This August we took a trip to British Columbia to go on a hike in Wells Gray Provincial Park; our trip was superbly organized (as always) by Amy.
Friday Aug 15:
We took a late flight to Vancouver; Amy booked us on Air Canada through Toronto. It was a decent route, about 90 mins to Toronto and then about five and a half hours into Vancouver. We collected our stuff and then crashed for the night at the Days Inn in Richmond, a Vancouver suburb just east of the airport. We were pretty tired by the time we finally managed to make our way to the hotel; early bed.
Saturday Aug 16:
Up early (still jet-lagged), had breakfast and explored the area a bit. Richmond has a very high percentage of Asian inhabitants-- good place to look for Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants and such. There was an Asian market across the street from the hotel, so Amy and Ethan went over to check it out and to buy fruit/snacks for the drive north. Shortly after that we got packed up and squeezed into the the car for the drive north. Our rental was a Chrysler 200 -- very American, with a trunk that was big enough (just barely) to fit our four small suitcases and two large duffel bags containing the hiking gear. We decided to stop in Kamloops, which is about a 3.5 hr drive from Vancouver.
The route to get out of metro Vancouver was weird -- it seemed to involve all sorts of strange twists and turns (including one section where we actually did a 360 degree loop), but it did eventually get us out of the city without going over any toll bridges. Once out of the city, the highway that leads to the north is beautiful-- the road hugs the banks of a river (Frasier?) with steep rock faces and hillsides to the left and right. To pass the time we listened to a book on tape, "Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore", which was weird / fun / entertaining, although it had a bizarre portrayal of the high tech industry (especially the character who works for Google).
In Kamloops we found a lunch place, had something to eat, and then decided to go for a quick hike in one of the city parks just to blow off steam. The terrain around the city is very dry-- reminded me of places like Santa Fe and Boulder (sagebrush, sandy soil, pine trees clinging to life). It was also clear from looking at the surroundings that there had been wildfires in the area in recent past.
The last hour or so of the drive hugs the Thompson river, which is large and swift-moving and looked a lot like the rivers I'd seen in the North Cascades-- a sort of turquoise / chalky color, I assume from the rock/soil that it runs though. Clearwater turns out to be a very small town, not much going on there at all -- the motel that we had reserved at was attached to a KOA campground. We had a not-very-memorable meal of pizza (Clearwater does not feature much in the way of gourmet cuisine) and then spent the evening in the motel repacking our gear to transfer things from suitcases to backpacks.
Sunday August 17:
Quick breakfast, after which we crammed all of our stuff into the car, and drove south a few miles to the pick-up point for Wells Gray Adventures, which turns out to be the house of the guy that runs the outfit. There we met up with the other people who would be joining us on the hike.
Our guide for the trip was Evan, who I think was in his late 20's / early 30's, something like that. The other hikers aside from our family included a retired couple from New Zealand (Keith and Judy), a retired couple from Vancouver Island (Sandi and Ron), a younger guy from Vancouver (Allan), and two retired guys Wayne and Mike (one from Vancouver Island and one from Seattle). Lydia was a bit disappointed that there were no other kids in her age bracket, oh well, but we heard from Evan that in fact on average the folks who sign up for this tour are between 45-60. Wayne it turned out was Evan's father, and Mike was friends with Wayne from university. We threw all our gear into a trailer and then piled into a passenger van for the drive up to the trail head.
Lydia and Ethan and I were sitting in the way way back, and beside us was a wiry grey-haired guy who turned out to be the owner of the tour company, Ian. We chatted with him on the way up-- he was a pretty interesting character. Before starting Wells Gray Adventures he spent a lot of time living overseas in the Himalayas and in Pakistan organizing hiking trips there, then came back to B.C. and built the three huts/chalets in the park. We stopped partway along the drive at a point overlooking the Clearwater river, which was nice. The geology of the region is interesting-- old rock below, then relatively recent volcanic layers on top. The park doesn't have any large active volcanoes right at the moment but apparently there are a couple smaller ones.
