Overnight Hiking


Leaving Vancouver early on a Saturday morning, well sort of --- we left home at 9 am, not bad, considering I had aimed at 8h30am ;)









Our chosen destination: Cheakamus Lake turned out to be not possible: too much snow on the access road, the photo shows how the snow plows had pushed a little hill at the entrance of the forest service road. When Little Jo said how disappointed he was, because he really wanted to do his first backpacking trip, I explained that this was just a great way to get some exercise at being flexible and changing your plans.










So we drove on to our alternate: Birkenhead Lake Provincial Park. Lots of snow here, too -- so we left the car in front of the closed park gates, and walked in without our packs first, to see how far it would be to some fresh water and a level spot on gravel (I actually only had a 1:150.000 map of the area, which showed the park gate at the wrong location, so I thought it was
only about 10 minutes. Well, turned out it was 1km on snow, so a bit longer. So after we had checked it out, we came back to the car to get our packs, and set off for our "backcountry" adventure.




































As you can see, we stayed on a large frontcountry campsite, for car camping, but out of season: I think this is a brilliant way to experience a bit more of a "wilderness" feeling in a beautiful spot, without the crowds, the generators, the roaring campfires, and the motor boats.







Our feet were super wet after the hike, didn't bring gaiters, or snowshoes, or skis, all of which would have been helpful, but not really necessary. It was so mild that we walked around barefoot while waiting for our socks to dry in the breeze.




































While reading up on ultralight backpacking, and researching ways to reduce pack weight, all in a quest to be able to get back into backpacking with a seven year old by ourselves, without either of us being unhappy with our packs, I came across this way of cooking pasta: pour boiling water into the ziplock bag. No washing up (and thus no straining out food particles after the washing up), worked brilliantly, and for the breakfast oatmeal as well.


















Our brandnew, superlight tent (1.2kg, yeah!!!!): surprisingly roomy, and seen as there is hardly anything left in the packs in the evening, the
small vestibule isn't really a downside. Super happy with the tent, great ventilation, easy set-up.






















Jonas loved exploring the animal prints both at the lake and on the snow. We saw prints of moose, dog, geese -- and I even thought I saw a couple bear prints on the snow.

































Our bear cache.










In the morning, there was hardly any wind, and we had mirror lake. Yeah! And frost, but I was too cozy in my sleeping bag to get out in time to take a picture of the frost.
























And on the way back, lunch in Pemberton outdoors: nice to be back in civilization.

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 3, 2011 at 3:33 AM

    What an amazing countryside.... the lake with the reflections of the mountains is absolutely beautiful, like a mirror!!!! It must be so uplifting to be able to go to such places. - Your photos make me want to paint them! - The spaghetti cooking looks interesting : ).

    ReplyDelete

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