Michelle on the Heather Trail to Nicomen Lake:
“Day 1: 1 French, 1 Israeli, 1 Swiss, 2 Polish, 1 Chinese/Californian, 2 BC Girls, 199km 3hrs driving, 1hr to car shuttle, 36 quarters to park, 13.5km 5hrs Blackwall to Kicking Horse. Side shows: motorcycle dog in his own coach with hush puppy ears a-flapping behind his own windshield (missing sunglasses); Bruno’s purse; new forest fire across a valley from us with helicopters water bombing and planes surveying; startled skinny dippers caught by the bottom of the First Brother; watching 10 cloves of garlic being lovingly minced for a 3 course dinner. Day 2: 9-km 4-hour side trip to the Three Brothers, then 9 km / 5 hours from Kicking Horse to Nicomen Lake. Side shows: GQ modelling at the summit of the Brothers (working the pole); sleeping bag rolling down the hill; Polish Kisiel ectoplasm dessert. Day 3: 17- km 6-8hrs Nicomen Lake to Cayuse Flats. Side shows: morning opera and water football. Casualties: 1 elephantiasis knee, 1 twisted ankle. Summary: Super well maintained/marked trails, beautiful flowers/meadows, splendid views, awesome lakeside camp (with amaaazing swimming and fishing), lots of laughs, lots of food, lots of French, lots of amoré, fabulous people, fabulous trip.”
Category Archives: Backpacking
Marriott Meadows 01/08/09
Su-Laine at Marriott Meadows:
“Definitely a place to go back to… when it’s less buggy. On the other hand, if you like to jump into pristine mountain lakes on hot summer days, it would be hard to beat this place. Some of us swam in five lakes over three days, and we passed by several more.
Forest fires were on everyone’s mind but we made a conscious decision to go anyway, as we felt that this area would not be very dry, conducive to spreading fire, or particularly remote. A thunderstorm arrived quite suddenly in the hot afternoon, and we spent some time hunkered down in the forest to wait for it to pass. We sat on our packs while Michal explained how to perform CPR in case someone got struck by lightning, and I shared the previous night’s reading about how to survive a forest fire (Google it). The bugs were an inferno at the start of the trail and became merely horrible by the time we arrived at the Wendy Thompson Memorial Hut. We’d brought tents, but there was only one other nice couple at the hut, and lots of room.
On Sunday morning we spent the better part of an hour trying to find a trail to the ridge and summit. Several trails leave the hut but seem to vanish, and I don’t know to what extent we should have been on-trail higher up. We eventually found our way to an upper lake using a route resembling what’s in Matt Gunn’s Scrambles book. That was just the start of a stunning array of small lakes in the Marriott Basin, set amongst meadows, boulder fields, and 360 degree views of surrounding peaks. Scrambling was not too difficult, but helmets would have been a good idea. We spent many happy hours exploring, and returned to the hut very tired.
The next day we packed up, cleaned the hut, and swam in yet another lake down the trail before returning to the Marriott-Rohr junction and climbing up the muddy and buggy-as-hell trail to beautiful Rohr Lake. In total we saw only 7 other people in 3 days, and when we returned to Pemberton we heard that access to Duffey Lake Road was being restricted because of the fire situation. I haven’t seen anything on the web to confirm this, but if you’re planning a trip up there soon, a few phone calls to check would be a good idea.”
Russet Lake / Musical Bumps 25/07/09
Michelle at Russet Lake / Musical Bumps:
“And then we made a run for it…. Our merry band of one Scotsman, one Frenchman, one German, one Japanese, one Newfoundlander and two BC girls learned why in the alpine our winter sleeping bags and tarps were not so stupid in 38-degree August weather after all. On trail we heard the storm coming and hustled. Not one minute after arriving and getting the tents up it arrived. In shock EVERYONE at Russet made a run for the hut as marble sized hail pounded down so thick it became white out conditions. Those too far away dove into already occupied/complete stranger’s tents. We waited in disbelief until it subsided. A fellow cabin mate opened the door only to slam it shut again and exclaim ‘It’s coming again!’. Before, we wondered if the tents blew away- now we wondered about the hut as the wind drove waves of hail so hard that the roof surely dented and we began to take on water. Then, it stopped just like that. The aftermath – bivys drowning in small lakes, some flooded-out tents. The lightning show continued and the bizzare red sky turned the landscape into Mars. Made for an evening of great entertainment! Complete with a lady in red (dress) included! Absolutely spectacular scenery, spectacular fields of flowers, spectacular company and not one but two free gondola rides made this a spectacular overnight trip. The laughter, roaring storm and the music of the Musical Bumps (who’s winds did indeed play for us) made this truly a feast for the eyes AND ears.”
