridge we climbed to get up to Flora Peak. We didn't feel safe doing so, so back we went! The trail to Greendrop Lake, our next stop, was a little flooded. We got wet.

Greendrop Lake, we camped here for our last night. This lake was warmer and absolutely full of trout (rainbow, we think - naturally occuring, not stocked). We could see them from pretty much wherever we stood along the lake shore.

Devil's Club. It's pretty, but it has huge sharp spines on virtually every surface, even the leaves.

This was was very warm... well, at least it wasn't very cold. I got to play a bit and clean myself up. As you might guess, Maggie had a fit when daddy was in the water, so she had to join him.

Our cozy campsite. Shortly after I took this picture, some very strong wind came up, complete with ominous thunderheads. We scrambled for 20-30 minutes to stow away our gear, lash the tent down, cover the food, store firewood, batten down the hatches, and for nothing.

The sky cleared up and there wasn't a cloud in the sky for the rest of the evening, which is a good thing because we had neither tarps nor rain gear. That's what you call trust in the local weather guy. We're pretty much retarded. It wouldn't have killed us to carry one tarp! Although with the wind I don't think it would have done much good.

A dead trees with lichen. Neat.

Sarah cooking up some nutritious Tuna Helper, our new favourite camping food.

Stoking the fire. Don't be fooled by the flames you see here. Remi's fire-building/maintaining abilities leave something to be desired. It's like pulling teeth to get him to put more wood on the fire!

On the way out we decided to wear our sandals through the wet part of the trail. A wise decision. It saved us lots of time. The water was so cold! But as Remi mentioned, trudging straight through was much easier than trying to get around.


This is a good example of what it's like walking on a rock slide. You have to be very vigilant.

Back at Lindeman Lake. The water was chilly here, but it was do-able, especially after our quick dips in icy Flora Lake. It was so cold! I just jumped in without touching because I knew if I tried to ease myself in I wouldn't be doing any swimming ;)

Showing off.

And Maggie needed a final little bit of help across the last hard parts. The harness works pretty well for this. Although you might be able to tell from the look on her face, she doesn't enjoy the "help" very much ;)

And to cap off our trip in BC we decided to go on a wine tour on the way home. It was pretty awesome. There are four wineries right off the highway in Abbottsford. Only one of them was any good, but we still got to buy lots of wine and try a bunch of stuff. I couldn't take a picture because Sarah wasted the last of the batteries taking pictures of the scratches and bug bites all over her legs. Too bad. It really is too bad! We were FILTHY! Not exactly wine-touring attire ;)

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. We were very lucky with weather (30 degrees and sunny) and barely sunburned at all!

Remi and Sarah :)