We finally arrived at the trail-head around 10:30 or so, fairly late. The terrain and vegetation reminded me a bit of Colorado or New Mexico, but with a bit more moisture/rainfall, at least at the lower altitudes; the first parts of the trail were actually pretty wet/soggy. Evan handed around various items of food for us to pack in (not too heavy, mostly lighter stuff) and gave us a snack of oatmeal cookies and cherries after we were all packed up.
The trail was narrow and not heavily traveled-- not the sort of thing you would find in a national park in the US. We made our way into the woods a bit and then began our climb up into the higher elevations. The kids were of course raring to go and probably would have been willing to hike more quickly, but Evan asked us to stay together as a group, so he led the bunch and walked at a slow but steady pace. We eventually made our way up to the first hut, so-called "Trophy Chalet", which was perched up quite high on a ridge with a nice view to the south of Raft mountain.
View from the front porch of the hut:
Food!
There was a small spring-fed pond that formed the water source for the chalet, and a fairly elaborate outhouse setup with a composting toilet (the very familiar Clivus Multrum). Smaller hut than the AMC-run ones in the White Mountains of NH, but equally serviceable. The chalet is high enough up that the only viable resupply option is by helicopter; they do three or four supply drops a year, mostly staples, building supplies, and big gas cylinders. The hut had a combined kitchen / dining living area on the ground floor, then sleeping up above on the second floor. The sleeping area was nice -- they had partitioned it into a series of two-bed "nooks" or alcoves, each with a curtain that you could close off. Foam mattresses, with pillows and heavy duvets (for the winter) and lighter blankets for the summer. Apparently the chalet gets used fairly frequently during the winter for back-country skiing (helicopter in, then hike up and ski back down).
We unpacked our stuff, scarfed down a late lunch of sandwiches, and eventually decided to go out for a short hike to explore the area. We did a loop starting off to the west (view of Raft to the south), then climbing up onto the top of the ridge, where we had nice views of Marmot peak to the west and views of the various mountains to the northeast (Trophy Mtn). The chalet itself was right at the edge of tree line, so we left the trees behind as we hiked up higher; there were flowers, lichen, and heather, but that was about it except for the occasional tiny/blasted fir tree. Evan started the hike by pointing out the various vegetation that we would encounter and made a plea for us to avoid stepping on the green stuff if at all possible, especially the heather, which is very easy to damage and takes a long time to regrow.
The odd hairy-looking plants are some sort of anemone-- they start out with a normal looking flower, then in short order they morph into weird mops (we called them the "Tina Turner Flowers"):
Heather:
Looking down towards the chalet:
... and back up from the chalet:
The weather was nice, a little overcast but not raining. The air was oddly thick / hazy-looking -- when we asked Evan about it he said that it was a result of a whole series of forest fires burning in various parts of B.C. (it has apparently been a very dry summer).
The topographic map of the area that I bought is circa 1980-- not especially up to date. Since the map was printed, the park (Wells Gray) actually expanded, so the border is shown in the wrong place. The southernmost W.G.A. hut was built just outside the park but is now inside, which is interesting.
We hiked back down to the chalet after a couple of hours, then hung out in the common room chatting and getting to know each other. The chalet turned out to be very well-supplied with snacks; Evan produced a huge bowl loaded with chocolate bars, granola bars, "Cheesies" and other things you would not ordinarily expect to find on a hiking trip... Ethan and Lydia were pleased :-).
Dinner was baked chicken, broccoli, and rice (as with many trips, you get the best food on the first day...). We helped Evan by doing the dishes at the end of the meal -- big pot of hot water from the stove, divided into two washbasins, one with the soap and one for the rinse; familiar routine.
After dinner Ethan brought out the playing cards and we introduced people to "Oh Hell", which was a hit. We also played a few games of hearts.
Meanwhile, in the process of unpacking my backpack I discovered that I had left behind one of the smaller bags I'd brought along containing most of my clean socks and underwear-- phooey! Very ironic, since I had been scolding the kids all week to make sure that they had packed enough clean stuff, then I wind up myself with almost nothing. Luckily I had two good pairs of wool socks and a pair of travel underwear that was very quick-drying, so I was able to wear my running shorts one day and then wear the underwear the next ("TMI!", says Lydia as I write this...).
