-
Posts
-
Brent has picked the perfect day for Cheakamus Lake to Rubble Creek – a 25 km cross over hike. This is not an easy hike to coordinate as we will need at least two 4×4 vehicles to make it happened. It is not until Wednesday night that Brent was able to secure two high clearance vehicles – one is not 4WD that is not the most ideal. However, Brent decided to give it a try as the logging road leading to Cheakamus Lake parking lot has been improved since last year. It is a mere of 7.5 km from the highway.
We met at 7 am at PR. After a brief delay of 30 minutes waiting for the needed second vehicle, a group of 8 happy hikers set off to a day long hike in the beautiful Garibaldi Provincial Park.
We were luck out with moderate temperature weather, some clouds, some sun and almost mosquito free day!
There were about a dozen cars in the Cheakamus Lake parking lot nothing like Rubble Creek one. It’s a stress free start without parking issue before 10 am.
The group took an easy pace with a couple of breaks. Brent reminded the group that the initial switchback climb of 6 km from Cheakamus River will end once we reached Helm Lake camp ground with Black Tusk in sight. After immersing ourselves with alpine views, flowers and taking many photos, we reached our lunch spot at Cinder Flat around 1:30 pm.
One big bonus of this hike is seeing an abundant collections of many different species of mushrooms along the trails leading up to the meadows…. see this link to my mushroom album – https://photos.app.goo.gl/gQ6K5ki6K4XN7Zn4A.
If anyone of you can identify these enormous fungi, please share them in the forum. I have no clue of what kinds they are… some of them are bigger than a personal size pizza… growing out everywhere!
Only three of us were greeted by a marmot while crossing Helm Creek on the bridge as the others adventured over skipping on rocks. All of us felt extraordinary as if we were walking on the moon… crossing extensive fields of the volcanic rocks towering over by mountains with glaciers on one side, lakes and meadows on the other.
At lunch, we were then rewarded with warming sun, the views of Helm Peak, Cinder Cone and other peaks. Brent noticed that all mountain glaciers around us have been receding tremendously.
After a well rested and enjoyable break, the group continued the second half of the hike. We were all back at the parking lots shortly after 5 pm.
It was a wonderful day of hiking that I can’t hardly ask for more… great leader, good company, fantastic views and enough adrenaline to make me feel energized.
Thank you all North Shore Hikers!
If you like to see some of my photos other than mushrooms, here is the link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/dHSw8PDARkiusTKWA
“Teresa Gagné, a member of the Nature Vancouver Botany committee, https://naturevancouver.ca/botany/ provided the following as her ‘best guess’ Ids for some of the mushrooms. The link to the hike’s mushroom album – https://photos.app.goo.gl/gQ6K5ki6K4XN7Zn4A.#1 & #2 look like Laccaria laccata – the Common Laccaria. #4 & #5 are some sort of Boletus; the staining of the flesh which first turns blue and then reddish brown is quite distinctive, but they don’t match anything in my books.
#6 looks like Phaeolis schweinitzii – the Dyer’s Polypore. #8 & #10 are a Russula species – possibly R. xerampelina – the Woodland Russula.
#11 to #13 are also Russula species possibly R. occidentalis – the Western Russula. #14 is a bracket fungus (conk) of some kind, #15 & #16 look like Boletus mirabilis – Admirable Boletus.
#17 to #20 are Amanita muscaria – the Fly Amanita (which can be lemon yellow, but is more often red or dark orange)
#22 might be Polyporus badius – the Black-footed Polypore. It has a thin cap with fine pores on the bottom instead of tubes or gills.
Photos #23 to #35 are mainly Boletus, Suillus, or Leccinum species, all of which have tubes instead of gills. The very big one in the lupines and the photo after it are probably Boletus edulis – the King Bolete. It’s a fairly common species in the subalpine and very tasty when young and firm. The netted stem is often very fat at the base and the white flesh doesn’t change colour when cut or bruised. The third photo from the end is also Amanita muscaria.”
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.