Chris on the Scudamore-Van Horlick divide:
“Cara, Dean, Dorothy and I tackled the Scudamore – Van Horlick divide for 3 days. The Van Horlick road is in decent 2wd condition – some minor potholing so you can’t fly along but nothing bad. The Morris spur is in rougher shape with minor rutting and the alders will challenge your paint job. The Morris East spur is overgrown while the Morris West is in great condition. Unfortunately, you can’t drive either because the bridge at 11km from the Duffey has been pulled (leaving some logs but no bridge deck) and you have to walk the 4 km to road end. At the very end of the road, a faint trail starts down towards the end of the Morris East road but quickly disappears. Just continue down in the same direction through the slash, cross the stream at the bottom (there’s a log about 100m upstream from where you hit it) and climb the slash to the alder-choked east road. A sparsely-flagged and sometimes faint trail leaves the end of this road towards the valley end and can be followed to the col. From here, we climbed the south side of the east shoulder to meadows where we camped. The mosquitos have moved beyond epic to positively biblical. On the middle day, we sidehilled to the south and climbed to the North Stein ridge just south of Elf and came back over that peak. The going is a bit scrambly near the top. We dropped down into another saddle and back onto a great ridge with good views. We returned along the benches on the east of the ridge (very little snow in an area that historically has a fair amount even into August), through the saddle and back to camp. On the last day, we ventured into the North Stein meadows and returned to the west road by crossing the creek higher up and bushwhacking to try to avoid elevation loss but you are forced to follow the creek down anyway.”
All posts by andy
Helm Creek 18/07/09
Heather in and around Helm Creek:
“Tyler, Ted, Bob and Heather did an overnight trip in Garibaldi park. We took Saturday to hike into Cheakamus Lake, have lunch and a quick dip, and then start the ascent up the slopes toward Helm Valley. As we had some extra time, we decided it might be nice to try and find Corrie Lake, which was estimated at 1/2 km off the trail (a beautiful blue lake that can be seen from the peak of Whistler). We made it, but the hour and a half of bushwhacking and the unbelievable mosquito clouds would not convince us to do it again! (We decided we were training for Chris Nott’s call-outs…) Camping at Helm Creek was beautiful but another incredible battle with mosquitos – full-on Goretex and mosquito nets only slightly delayed our escape into the safety of the tents. Sunday was a scenic 25 km hike up the scenic Helm Valley to Panorama Ridge – incredible views of Black Tusk, interesting cinder cones & valley floor, stunning colours of Garibaldi Lake and all the surrounding glaciers and mountains, and the most vibrant wildflowers blooming everywhere. A quick dip in Helm Lake was a refreshing stop on the long hike back to the car.”
Garibaldi Provincial Park 18/07/09
Heather at Garibaldi Provincial Park:
Tyler, Ted, Bob and Heather did an overnight trip in Garibaldi park. We took Saturday to hike into Cheakamus Lake, have lunch and a quick dip, and then start the ascent up the slopes toward Helm Valley. As we had some extra time, we decided it might be nice to try and find Corrie Lake, which was estimated at 1/2 km off the trail (a beautiful blue lake that can be seen from the peak of Whistler). We made it, but the hour and a half of bushwhacking and the unbelievable mosquito clouds would not convince us to do it again! (We decided we were training for Chris Nott’s call-outs…) Camping at Helm Creek was beautiful but another incredible battle with mosquitos – full-on gore-tex and mosquito nets only slightly delayed our escape into the safety of the tents. Sunday was a scenic 25 km hike up the scenic Helm Valley to Panorama Ridge – incredible views of Black Tusk, interesting cinder cones & valley floor, stunning colours of Garibaldi Lake and all the surrounding glaciers and mountains, and the most vibrant wildflowers blooming everywhere. A quick dip in Helm Lake was a refreshing stop on the long hike back to the car.
Whistler 18/07/09
Pablo at base-camp Whistler:
“7 of us went to Whistler Friday Night for 2 days of hiking. It’s nice to have a base camp on Whistler. I woke up late and I found my breakfast served. We started hiking Singing Pass at around 9:30am and we just make it on time to take the last Peak to Peak Gondola forth and Back, we even got the silver one back from Blackcomb. We went down to the village, went shopping, and then we went to the beach for a swim, and after we had a BBQ dinner before they closed the Village Gondola at 8:30pm. Thanks Mike for cooking. Some of us even did a small night hike to the village nightlife before going to bed for the next hike Sunday to Joffre Lakes.
Singing Pass-Musical Bumps took us 7 hours including lunch and time for taking 599 pictures. The snow is almost gone. We didn’t see any bears but we found several Marmots instead. We did Joffre Lakes in a more moderate pace. The Glacier is melting fast and going too close is getting dangerous because of the ice falls. Lots of mosquitoes and bugs.”