Monday Aug 18:
We had a later start in the morning; leisurely breakfast (scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and cut up oranges), then organized for a day hike. The hike took us on a route similar to the short hike we did the day before, but with a much larger loop that led up to the top of Marmot mountain, then down into the valley and around one of the lakes, then back up onto the next ridge line, then back down again to one of the lakes. Hazy/smoky air again, so making it difficult to see the really far-off peaks and mountains, but in other respects almost ideal hiking weather (not too hot, not too cold).
On the way up to the ridge.
These little purple guys seemed to pop up even on the slopes at the very highest elevations:
On the way up to our first ridge Lydia spotted a Rock Ptarmigan; not an especially easy bird to pick out because of the coloration-- they are a shade of grey that blends in almost perfectly with the surrounding stone. I caught a glimpse of it as well, although I was a good deal farther away at the time.
Many water sources in the area, both lakes and streams. Because there are so few visitors to this part of the park, and because no dogs are allowed, we were able to refill our water bottles at numerous places along the way; on nearly every hike there were two or three streams that Evan declared as safe for drinking.
Fantastic setup, especially compared to the places I've hiked in Colorado or New Mexico where they tell you to filter or treat pretty much all of the water from streams and rivers. I was nervous about the arrangement at first, having contracted a case of Giardia during my Sep 2006 trip to the Cascades. I was in no mood to have a repeat of that episode, but Evan was true to his word-- the water was indeed safe to drink.
On the way up the second ridge we found a big pile of scat that Evan identified as grizzly bear poop-- it was pretty clear from looking at it what the bear had been eating (blueberries, and lots of them).
Kids scrambling on the rocks en route:
View back down to the "drinking lake" and Raft mountain to the south:
Your truly:
Hiking down off the ridge to the second (non-drinking) lake:
After coming down off the second mountain ridge, we descended to a medium-sized lake which Evan declared as "for swimming, not drinking", so Ethan and I decided to have a dip. Very cold indeed-- maybe not quite the coldest water I have ever been swimming in, but pretty close. Not very deep, though, and rather muddy along the edges, so we had a fairly short session this time around. There was just enough sunshine and wind that I was able to "air dry" without a towel-- got my clothes back on after about 10 minutes.
Mike unfortunately lost his footing and fell on the way down to the lake; he took a knock on the head in the process (after the hike he was sporting a bruise on the side of his head). He was a good sport about it, though, and didn't seem the worse for wear at the chalet.
The last part of the hike involved making a traverse across a big boulder field to finish the final segment of the loop back to to the chalet; I enjoyed the scrambling (as did Ethan and Lydia) but not everyone in the group felt the same way. The other thing about boulder fields is that it isn't always totally obviously where the actual trail is (easy to lose it if you are not careful). At the chalet, Evan produced a large plate of crackers and cheese after we arrived back from the hike, so we had a lengthy snack session while unwinding prior to dinner.
Mosquitoes: by my standards, the bugs were definitely a presence, especially in the late afternoon and around dusk and when were were closer to the chalet. From talking with Evan, however, it sounds as though the bug level was way, way down compared to most years-- he said that the insects are so thick sometimes in June and July that there are clouds of them at every stop. Apparently he goes so far as to distribute head nets to the hikers if the bugs are completely out of control.
Back at the chalet there was a chorus of requests for showers, so Evan heated up a big pot of water and made the preparations. The chalet actually has a little indoor shower stall tucked in back behind the kitchen; there is a plastic bucket that you fill up with warm water and a small hand-held shower nozzle. Not the most luxurious, but pretty awesome nonetheless for back country hiking.
Dinner of burritos and salad -- tasty. Evan wrapped/constructed the burritos and then baking them in the oven for a bit (never tried that myself, but it was a nice touch). There was also wine with dinner, much to my surprise -- someone had brought in a couple of big 16-liter boxes of red and white wine for us to have with the meal (who would have guessed?). Very cushy. We were informed that there was a strict 2-glass limit, however (with a specifically selected/designated set of smaller glasses).
