May 14, 2005
Going hiking
So I’m looking forward to going hiking with Devon all week. The plan is to drive around via Pemberton to the East side of Garibaldi Park, then hike up a ridge near Glacier Lake until we get into alpine snow country, then switch to snowshoes and head towards Snowcap Lake. And we get to campout three nights. Yeah!
Devon and I had it all planned out. He brought the topo maps. I put in our route on the GPS. We had our plan. What could go wrong?
Bacon and eggs in Pemberton followed by bumpy logging roads. Then whoa. What’s this? Bridge washed out. Quick check of the map. No problem. We are right below the ridge we want to go up anyway.
We hopped out of the truck like a couple of pups who have been cooped up in the house too long, slung on our packs and began to thrash through the bush up the ridge. After an hour we broke out on a rocky outcrop and took a break. I checked my GPS. Oops. We were five kilometres away from the ridge we were supposed to be on.
Spent the better part of a day crossing a series of clearcuts, then fording a really big creek, then hacking up an old logging road to the base of the ridge we wanted in the first place. Strung a tarp and made camp for the night. I commented to Devon how dry the area looked and that we must be in some sort of rainshadow.
In the middle of the night it began to rain. Then it began to sleet. As our tarp built up a layer of wet sleet and snow, the weight forced it lower and pushed the edges in. When I woke up my paperback about the life and times of Grey Owl that I had been reading the night before was now a sleet covered wet mushy thing.
We bushwhacked up the ridge in the rain, hitting oldgrowth pretty quick. On top of the ridge the rain turned to snow and soon we were in our snowshoes.
Come evening, we dug a pit in the snow. Stomped down sleeping platforms. Strung our tarp and sealed the edges with snow. We were camped in the middle of a snow encrusted ancient yellow cedar grove. It was gently snowing. Everything was perfect. We hit the sack.
About midnight everything warmed up. It began to rain. Now imagine this. You are peacefully asleep. Then about ten pounds of wet snow comes plummeting down from a giant old growth tree and nails your tarp about a foot above your nose – ka wham! All night this goes on until all the snow had dropped.
Our whole trip went like this. A million unexpected happenings. Nothing like we planned – which is what I like!