Rainbow Lake 18/07/09
Su-Laine at Rainbow Lake:
“It’s a great hike and now is a great time of year to do it. The trail was completely snow-free, and dry for most of the way. This trail is known to be muddy in the springtime but it wasn’t an issue on this day. Some, but not all flowers were in bloom, so peak flower time should be soon. Group dynamics were another highlight of the day, with conversation ranging from world peace to Gary Coleman. Temperatures were surprisingly cool considering what a scorcher this week has been in Vancouver, and the trail wasn’t crowded at all.”
Elk-Thurston 18/07/09
Steve on Elk Mountain:
“Pros: Wildflowers! Minimal bugs. No snow. Views of the valley.
Cons: Crowds. People with dogs.
Don’t let the crowds and dogs fool you, this trail is challenging and steep in sections, though not nearly as bad as 103 Hikes would lead you to believe. It takes more like 6 hours, not 7. Make no mistake about it, July is the time to do this trail due to wildflowers, though I’ve also heard it is a great Fall destination also. Many fields had 6 or 7 types of flowers (and colours) in one eye-shot.
We really pushed the speed on the way up, but I suggest slowing down, and taking in the views. The trailhead can be accessed very easily with only maybe 0.5 km of the access road being gravel. We were behind a convoy of 7 cars from the Korean hiking club of Vancouver.
Seven of us did this Chilliwack trail on what turned out to be a sunny day and followed up with a trip to some fruit and corn stands in the area. I’m still trying to figure out why we didn’t use the drive-thru at the corn place instead of getting out!”
Cayoosh Mountain 18/07/09
Ahmad on Cayoosh Mountain:
“The trail name means a horse and it is said that it is named after the tribe chief’s horse collapsed after passing through this area. Whether it is a legend or not, the trail is extremely hard on the knees. The majority of the trail is boulders. There is almost no flat section except the first ~3 km logging road.
Our hike took almost 12 hours in total and we couldn’t finish it. The majority of our approach to the peak was loose rocks. We were 6 in total and 4 changed their mind not to continue. The two of us took a slightly wrong approach close to the false summit and it was a dead end. I wasn’t able to find any way to get to the right way from where we were. There were exposed cliffs from both sides that we both didn’t feel comfortable to continue. We had to go down significantly to go to the right way. We didn’t have time for it. It was frustrating to go through all this without a result. So my suggestion is that you camp at the second, small lake and take your time on the next day. However, it is possible to be done in one day if you have good knees.
The views were great but for me I am done with this trail.”
Stanley Park cycling 16/07/09
Su-Laine cycling around the Stanley Park seawall:
“What’s sweetest: Stanley Park on a warm summer evening, chocolate fondue at Kits beach, or the new Burrard Bridge bike lane connecting the two? Tough contest, and maybe I’m showing my bias, but I think the bridge was the winner with this group.”
Mt Laughington 12/07/09
Michelle having a laugh on Mt Laughington:
“Fact: GPS invaluable for getting you to and on trail smoothly (GPS is the way to go on this one). Fact: steep and loose rock logging road = 4WD required (though very few water bars or bad ruts/gaps = minimal clearance issues). Fact: trail is almost snow free (snow remains, but patches do not obscure path) and once on the trail proper (to the knoll), foot bed is well enough worn and well re-flagged. Fact: book time 4.5 hours? make it 5 – 5.5 (we took almost 6 with pauses and breaks). Fact: we saw Ogopogo. OK, well at least an ethereal cloud that magically formed before our eyes over Airplane Creek baring a remarkable resemblance to the spirit of Ogopogo (which then sauntered down the valley). But we did see 1 prancing dancing deer who welcomed us, 1 dodo grouse on road who played chicken with the truck, hovering humming birds at the knoll, 10 thousand wild flowers, 1 million mountains, 1 blue lightning bolt signalling the end of lunch, 2 fat football grouse, 2 thunder claps enlightening us our day pass was expiring, 1 bunny rabbit who sent us off with a good-bye upon our departure, just before the rain began.”
Panorama Ridge 11/07/09
Pablo on Panorama Ridge:
“Last weekend 6 of us did Panorama Ridge in one shot. It’s a long hike (30 km) with a lot of elevation gain, but it can be done starting early and keeping a good pace. This is a hike to do on a not-too-hot clear day, as we had; the view from the ridge is impressive. Not recommended for people with fear of heights. The trail is in good condition, but we had to do a little light scrambling at the top, because there are still snow patches covering the trail. The flowers are starting to appear at the meadows. I would say that probably in the next few weeks will be the best time for flowers.”