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“You know…I can be sympathetic, passionate, welcoming, loyal, trustworthy, understanding and giving…..Just not today”
Where was Cam yesterday? I tell you I must have fallen in every hole that came within 10 meters of me yesterday while hiking Mt Forddred 2135m. Normally my buddy Cam finds those hip waist holes for me and saves me the time and energy digging myself out. Instead he decided to hang out at home sitting around in the backyard sucking on limes and sipping tequila. No loyalty!
Meanwhile, 9 not so bright but eager NSH decide to head out to the Manning Park area and go for what I thought would be an easy summit and be home in time to go dancing and dinner. The emphasise should be on the ‘not so bright’ comment.
We pulled out of the Franklin parking lot around 6:30 am to what became a wonderful drive out to the valley. No rain, just wall to wall sunshine shinning over snow capped mountains. Two trucks headed out to Chilliwack to pick up two more hikers before carrying on to Manning Park. I was actually surprised there was only nine of us considering how the weather was and the great snow conditions. I have heard a few people mention that the conditions have not been very good this past winter for hiking. I have been hiking all winter and have to say the conditions have been fantastic. It has just taken some early mornings and a little further to drive to find the those wonderful spots. Today would not disappoint.
Backing up for a moment. Friday night I did something rather different before a hike. I took the time to find out where we were going! Normally I just show up at the parking lot and tag along with everyone else. Sometimes I do not even know what we have climbed until after when the CD asks me what I thought of the day and the Mountain. I answer by saying well…’the Big Kaput was fun’…. because I don’t remember what we were even climbing. It is just rewarding to be out there, especially in the alpine. When I get to the alpine it is like everything else in the world does not matter for that time the mountain God’s allow me to grace their presence. It is like a psychotic surreal moment that completely reinvigorates me. Am I the only one that gets that rush?
Now back to Saturday morning. I was feeling pretty relaxed until we drove up beside a creek that we had to cross before starting our hike. Completely stupidity came over me. I was searching up and down this creek/river looking for a shallow crossing not thinking about what I should or should not have packed on my back. Everyone else except Frank and I were taking their time packing winter cloths, axe, crampons ect. No, Frank falls in and I get my feet wet thinking we were looking for Nemo.
Our CD tells us all to jump in the back of his truck and drove across the water. I guess I thought I was Moses for a moment!
Off we go for two hours of easy bushwhacking and gradual uphill along a logging road. The views were magnificent and the company was relaxed and fun. During our second break it was like Spring had suddenly broke out and two hikers held each other and kissed. Yuk, I could not believe my eyes. Locked and loaded….Sheesh, what is going on? What are these Saturday C/D hikes becoming? Mother nature waving her wand. Niiiiiiice, eh!
NSH are great with their GPS. Everyone looking seriously at their blank screens when all they ever have to do is turn to Sook and ask her which way. She always knows. She does not disappoint and sends us in the right direction. Our CD dumps his maps and compass. I do not think a road map for BC works well up where we were anyways.
We are hiking 1500 metres vertical and only some 22-24 km and we have only gained some 500 metres in the first two hours. I thought we would be up top within 4 hours so some serious uphill must be lying ahead. Sure enough we turn south passing an unknown mountain which I have officially named Mt Boni. Eugene steps in and breaks trail climbing through the trees. Now the snow has gone from ankle deep to knee deep within moments of entering the trees. Ever notice Eugene’s snow shoes are twice as long as everyone else and his stride matches the length. Trying to go step for step behind him stretches a normal person to unreasonable limits. Another hour disappears quickly. What happened to four hours to the top? The summit looks a long ways off, and it is.
After trying to stay with Eugene I go Postal and take over the trail breaking. This way maybe I can control the speed and stride length. Now we are in the alpine and that strange spell comes over me and everything becomes one. The cold air and blowing wind feels good. The view is incredible. The sweet drops off my body in icicles’. The breathing is steady but the body is working and the mind just flows. The snow is deep and the slope is steep. 400 meters vertical and another hour just seems to flow by. Perfect. My mojo is still working.
My slow pace allows the group to come together just before the final push to the summit which has now gone into hiding behind a reasonable steep slope. The only person behind is Frank who is still air drying himself from when he fell into the creek at the beginning of our hike. I have to hand it to this Frank guy; not the dog; he takes a ten year sabbatical from the NSH and the first hike he comes out to is a 32 km marathon along the Gord Ruth Trail up at Garibaldi Park. His second hike is today in river crossing knee deep snow. At least this time he left the lawn chairs at home and brought new snow shoes. With the amount of snow we encountered the lawn chairs probably would have worked better today.
The last stretch is steeper than our CD remembers from his last time here because off all the fresh snow. What I thought was going to be an easy summit ended up taking considerable amount of time for our CD to figure the way up to the top. On one side of us we had rather large cornices over hanging into an magnificent bowl. On the other side, well that side was missing!
Did I have my axe? No. Did I have my crampons? No. Did I have my ski jacket? No. Truley a hiking liability waiting for something to go wrong. I should have been sent home to join Cam sipping those tropical fruit drinks with little umbrellas sticking out the top of the glass.
Both myself and our CD floundered on our snow shoes trying to get up the last stretch with no success. It was like only 30 or 50 meters to go. I backed off thinking we were not going to make it. So much for an easy walk in the park summit day. At last one genius in our group decides to take his snow shoes off and just walks kicking his toes into the deep steep snow up to the summit while the rest of us follow. Thanks Eugene.
As always on the Left Coast sunny day brings us views that are too good to really describe to others. Actually I should not even try to describe the view, they should come and see it for themselves. The Big Kaput became the Big Kahuna while standing on the summit.
Sooooooo, what I thought would be a short hike in the park turned out to be nine hours of great fun and adventure.
Thanks everyone for a great day…..oh yea, and to the love birds too.
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