Big Creek-Powell Divide 25/07/09
Chris on the Big Creek-Powell Divide:
“Early interest in this trip fizzled so it was down to just Cara and me again. We covered a lot of ground so the salient points only are:
– the Hurley was rough – lots of washboarding, potholes and rocks – but still 2wd.
– June’s Tyaughton Lake fire didn’t affect the drivability of the Tyaughton road but you do drive thru a bit of burnt forest.
– The first km after the Tyaughton Creek FS campsite will give 2wd drivers a taste of the worst of the coming 20km or so – minor rutting and a waterbar going uphill.
– 2wd drivers should stop in an old logged area just after an overgrown road to the east and then one doubling back to the west (sorry, no odometer reading). Immediately after this, the forest gets close and the rutting gets worse. You will be facing a 2hr road walk before the trail start.
– We made it to road end in my Suzuki Jimny.
– Mosquitoes were not too bad (i.e. not horrible) but horseflies came by the bushel-load (killed 5 with one slap) in the alpine areas to the west of Big Creek and stayed with us from about 9am – 7pm each day.
– The Big Creek crossing was around mid-thigh (shorts will get wet); Tosh was about knee-height near Big Creek; an un-named creek about 2/3 up Tosh was mid-thigh and almost dangerously fast. Other creek crossings were lower but plentiful.
– Saw little evidence of bears and with most big mammals sheltering from the sun during the day, only a handful of deer, some bighorn sheep and one moose. Wolf prints were plentiful but didn’t see or hear any.
– Snow was at late-August levels.
– Encountered only one guide-led horse trip and then a couple of the same wranglers a couple days later. No bikers or hikers.
– When going up Little Paradise, the fork for Little Graveyard Pass is difficult to find – look for a couple new flags to your right when you encounter an old moose antler on the ground.”
Scudamore-Van Horlick Divide 18/07/09
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.”
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.”
Marmot Gardens 11/07/09
Chris in the Marmot Gardens:
“Perhaps it was the late callout but I got no takers so it was just Cara and myself on this trip to a remote part of the Stein. The Blowdown Rd is easily 2wd-able until just after the 9 km mark. There’s a waterbar in the middle of the hill around 9.5 and a couple just before the 2wd parking area at 10.3km which shouldn’t be an issue for the average 2wd. The portion of the road up to the Blowdown Lake 4wd parking area seems to be in slightly worse shape than last year but we got my micro 4wd up it. From there to the pass is actually in better shape and it would be no problem to drive a 4wd up to the switchback 20 m short of the pass if you get up to the lake parking. The lupines are in full bloom around the lake and in Marmot Gardens. In the gardens, the mosquitoes were epic and the horseflies started showing up. We also saw a grizzly and, of course, numerous marmots.”
Northern Stein 27/06/09
Chris in the Northern part of the Stein Valley:
“Bob, Cara, Do, Ian and Michal joined me on a trip to the northern Stein. We managed to drive most of the way up the Texas Creek road (off the Westside road south of Lillooet). It appears that this road is usually blocked just past the 4 km mark from April 15 – June 30 each year to give grizzlies a break from humans but it was open this year. The road surface is rough but 2wd-able until a patch of loose rocks on a hill just past the 9-km marker where we needed 4wd. Up until around 18 km, there are no waterbars. A dandelion-filled landing to the right at around 19 km makes a good parking spot – the bars get deeper, trickier and more frequent over the last 2-3 km of the road. From the road end, we hiked over the Texas – Siwhe divide and camped in the meadows at 2100 m (you will encounter cows here and in Cattle Valley). We had below-freezing temperatures every night and it was frequently windy. From Gordon White’s Stein book (recently republished – the trail descriptions are pretty accurate though road info is dated), we completed hikes 23, 24, 26, 27 and part of 28. We also completed a couple of other routes, discovered some lost trails and generally explored the whole area during some long and ambitious dayhikes. We only encountered appreciable snow on the eastern flank of the peak to the east of Brimful Lake. There’s currently a sow grizzly with 2 cubs resident in Cattle Valley.”
