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发表于 2011-5-12 08:39:50
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2 related TRs from Bivouac.com:
Exploring Ridges around Princess Louisa Inlet by Don Funk
Regions: BC Coast / Coast-Chilcotin / Elaho-Jervis / Tinniswood
July 17, 2006 (5 days) Calculated Length: 32 km
Abstract: Hiked and scrambled along ridges near Princess Louisa Inlet. Gained access via Sims Creek and the Bug Lake trail. Climbed Sun Peak and other minor peaks.
Difficulty: Scrambling to class 3, glacier travel.
Equipment: Ice axe (and crampons, depending on season) May want to carry a rope for glacier travel to be safe.
Access: From Burnaby, drive up the Squamish and Elaho valleys, to the bridge over Sims Creek and the start of a trail which leads up to Bug Lake and a ridge north of Sun Peak. This is a way of accessing the area from inland. Alternatively, one may take a ferry from the Vancouver area to the Sunshine Coast, drive up to Egmont, and then hire a water taxis to take you up to the head of Princess Louisa Inlet, and the start of the Loquilts Lake Trail.
Trip Report: I've long had a fascination with climbing Mount Tinniswood. It is a high, remote peak in the Coast Mountain Range of BC, and is located not far from tidewater. Nearby Mount Albert has captured my curiousity for quite some time as well. But something I've been really keen on checking out, are the high alpine ridges above Princess Louisa Inlet, as I've often heard about this magnificent place. So early one summer, I packed up for a 5 day trip into the area, hoping to explore some ridges and possibly climb a few peaks.
On a Sunday evening, I made the drive out from my Burnaby home, up the Squamish and Elaho valleys, to the bridge over Sims Creek and the start of a trail which leads up to Bug Lake and a ridge north of Sun Peak. This is a way of accessing the area from inland. Alternatively, one may take a ferry from the Vancouver area to the Sunshine Coast, drive up to Egmont, and then hire a water taxis to take you up to the head of Princess Louisa Inlet, and the start of the Loquilts Lake Trail. My option avoided all the logistics of this approach, but would pay the price with longer trail access and a cross over of a high glaciated ridge.
Day 1
After a good nights rest in my SUV, I had a quick breakfast, and prepared my pack for the long ascent up. Weather looked fairly promising although there was some cloud cover around. At around 7:30 AM, I began working my way up the rough trail (starting at about 1200 feet in elevation). It was not long before I came across a couple of giant Douglas Fir trees, standing side by side. These trees were very impressive, and I stopped to photograph them. It's very difficult to capture something so big on camera. Magnificent!!! A little further along the trail was the beginnings of a series of flaggings. At first I thought someone went crazy with marking the trail. Closer examination revealed the words "Road Centerline". Obviously, this magnificent old growth forest has been flagged for logging. My heart sunk upon seeing this. This is such a beautiful forest, with a trail winding through it, and to see it turned into a bunch of cut blocks would be a real shame. It's too bad these old growth forests couldn't be left alone. Higher up the trail steepens and was a bit muddy in places. There are hand lines (climbing ropes) in place to assist getting up the steep sections.
At some time after 11:00 AM, I approached the appropriately named Bug Lake (elevation 4175 feet). The bugs were heavy here, making a bug net and full clothing mandatory. I had a short stop for lunch, noticing the increasing cloud cover overhead. I continued up along a rough climbers track which gives access to the ridge north of Sun Peak. By the time I arrived just below the ridge top (elevation 6300 feet), the weather began closing in, and the wind was blowing moderately strong out of the south. A light shower would come down on occasion, and dark black threatening clouds loomed out on the horizon. I could see numerous showers coming down off in the distance. I decided to wait this out, looking for potential camping sites in the meantime.
I found a good place to camp amongst boulders, where I would be sheltered somewhat from the wind and there was a good flat spot for the tent on gravel. Also, there was a good source of water from snow melt very close by. Higher up on the ridge, there was continuous snow, and full exposure to the wind. After realizing this weather was not letting up, I decided to set up camp. I realized this would cost me an extra day, and all I had to do was traverse this ridge, bypass the end of it by dropping down a few hundred feet, and climb up the high glaciated shoulder of Sun Peak, where from here I would be able to drop down to my destination at Contact Lakes. I was hoping to do this on the first day, but the weather man had plans of his own, leaving me to wonder What happened to that forecast of sunshine? It would be crazy, to attempt crossing the glacier in such low visibility, so I had a relaxing afternoon and evening, and retired to bed early.