Although the hut doesn't have running water, it has a sink that is set up for hand-washing and teeth-brushing; along with the sink is a faucet powered by a small foot pump that draws water from a bucket that can be refilled. Cool setup-- not exactly high tech, but it makes it much easier to grab a quick hand-wash or face wash without having to fill or empty basins / jugs.
More card games in the evening; we turned in a little early so as to be ready for an earlier start in the morning. Rain during the night.
Tuesday Aug 19:
Up early-ish (6am or so) to get ready for the hike to the next hut. The rain from the previous night had cleared out the air a bit; although it was still a little foggy/misty in the morning, we could tell that the views were going to be much better as a result of the rain clearing the air.
Breakfast of Red River cereal (haven't had that for quite some time) and fresh bran muffins courtesy of Evan. After doing the dishes and sweeping out the cabin, we divided up the food to be carried, got packed up, and headed out to the trail by about 7:45 am. Steep uphill to get over the ridge, then steep downhill to get for a bit and then across the boulder field again (the one that we tackle yesterday). Nice views to the east from the ridge; I have always liked the "sea of clouds" effect that you can sometimes get in the mountains after a rain.
View from the ridge of Eagle pass (our destination):
Plants along the way: Hellebore (which Evan declared to be "the most poisonous plant in the park"), also "Avalanche Lily", a delicate little columbine-like thing that comes out just after the snow melts -- the one patch we found was right next to the edge of a mostly melted snowbank).
Lunch at another "swim lake" -- we had our sandwiches, then Ethan and I went for another dip. This lake was a little deeper, so we were able to really swim around for a bit, although I have to say that given the lack of sun we didn't really stay in for very long.
After the lake we started our uphill again, making our way up to a notch in the mountains: Eagle Pass. Sky cleared a bit and we had some slightly better weather, which was nice. We saw a large marmot (very dark coloring for some reason) in one of the boulder fields, and got a glimpse of a pica or two. There was also a section of the trail with big chunks of earth gouged up-- Evan told us that it was a place where a grizzly bear had been trying to dig out a marmot burrow.
Looking back to the south/east from the ascent to the pass. The green stripes are (I assume) from avalanches...
The "selfie" -- kind of a requirement for any photographer these days:
The very top of Eagle pass is interesting since the rock on one side is recent and volcanic (the red stuff) and on the other side you have the much older metamorphic stuff:
Looking west from Eagle pass, down to Moule lake:
At Eagle pass we divided up into two groups-- one group went ahead to the chalet; kids and I stayed with the second group to do a short hiking excursion up to the top of the nameless bump/hill on the north side of Eagle Pass. Only about a 15 minute hike to the top; we had some great views back to the south of the hills we had hiked yesterday and of Raft mountain farther to the south.
From there it was downhill gently for another 45 mins to an hour to get to the second hut, "Discovery Chalet". Similar setup to the last hut -- big solar panel for electricity, outhouse with composting toilet, then inside there was a kitchen/dining/common area down on the first floor and sleeping up above.
Dinner was garlic bread, salad, and pasta with mushroom/alfredo sauce tonight and fried/frizzled salami as a proxy for bacon-- simple but very tasty. Chocolate "mousse" for dessert.
After dinner we were talking about the Malaysian airlines disaster (the lost flight, not the one that was shot down over Ukraine). Ron showed us a gadget that Evan had brought along for the hike called a "Spot" transmitter-- it's a little thing, about the size of a hocky puck (or a tad bigger) with a couple of simple buttons on it. Inside is a GPS receiver; it takes a reading about every 10 minutes, so it always "knows" where it is. It also has a transmitter; periodically (also every 10 mins) it transmits a message to a satellite that includes the position of the device. There is an "I'm OK" button on the gadget and a "Help/emergency" button of some sort -- if you press one of these then the corresponding message is sent along with your GPS coords. The device itself cost a bit less than $200, and then you can buy a subscription to the satellite service for about $100 a year. [Why don't they carry one of these on every commercial airline flight?]
What this means for someone like Evan (who is more or less constantly out in the back-country) is that his boss and his wife can keep tabs on him (the service sends some sort of email or web update) and if there is some sort of trouble, Wells Gray Adventure can figure out some way to come and collect him from wherever he is. Interesting item of equipment-- makes me think it would be handy for people doing the Appalachian trail or for folks on long bike trips.