North Coast Trail 27/06/09
Su-Laine on the North Coast and Cape Scott trails:
“Magnificent location, no crowds, more adventure than we’d hoped for. After a 7 pm ferry to Nanaimo, our group of five got on a 10 am water taxi in Port Hardy, and by noon on Saturday were on the white sand beach in Shuttleworth Bight. A quick walk took us to Irony Creek, where we set up camp and dropped the weight from our packs, then spent the afternoon walking on the beach eastward and back.
From Sunday to Tuesday, we backpacked to Laura Creek (11.8 km), Nissen Bight (7.5 km), and Guise Bay (10 km). The trail alternates between beach and forest sections, with one cable car across a river. The mud was deep in places but the trail was easy to moderate in difficulty. The more difficult parts of the NCT, which we didn’t do on this trip, are at the east end. The beaches are teeming with tide-pool life and colourful seaweeds. After setting up camp at Guise Bay, three of us took an afternoon walk to the Cape Scott lighthouse where we were greeted with enthusiasm, Freezies, and a canteen of junk food and cold pop (bring your wallet!).
On Wednesday morning, we packed up for our 10 am water taxi pickup, feeling a little over-privileged for taking this luxury and for our amazingly good luck on the trip: near-perfect weather, and having had three campsites and their huge gorgeous beaches all to ourselves. Our mood changed when the boat didn’t arrive that morning, or afternoon, or evening. It took a frustrating day to make contact with the water taxi operator via borrowed satellite phone, and to find that rough seas to the east were making a pickup impossible that day and probably the next as well. Our best option was to walk 18 km to the Cape Scott trailhead where we could meet an arranged ride out. We looked at the maps, waited for scattered group members to return, and made a quick decision to try to hike to a campsite 8.5 km down the trail that evening. By then it was 8 pm. We covered the distance in 2 hours and set up tents in the last rays of sunlight. On Thursday morning, we did the rest of the hike out in 3.5 hours and made it back to Port Hardy in time for showers, a quick meal, and a sprint to the 9:35 pm ferry home.
I’d planned our original itinerary as a way to cram 4 full days in prime scenery into just 5 days. But if I were to do it over again I would have arranged for a vehicle or bus ride at the trailhead, with a hike out to it, instead of a boat pickup which is much more weather-dependent. The original Cape Scott trail has been improved a lot recently and we found it relatively easy. If you do arrange for a boat pickup, work out a contingency plan with the operator before you leave, carry a satellite phone (not just a VHF radio), and bring enough extra food for what could be a long wait. But however you do it, the North Coast Trail is an incredibly beautiful place, and I feel lucky to have seen it with a great group of people. It is also, for now, a remote place. We didn’t see another person until the third evening of the trip.
Things we saw: sea otters – colourful characters at the Cape Scott lighthouse – a beaver – Craig throwing oatmeal at John – black bears – sunlight on the beach at 10:45 pm.”
Spruce Lake Area 20/06/09
Chris in the Spruce Lake area:
“Cara, Mike and Ribeka joined me on a trip of mixed weather and great hiking in the Spruce Lake area of the Southern Chilcotins. The Hurley Road was about average – bumpy but still 2wd-able. The Slim Creek Road was in better shape even after the work done to put in fire breaks due to the Tyaughton Lake fire (almost out). There’s a couple new spurs and the road forms part of the main fire break. We parked at Jewel Creek bridge and saw only one group of horse wranglers the whole time we were there (usually you have to hop off the trail to let bike trains and horse trains by). The trail was dry and dusty. The snow pack was 20% below record lows and melting fast – almost a month ahead of schedule. For day trips, we climbed up to Sheba Ridge and the ridge south of Windy Pass. Saw many deer but only one black bear. The only signs of grizzlies were a couple of the biggest tracks I’ve ever seen.”