Day 2
The next morning brought the sunshine the weather man had promised. The Elaho valley was filled with low lying cloud with nothing but sunshine above, making for an amazing vista. I had breakfast and packed up camp, as the cloud from the valley, began to boil upwards onto the ridges. I climbed up onto the ridge on good snow (was firm for step kicking but not too hard). Further along the ridge, I looked at bypassing the final steep section above the col with Sun Peak, by looking at a route to the west. This would be on steep snow slopes with no good runout, and it appeared that the snow on this side was relatively firm.
So instead, I decided to bypass the ridge end on the east side, along a cairned route. This route involves dropping down a few hundred extra feet (about a 500 foot drop total from the top of the ridge at 6800 feet). The final drop is down a steep heather and rock slope to a gulley east of the col. From here, I made my way up steep snow and then onto the glacier, and worked my way over to the north ridge of Sun Peak. Crevasses along this section appeared to be not too bad, although, there were large obvious ones on either side of the route. From right along the ridge crest and just before the base of the final rock section of the summit pyramid of Sun Peak, I noticed a pole with a bright orange flag. The pole was lying down on the snow, and the flag was detached from the pole. So I reinserted the flag onto the top of the pole. I figured that the pole would likely melt out again in a few days, but heh, maybe somebody else would come along to do the same. This marks the crossover point (elevation is approximately 7200 feet), and the descent route down to Contact Lakes.
It was not far for the final scramble to the summit of Sun Peak (7550 feet), so I did this and took in the amazing views from the summit, even though there was now considerable cloud cover around, but the sun still managed to poke through here and there. So it was back to the flag, and then a traverse down and across the glacier along the west side of the mountain. I aimed for a ridge just below a prominent subpeak of Sun Peak. Again I noticed occasional crevasses which were already open, but easy to avoid. I gained the ridge leading down from the subpeak, and at a lookout just below, had my first glimpse of Loquilts Lake far below. Also, to my amazement, I could see a couple of tents set up in the col between Loquilts Lake and Contact Lakes. I was quite surprised to see other people camped out in what seemed to be such a remote place. I made the long (2200 foot) descent along the ridge running in part along the glacier, and down to Contact Lakes, with such beautiful views enroute.
Upon arriving at the col, I met up with a couple of guys who were guiding a trip into the area. They were planning to climb Sun Peak the following day. I told them of my ambitious plan to attempt the climb of Mount Tinniswood, and I'm sure they must of thought I was crazy, as they seemed to be familiar with the route. In fact they knew all of this area quite well, and began naming off features and peaks, many I have not ever heard of. This had me wondering, where did all these names come from? Names such as the name of the ridge directly above Contact Lakes (I don't recall it), the Bonbon Glacier (a legit name (but likely unofficial) as I've heard of this particular one before), Lactic Acid Hill, the Whaleback, etc, etc... Funny, I don't recall seeing any of these names on bivouac.com (The Canadian Mountain Encyclopedia)! Perhaps it is this club in Malibu that is naming the features of the area. I have also heard that they refer to the subpeak of Sun Peak as "Sun Peak", where as everyone else refers to the main, higher peak as Sun Peak. And it is the subpeak that they often climb, which allows them to avoid crossing the glacier. Apparently, Sun Peak is not an official name in either case!
So I sent wishes for a fantastic climb to the rest of the group and they wished me the same, quite a friendly group really. I made my way up onto a ridge above Contact Lakes where I discovered a most beautiful tarn to setup camp. I stripped down and took a dip into a warm pool of water, and then stretched out along the smoothly curved granitic rock, to soak in the warm sun. A light gentle breeze blew in from the south, making for a perfect afternoon.
