Alouette Lake Overnight

On Sunday Ivan, Michal and I rented a Modo car, drove to Golden Ears Provincial Park, and paddle Alouette Lake.

We parked at the boat launch. Ivan and Michal brought a canoe, I brought my Innova Safari.

Only a few Modo cars have roof racks

We made a short detour up Gold Creek.

We turned around where the creek becomes whitewater.

Some nice views as we passed through the narrows.

Is Ivan taking a nap here?

Someone had built a weird shelter out of tarps near the North East side of the lake. We camped next to it.

Weird tarp structure on the right, tarp covered bbq on the left. Good camping about 50 meters North.

In the morning the weather was sunny. We gather our gear and finished a circle around the lake and back to the car.

A few notes:

-Wind can be a big factor in this lake, especially in the afternoon.

-Nice views of Robie Reid and Golden Ears peaks.

-The camping on the east side of the lake was nice. There are other camping spots closer to boat launch near the narrows and also on the south side of the lake.

Hope to Fort Langly via the Fraser River

This week I kayaked a portion of the Fraser River. On Monday I left from Hope, on Wednesday I arrived at Fort Langley.

Matty Gray offered me a ride to hope! I used the boat launch off Wardle Street,

Thanks for the ride Matty!

I loaded up my Innova Safari and off I went!

Low river levels meant large gravel banks on each side of the river.

The first 10kms had fast flowing water with standing waves and whirlpools and lots of wind. After that the river widened out and calmed down.

I camped my first night on an island about 2kms downriver from the Rosedale Bridge.

Can you spot the photographer's shadow?

Next day was mellowing paddling on nice, wide river. I made sure to stay to the left where the Harrison River enters.

Around here is where the air started to get a "farm" smell.

I was near Mission as the sun set. A fisherman by the side of the river stopped me to ask about the kayak. He pointed out a nice place to camp.

At this point the lens of my waterproof camera had too much water on it... this photo was taken with my phone.

The sunset was AMAZING! I really wish I could have captured it better.

Pink sky by night, kayaker's delight? I don't think so.... rain forecast the next day.

On Wednesday I set out early for Fort Langley. This portion is tidal. A few curious seals came to say hi. I pulled out at the boat launch in Fort Langley, packed my gear and walked over to the bus stop.

Waiting for the bus to take me to the Skytrain so I can go home!

All together a nice three days. Here's a few notes:

-The water is cold, you may want a wetsuit or drysuit

-It's amazing how much industry is along the river banks. At times there is definite funky smells in the air. Many people and animals eat fish from this river, we should show more respect.

-Here's someone else's recent trip report from the Fraser http://damgoodtrips.com/fraserriver/
-And another trip report http://bcwetcoast.blogspot.ca/2014/09/hope-to-home-in-15-days-august-3031.html

-Here's a frundraiser trip that runs this same route! http://www.squeah.com/Paddle-A-Thon.html
-This group provides lots of info about Lower Mainland waterways and what you can do to take action http://www.fraserriverkeeper.ca/

Manning Park Ski

This week Dean and I went to Manning Park and spent two days backcountry skiing.

Day 1 Fat Dog Trail and Day 2 Windy Joe

On Tuesday we followed the Fat Dog Ski Trail up to the ridge between Big Buck Mountain and Three Brothers Mountain.

A rare photo of me courtesy of Dean

We made it to the ridge (where the Heather Trail is in the summer) right at our turn-around time of 3pm. We followed our tracks back and made it back to the car for dusk.

Day 2 we followed the Windy Joe Mountain trail up to the fire lookout cabin at the summit, There was lots of deadfall on the trail.

The route starts on a cross country trail

The hut had some nice views on the top!

The ski down through the trees was fun!

Dean was excited!

A few notes:

-Simple terrain means this is a great area to visit when avalanche risk is high.

-We stayed the night at the Manning Park Resort What a joy to be able to dry our clothes and have a burger for dinner!

Mt Sproatt Ski Attempt

Yesterday Brent and I attempted to ski Mount Sproatt. We started from the Rainbow Lake Trail which is located just West of Whistler.