Various discussions about other hiking trips after dinner. Evan used a term that I hadn't heard of before: "Type 2 Fun". I asked him what it meant-- he said: "Type 1 fun is an activity where the only thing you are thinking is 'This is really fun!'. With Type 2 Fun, what's running through your mind is something along the lines of "Well, this isn't really all that much fun right now, but it might turn out to be fun later on", and Type 3 fun is basically 'This is not fun at all... and in fact, come to think of it, it is never going to be fun(!)'. I can think of hiking trips that I've had that incorporated all three types :-).
We enjoyed looking through the chalet log books, which go back quite a ways. The most interesting entries were from the folks coming in the winter to ski. Two things were very much apparent: first, there were some amazing drawing and cartooning skills represented among the visitors, and second, some of the trips seemed to be more about drinking than skiing judging from the quantities of alcohol consumed (said varieties enumerated in great detail...). The cartoons were fun enough to inspire the kids, so Ethan, Lydia, and I contributed some cartoons to the current log book.
Wednesday, August 20:
Everyone was a bit bleary-eyed this morning-- although the beds in Discovery Chalet are cozy, they are all in one big bunk room with no dividers, so it was easy to get interrupted by other people making noise or moving around.
Another less-strenuous "day hike" day today, after the more lengthy high-mileage hut-to-hut journey yesterday. Pancakes for breakfast this morning, with leftover chocolate mousse topping for the more adventurous, and warm blueberry pie filling for the more traditionally minded. Yum.
For the hike we had a leisurely start; the trail took us downhill gently to the west until we hit a lake, then up steeply and onto the side of Table Mountain, where we spent the remainder of the hike. Table Mountain (as you might guess) is rocky, mostly "bald", and has long, flat top running mostly east to west, with just about all of it above tree line or close to the edge of tree line. The mountain itself isn't all that high compared to some of its neighbors, but it has fantastic views in pretty much every direction-- Trophy Mountain to the southwest and Battle Mountain to the north, with various other things farther away in the distance.
Lake just 10 mins hike south of the chalet:
Ascending Table mountain, views of Trophy mountain to the south:
Trophy mountain. People ski this thing, by the way.
Lunch spot, up on the eastern shoulder of Table mountain:
For fun after lunch Allan organized a "glamour photo shoot".
Ethan turned out to be an excellent fashion model (very pouty). Lydia on the other hand kept on cracking up-- obviously she needs to go back to model school:
Here are Allan and Ethan trying to out-glam each other. They are evenly matched; the contest was too close to call...
Weather was superb; nice and sunny but with breezes, not too hot. We made a big loop around the top part of the mountain, some of the sections on the trail and some off trail. Awesome views to the north, east, and south -- great visibility.
Here we are crossing the top of Table mountain (spreading out so as not to create any new trails):
Battle mountain to the north:
Some panorama shots:
More grizzly bear scat on the side of the trail as we were descending. This time it looked completely different -- in fact I would have sworn it was from a horse and not a bear. Evan told us that in the early part of the season (before berries) the bears eat mostly grass, which I suppose would explain why their leavings would look so different.
We also saw a couple of golden eagles circling above while we were making our decent off Table Mountain. Very large birds, not quite as big and heavy as Bald eagles but with a wingspan just about as huge. They had been circling above a meadow that was riddled with voles (we saw tons of tracks/traces from their diggings). Once they saw us they cleared our in short order, catching thermals and updrafts until they were much higher up, then moving off to the side.
On the hike back to the chalet we stopped at the lake -- Ethan, Allan, and I braved it and went for a swim. Very muddy/mucky shore, but once you got out into the middle it was definitely the nicest swimming lake we had tried so far. Clear, sweet water; fantastically cold but maybe a degree or so warmer than the previous ones. We swam around for quite some time before getting out.
Ethan's log book cartoon captures our swimming experience:
The beloved snack bowl:
More cartooning in the chalet log book:
Dinner: vegetarian chili over garlic toast, very tasty. Both Ethan and Lydia scarfed down their portions (had we served the same dish at home I doubt anyone would have touched it).