That evening I did a short reconnaisance to check out access up a steep slope along the ridge running off to the northwest. I made the gradual descent down to a notch in the ridge where much of the route was cairned up to that point. I will call this Iceworm Notch for future reference, as there were numerous iceworms on the snow here. And heh, if others can go and name features at will, then why can't I? Beyond, the route up the steep imposing face was not obvious. I dropped down slightly from the notch along the snow (about 100 feet) and gained access to the face at a convenient location. From here, I made my way along ledges contouring into a small stream, and crossing it briefly, before following it up, as it leads upwards across the rock face on a diagonal. All along here, the route was quite obvious, as a fairly distinct track was worn into the ground. From beyond the stream, an easy but highly exposed ledge was traversed to easier ground around the south side, where the final ascent back up to the top of the ridge was an easy scramble. So, after finding this route to be no problem, I returned back to camp, hoping to get an early start the next morning.
Day 3
I woke up to a wonderful sunrise and good weather. I wound up sleeping in longer than I hoped, getting off sometime between 6 and 6:30 AM towards Mount Tinniswood. Again I made the way down to Iceworm Notch, and up the steep face to regain the ridge beyond. Travel along here was very pleasant and the views from along the ridge were amazing! I was quite surprised to still see sections of snow along the ridge and in many of the tarns, although, this had been quite a big snow year. At a high point along the ridge beyond, I descended steep slopes down to the Bonbon Glacier. Here I picked up tracks from another group, which I later heard, had traversed ridges to the top of the Whaleback, and camped out on the summit!
I followed their tracks across the Bonbon Glacier, and departed from their route at a convenient ramp, which leads back up towards a high glaciated ridge north of the Bonbon. Along the glacier, there were a few minor lateral crevasses, but none had opened up enough to be of any consequence (from what I could see anyway). The route up to the ridge above was done without difficulty, and was greeted with fantastic views of Mount Albert off to the southwest, Mount Alexander and the Blastus Ridge could be seen off to the west above Hunaechin Creek, and by looking in the distant northeast, I could clearly see Mount Casement and Mount Tinniswood.
I traversed along the western sideslope of Lactic Acid Hill, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake, as the slopes were somewhat steep and mushy, making for slower progress. I wound up topping out between two peaks at the top of the hill, and according to my map the western peak was the higher. I proceeded to climb this peak by climbing moderately steep snow slopes along the edge of the glaciated north side.
By the time I summited this peak, the weather had again begun to deteriorate considerably. I noticed extensive black clouds and rainshowers off to the west. Ahead of me, I had a 2200 foot drop down to a pass below Mount Casemount, followed by the actual climb of Tinniswoods southeast ridge which ascends nearly 4000 feet vertical. It was pretty obvious I would not be completing this climb today and would require a bivy somewhere. And with the sight of the weather once again closing in, I decided to bail on the attempt. I realized I would have been far better off to have moved my camp in closer, but resisted this urge after having found such a wonderful site.
So I decided at least to climb the other peak along this ridge off to the east, and noticed that it's definitely higher than the one I was standing on, contrary to both maps (GPS and paper). My GPS elevation reading of the lower peak was 6880 ft, while the map said 6845 ft (pretty close). But both maps didn't even distinguish the eastern peak (showing it to be somewhere between 6700 and 6800 feet) My GPS indicated 7125 feet at the top, and was most certainly higher than its western counter part. This is an obvious error on the map!
Another thing I wanted to do was get a final picture of the route leading over to Mount Albert, as I could clearly see the notch which could be used to gain access to the eastern slopes of the mountain. Just as I was about to haul out my camera, a light rain began to fall, preventing me from getting a good picture of the route. I could see that access looked reasonable into the 4500 foot notch, but things looked pretty steep up the other side. Couldn't really see the slopes beyond however.
So I hustled to make it back to camp in the deteriorating weather. But wouldn't you know it, that by the time I approached my camp, weather began to improve again. I had dinner in the dying light of the evening, and the other group of climbers had made their way up to the top of the ridge adjacent to my camp. I went over to join them for the evening where they cooked up some hot chocolate and popcorn. They mentioned that they had a great day climbing Sun Peak (actually climbed the sub peak). I filled them in about my day and we exchanged stories about our past. They were a great bunch, all Americans (many were from the Colorado area), and was a great experience meeting up with them. I told them of my plans to approach Mount Peakes the following day. They suggested climbing the Whaleback, which is easily accessible along ridges, but mentioned that Mount Pearkes is also a great trip. They were planning to head down lower the next day, and out the following.
