Chris at the Haylmore-Melvin Divide:
“Cara, Dean and Quirine joined me on a 3-day trip to the Haylmore-Melvin Divide. The Haylmore road was in rough 2wd shape (we were in Cara’s 4wd) with 3 waterbars at 8 km and a fordable stream at 10 km (more on road condition later). We parked at 14 km where the road degrades to ATV-only and walked 2 km to the trailhead proper. The ATV route was in pretty good shape until a slump about 100 m past the last switchback before the first lake stopped everything but foot traffic (some members of the club that maintains the trail mentioned that this will soon be fixed). We camped near the outlet of the upper lake. On our middle day, we crossed into Melvin creek and climbed to the divide overlooking Lost Valley. After traversing the ridge for a bit (climbing to 2500 m), we dropped into the meadowed benches and down to the mosquitoed valley bottom. Despite the stiff breeze, we went for a brief (!) swim in chilly Melvin Lake before heading back to camp on a steep (!) goat track. After dawdling a bit, we headed back to the car. On the way down, we were stopped just before the bridge over Haylmore Creek by a huge tree that had falling over the road during the weekend. Backtracking, we found an obscure 4wd route back to the main road and headed to Squamish for supper.”

Merewyn at Joffre Lakes:
“Andy, Maria, Andrew, Darcy and I had a fantastic weekend up at Joffre Lakes. Arriving at the Joffre campsite on Friday, we managed to snag lake-front property. We spent most of that first afternoon exploring and swimming. Day two, we scrambled up past the lake to the col between Tszil Peak and Taylor Mountain before dangerous-looking snow patches made us break for lunch instead of continuing. The trail to the col is fairly straightforward though there are some sections of ridge walking and large boulder scrambling that made a few of us who are scared of heights quake a bit in our boots and made even the climber in our group a bit nervous at times. But what a payoff – views of Two Goat Ridge, mountains as far as the eye can see, and even a lovely glacial pool to jump in before heading back down to Joffre. One piece of advice, visit Joffre Lakes during the week if you can as the tent village exploded on Saturday/Sunday. We had to shoo away a few inexperienced campers who were about to cook right in front of our tents but otherwise we weren’t too bothered by the invasion.”

Merewyn on the Juan de Fuca trail:
“Andy, Maria, Andrew, Gabriela, John and I spent a fabulous 5 days on the Juan de Fuca trail. While we didn’t get much sun, we only had one day of rain and even that stopped once we arrived at our beach campsite that night. The trail was quite muddy and slippery in places (one of our group ended up close to his knees in mud after one misstep) and also went quite close to cliff edges sometimes making some of us a bit nervous but otherwise the trail was easy to follow. East Sombrio Beach was by far our favourite campsite and we even toyed with staying an extra day just to lounge about on the beach (but we had a strict shuttle schedule to stick to). We heard from other hikers that there were a lot of bears around but being a boisterous, energetic group of 6, they stayed well away from us. Instead, we saw a mink, lots of millipedes and giant banana slugs, snakes, a lizard, some river otters, and black/white birds with bright red feet (still to be identified). We spent our free time at the campsites swimming in the ocean, exploring during low tides, lounging on the beach, and chatting/laughing around evening campfires.”

Chris on Mt Lytton:
“Peter, Tania and Dean joined myself on an exploration of Mt Lytton. The first logging road approach didn’t pan out (“No Trespassing” signs). Plan B was the Nicomen FSR which had some loose rock but was in good 2wd condition. We made it to within 1 km of the end of a spur at about the 12 km mark (some rutted culvert crossings). Fully expecting to bushwhack to the summit ridge, we stumbled upon an old hunting trail just minutes from the car. The lower half was well flagged (though it was bushy in bits with lots of blowdown and mosquitoes). Snow covered most of the last 1/2 km but the route was guessable and, less than 3 hours from the car, we were at our camping spot in a beautiful little meadow on the ridge. We spent the next couple days exploring the labyrinth of ponds, streams, krumholtz, snow slopes and pocket meadows before returning to civilization on Monday night. Thanks for a great hike everyone!”