Interesting conversations after dinner. Turned out that Mike and Wayne had met while attending UC Irvine, so they had some stories to tell about that. Apparently while they were there the university decided that they would pick a "mascot" for the athletic teams. The process of deciding was very democratic-- they put it to a strict vote, and when the dust cleared, the winner was: the Anteater. This of course led to the development of some truly bizarre school cheers, including "Zot Zot!" (from the "BC" comic strip, which features an anteater) and the ever-popular rallying cry "Give 'em the tongue!". Hmm. :-)
Thursday Aug 21:
Up early (5:30 or so) to get ready for our hike out and descent down from the mountains on the last day. Evan made bran muffins for breakfast and we also had cold cereal. Chilly outside. At breakfast the kids told me that it had been a continuous snore-fest all night, and that I myself had been contributing to the racket. Apparently each time one of the culprits stopped snoring, someone else would kick in and start up (sort of a "tag team" arrangement). :-(. Anyhow, we survived; I think everyone was looking forward to sleeping in an actual bed before too long.
We packed up, did the dishes and tidied up the chalet, then eventually hit the trail at about 7:30 or 7:45. First part of the hike was the same trail that we did on the previous day-- mild downhill to swimming lake, then ascent up onto the side of table mountain. Nice weather again, although the hazy/smoky air had mostly come back.
The hike after that was a little less interesting, since we were in the forest for most of the time and basically just descending. Thankfully no really steep downhill sections, just very long and winding. We had lunch in the forest, then continued on. At the very end of the top of Table Mountain we did get a nice view of the lakes to the north, Fight Meadow, and Battle Mountain. We also caught another glimpse of some golden eagles-- three of them looping around just north of the mountain. As with our previous sighting, as soon as we got a good look at them (and they got a look at us) they ascended and headed off elsewhere -- not in a panic or anything, but it was clear that they were not interested in hanging around in our vicinity (we were probably scaring the voles away). The group started getting a bit more strung out towards the end of the hike-- kids were walking ahead a bit and others hanging back.
Photo of the lake to the south of the chalet (nice still water):
Moule lake again:
Second golden eagle sighting:
Huckleberries:
Some other berry (can't recall the name). Evan identified it as edible.
After the hike:
Later after lunch we found out that Mike was having trouble hiking: it turned out that when he had fallen back on the second day he probably cracked a rib or two. Evan wrapped his ribs up; once we found out what was going on Keith immediately grabbed Mike's pack and brought it back down to the trail junction just below Phillips lake. We split up Mike's gear and Evan took his empty pack so that he could hike unencumbered, which helped. Mike's experience with injuring his ribs sounded a lot like what happened to my dad a few years back-- he fell while hiking in the woods, landed on his ribs, made it back to the house without any trouble and decided that it was "just a bruise". Then a day or so later after things had had a chance to tighten up he got to a point where he could barely move, and eventually wound up making a visit to the emergency room. Mike was able to tough it out and reach the end of the trail in good time.
After piling all of our stuff in the van, we had a rather lengthy and bouncy drive out of the park, then a detour to take in a couple of waterfalls: Dawson falls (smaller and more well-behaved: we saw a couple of kayakers zoom down it) and then Helmcken Falls, an absolutely enormous waterfall with a monster vertical drop. From the viewing spot it didn't look all that big, but the distances were deceiving-- it was definitely one of the bigger and more impressive falls I've seen.
Finally made it back to the home base (Ian and Tay's house) around 4:30 or 4:45. We had originally planned to stay in Clearwater that evening, but decided to cancel our reservation and stay in Kamloops instead (mainly so as to have better food options for dinner, but also to shorten the drive the next day). We made the drive down in about an hour and a half, parked the car, extracted all of our junk, ran for the bathroom to get showered off -- yay, hot water and soap (and plenty of it). Dinner in the hotel restaurant. Would have collapsed in bed early, but we wanted to run a couple of loads of laundry through the hotel machine, so we stayed up to get that taken care of.
Next post: our visit to Vancouver (not yet written)...
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