Day 4
I slept in even later the next day, and didn't get going till about 8:30 AM. I headed over to the high point to the southwest of my camp overlooking Loquilts Lake. This is where the steep climbing track down to the lake can be picked up. It is fairly easy to follow, and goes along ledges on the steeper parts (some scrambling required). From below, I crossed the creek at the outlet of the lake by hopping across rocks. From here I traversed across a marshy meadow crossing the outlet of a smaller creek draining the adjacent Lake. I worked my way around to a point that was convenient for gaining the ridge south of Loquilts Lake, and began ascending this. At first it was a bit bushy and rough, but improved quickly as I climbed higher.
Beyond, I could see a number of lookouts, that promised to offer fine views over Princess Louisa Inlet and across to the vertical rock faces and waterfalls below Mount Albert. This was really intriguing, anticipating the views I would have from these high lookout platforms. And the views did not disappoint, for they were absolutely magnificent! I spent a considerable time here photographing and taking in the scenery. I scrambled up higher, first on rock, and then up a long snow slope to the top of the ridge, where I stopped for some lunch. On top of a large rock, I noticed signs of previous prospecting activity, likely dating back quite a few years.
I continued south along this ridge and picked up a well defined track beyond. This was a very pleasant ridge and it gradually descended down to a large relatively flat area of slabby rock. From here I descended past steep bluffs (by passing them on the left) and down stepped slopes which led to the col between Outrigger Creek and Potato Creek. The basin at the head of Outrigger Creek is particularly scenic, where rock bluffs frame an alpine lake, with Sun Peaks double summits visible beyond.
The climb up to the ridgeline southeast of the col is steep and the slopes are stepped. This ridge gives access to Mount Peakes, but the climb up (and back down) requires careful navigation. I picked up the steep climbers track for over half the route, but eventually lost it due to snow cover. The route involves a few steep awkward sections of steep and wet heather, moss over rock and running water, with a bit of mud thrown in here and there. I was thankful to get onto the upper snow slopes and onto the ridgeline, but by this time it was getting late into the afternoon, and it began to look like Mount Pearkes would have to wait for yet another time (perhaps when there wasn't so much snow melt coming down the slopes) This opened up yet another magnificent view to the east of this ridge, towards the head of the Deserted River, fine alpine country indeed! Mt Pearkes was definitely out of range as a day trip from my camp location, as I would be required to bypass the peak on its east side by dropping down into a basin, swing around a subpeak, southeast of the peak, and make the final climb from the southeast.
So I hustled back towards my camp, noticing another party camped out on an overlook above Princess Louisa Inlet. My only difficulty in making it back was in getting back across the outlet creek of Loquilts Lake, for after a warm day of snow melting, it had swollen to a much larger size, and the dry rocks I had crossed on in the morning were now partially submerged by fast moving water. I risked the jump, getting one foot completely drenched in the process. But my feet were already soaked pretty thoroughly after all the snow travel, so no big deal. I made the climb up from the lake by headlamp, and had no problem staying on the track.
Day 5
I packed up camp and headed out, and it was kind of sad to be leaving such a magnificent place. I took my time on the climb back up to the shoulder of Sun Peak, as it was a very warm day. The snow on the glacier was in surprisingly good condition despite the very warm afternoon. The descent down to Bug Lake and on the trail down to Sims Creek went well and I made fast progess. Just prior to arriving at the trail head, I glanced through an opening in the forest to see if I could spot my vehicle (if still there, and OK). My SUV suddenly came into view, but then noticed a mother black bear and her cub approaching it. The bear curiously looked at my vehicle, and then she and her cub slowly made there way off into the forest, heading in the direction of the upper Sims Creek valley. Upon getting down to my vehicle, I checked out the tracks, and it appears they came in from the northern side of Sims Creek and over the bridge.