The red lines are very approximate!

We started skinning up.

Narrow creek bridges were tricky!

Around the 3km mark we left the trail and started heading up into the trees and gaining elevation. This is the route described in John Baldwin's book. It was tough skinning up in the the super crunchy snow. It was slow moving and eventually we decided to turn around before we ran out of time!

Brent kept his split board as skis for the way down!

Once we hit the road we got to pick up a little speed.

Go Brent Go!!

One note:

-On snowshoes we probably would have made the summit. I still have a lot to learn about backcountry skiing and skinning up steep terrain.

Alpen Mountain and Split Peak

On Sunday I joined my first ever Wanderung hike. Wanderung is a hiking club you can find more info here. We drove up the Mamquam FSR near Squamish and hiked Alpen Mountain and Split Peak.

Mamquam FSR was a little bumpy, but not too bad.

There is a cabin just off the logging road. It is maintained by a snowmobile club.

Not enough time to take their truck for a joy-ride

After a quick bushwack, the trees cleared and we made our way towards Alpen Mountain.

This is a sub-peak, Alpen Mountain is a little bit in the distance.

Then we made our way up to Split Peak.

I wonder why they call it Split Peak.

On the way down the sky opened up and we got nice views across the valley to the south end of Garibali Park and the west end of Pinecone Burke Park.

Garibaldi in the distance on the right.

A few notes:

-There was almost a foot of snow at 1500m

-The cabin looked fairly nice. It does have an unfriendly "no hikers" sign on the front.

-Wanderung was a great experience! I'll join more hikes in the future!

Mount Sedgwick Attempt

On Monday I got a boat ride from Squamish to the West side of Howe Sound near Woodfibre.

Mount Sedgqick was still a few kms from where I camped,

The ride in was a pleasure!

Everyone's favourite dog leading the way!

I was dropped one logging road South of Woodfibre. Soon I had to cross over to the main Woodfibre Service Road. Just 320m away it took about an hour of bushwacking and crossing this creek.

The Woodfibre road has a pipeline running along side it. Eventually the road ends. The pipeline veers South and a well marked trail leads to Henriette Lake. The steel bridge on this trail is broken so I crossed the creek on foot.

The heli-pad at Henriette Lake. Water level was pretty low.

The trail upwards from the lake is becoming very over-grown. There is some flagging here and there. It is easy to lose the trail. I wore sunglasses to keep the brush from scratching my eyes. I encountered snow around 1000m elevation and continued up to the ridge at about 1400m elevation. I set up camp as the sun set.

I woke to a great view and clear skies!

Mount Sedgwick loomed in the distance. I knew I would not make it that day.

Mount Sedgwick so close yet so far

I packed up my gear and made my way down. Again crossing from the Woodfibre Service Road across the creek and down the next road towards Howe Sound.

Woodfibre in the bottom left. Squamish across the water with Garibaldi in the distance.

I texted Simon for a pick-up and he gave me a quick tour of Howe Sound.

Who knew this old shipwreck was here?

A few notes:

-I was warned about the snow and should have came more prepared. Ice axe, an early early wake up and a later boat pick-up time might have made a summit possible.

-The trail from Henriette Lake is in very rough shape.

-Woodfibre area is covered with "No Tresspassing" signs. It's a pity because this would be a MUCH more convenient place to be dropped off.

-Yes I could have paddled it, but the option of a motorboat ride was just so appealing.
-Interested in a boat ride out of Squamish? Email Simon at info@simonhayter.com or check out his instagram @otbcharters

Brandywine Mountain

On Monday I hiked Brandywine Mountain with Shizuka. It is located West of Whistler, the trailhead is about 2 hours drive North of Vancouver.

This map is super-approximate

From the lower parking area we hiked up to the meadows.

Meadows were beautiful.

Then we scrambled up some rocky areas.

Where's Waldo?

We saw this white bird.

Is it a grouse?

Finally we reached the summit!

We signed the registry at the top.