The black flies were incredibly heavy, and as I was loading my gear, many of them got inside. This had me literally running from my vehicle. Opening the windows didn't clear them out, and so I had to drive a little faster than normal down the logging road with windows open. Eventually, this did the trick.
Further down the road, and shortly after crossing over the Squamish River at mile 37, I encountered what appeared to be a gathering of people. At first I just thought it was a group of campers. But being a Friday night, with warm summer weather ahead, one could expect such activity. A little further along, I could see a nude woman in the middle of the road. I attempted to drive around her, but she moved in the same direction to stop me. All she was wearing were nipple rings and white fluffy cuffs along her legs. I don't know what these are referred to, as I have not been following the latest in fashion wear. She approached my window, and I asked if this was some kind of protest. She said no and replied that she just wanted to me to stop and say hi. So I continued on, and she shouted to another woman in the area "going through". I figured this must be some kind of cultural gathering, or perhaps a rave. Maybe she was the parking attendant for the event? On the drive out, I noticed a lot of traffic heading into the area, more than one normally would expect on such a remote logging road, and some of the vehicles were from Washington state.
Yet farther along the road, a deer and its fawn jumped out directly in front of me. The deer quickly moved off the road, but the fawn stumbled a bit and then just stood on the road directly in front of me, dazed I think, from the headlights. I waited a few moments, before it finally hopped over to its mother.
All in all, it was another fantastic trip into the Coast Mountain Range of British Columbia, made great by the good weather and amazing scenery of this truly spectacular area. And much of the rock along these ridges and many of the peaks is granite, which makes for pleasant scrambling. I would have to say this trip ranks amongst my top ten ever, and would definitely recommend a visit.
Here is a map of the area.
Sun Peak from Princess Louisa Inlet by Len Zedel
July 17, 2000 (3 days) Calculated Length: 18 km Elevation Gain: 2306m
Abstract: A two night, three day hike up and around Sun Peak starting from Princess Louisa Marine Park using the Loquilts-Bug Lake Trail.
Difficulty: 3: Some route finding and possible glacier travel.
Equipment: Ice axe, hiking gear.
Participants: Len Zedel and Jeff Value: 49
Access: Final Access Road: Loquilts-Bug Lake Trail
Trip Report: For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by what might lie beyond the end of Jervis Inlet. Growing up in Powell River I remember vague references to Malibu lodge although I never really knew what it was. The inlet itself was somehow responsible for the isolation of people living in Powell River condemning them to take a ferry in order to escape from the community. And so from a very young age I was perplexed by this bit of geography.
My first exploration to the end of Jervis Inlet was in 1978 when I borrowed my fathers boat, filled it up with a lot of gas and then visited the (to me) fabled end of Jervis Inlet. On that trip, my friends and I had visions of hiking up some of the mountains from the marine park but we were ill prepared in many ways. We did shock the Malibu Lodge residents by poking around the building in their pre-season state of abandonment. When we finally ran into some people, we found out that it was a bible camp of some nature (news to me). We did manage to hike up the trail that starts at Princess Louisa Marine Park (located at the end of Princess Louisa Inlet) and we got as far as an old cabin with a view over Princess Louisa that the Malibu Lodge attendants referred to as the “old tea house”. Not far beyond that, fog and rain forced us to abandon the trip and we returned back to the park and the boat.
Twenty years later I was still fascinated by the prospect of what might be found if one ventured up the Princess Louisa Park trail. So, I hatched a plan that would see me and a friend meet in Vancouver airport (the South Terminal to be exact) where we would fly by seaplane direct to Princess Louisa Park and head out on a voyage of discovery. The aesthetics of this trip were brilliant: I could fly into Vancouver airport, get myself to the South Terminal and not ever really have to step into the city of Vancouver. I can no longer recall how Jeff showed up but we piled our gear in a heap at the Coast Western seaplane base and idled away an hour or so at an adjacent pub waiting for a plane.
Coast Western flew us to Sechelt in a Beaver and then, since it was just the two of us, they stuffed us into a Cessna 180 for the trip to Princess Louisa. Now, normally these guys fly along the inlets but, taxiing out to get enough room for the 180 to get off the water, we convinced the pilot to fly up over the back side which he agreed to do. That flight was totally worth the price of admission: the 180 struggled the entire trip to the end of Narrows Inlet clawing for altitude. We then had a brilliant view of the backside of Tzoonie Mtn (another one of my dream trips) and as we got closer to Jervis Inlet, we flew between Mts Ashlu and Crera. Arriving at Princess Louisa we slipped right by Sun peak and got a great view of Loquilts lake where we were hoping to spend the night. Now, the problem is that we were at 2000 m altitude and had to get down to the water. Clearing over the steep North edge of Princess Louisa Inlet was one of those moments when you question the ability of a 1 mm thick sheet of aluminum to somehow support your body weight. The pilot had to complete two circles around Princess Louisa to get us down and lined up for a landing.
Remains of corduroy road from the days when teams of oxen dragged felled forest giants to the water.
It was 15:15 and we had ourselves deposited on the dock and in a state ready to start hiking. One thing about Jeff is that he will strike up a conversation with anyone and, as his nature, he engaged the Park attendant who was nosing about to see what we were up to. We discovered that the start of the old trail followed an old logging operation from the 1880s when oxen were used to pull logs along cordoroy roads: the remains of these “roads” is still clearly visible and forms the foundation for the start of the trail. Further along, the trail was opened up by the McCulloch brothers who maintained a trap line many years ago. They were the original builders of the tea house cabin and another (even more dilapidated) cabin that Jeff and I successfully spotted further up the trail.
Waterfall at the old "tea house" cabin.
Passing the old tea house cabin at ~500 m was essentially new terrain for me. I was surprised how well defined the trail was since it was not to my knowledge a frequented path (we would learn more about that later). We had no problem following up and made excellent time until at 19:00 we arrived at what was clearly an established campsite at 980 m. We both would rather camp in the alpine than in the forest so after a small break we crossed the creek where it appeared to us a path led across to the North and then down into a gully and another creek. The trail did not cross the creek but appeared to simply end. At this point, Jeff and I figured we had reached the end of the free ride and were now going to have to navigate for ourselves. The obvious line up was to follow the gulley but, at least from where we were presently standing, upward movement was going to be difficult because of large boulders packed in the gulley. I decided to climb up a bit just to see what the prospects were and lo and behold, what should I find above the boulders, but a rope snaking down through a cleft between the boulders and a trail leading further up from there. The path actually goes under a large boulder in the gulley but from below, that this is the path is not at all obvious.
Crossing the creek just before the "secret passage" problem.
Beyond this secret passage, the trail was again easy to follow if somewhat more demanding in nature and we at length came out into alpine forest and, angling up and northward across what appears to be a series of lateral moraines, we eventually arrived at the hanging valley that contains Loquilts lake. It was 18:00 (just 3 hours since we left the ocean) and we were at an altitude of 1350 m. To have made it back up to my intended camp location was simply brilliant. Jeff and I made dinner and then, we noticed a bunch of tents further up near the lake so we wandered over to see what the story was. It turns out that the area is used by a youth group (Beyond Malibu) that does wilderness training: this was a bunch of farm kids from Tennessee. They didn’t seem interested in talking in fact they looked shocked to see us there. A bit disappointed that we were not alone, we collapsed into the tent after a very successful day.
Campsite at Loquilts Lake.
The next morning, we got up somewhat late and we didn’t break out of camp until 9:00. We decided to climb the obvious peak to the east on the other side of the lake. The obvious line was to head out on a ridge to the South and just keep angling up. As we worked our way up we were surprised to see yet another community of tents up on the ridge South of Loquilts lake. We stopped for a break at 2000 m in a little saddle and as we rested, we watched a “column” of youth group participants approaching our location. We chatted with the group for a while, these guys were from Kentucky, I expect that they might have thought they had landed on mars for the differences that they were seeing. We found out that they had spent their first night at the well established camp we had passed at 980 m. From there, they had headed for the ridge where we could see their tents. When we described the hidden passage they referred to that as the “short-cut” so I gather there is a more frequented trail leading from that camp toward the ridge where we could see their tents. They were gobsmacked when we told them we had come up from the park in 3 hours. They were headed for the peak we had in mind but as we noticed that there was a slightly higher peak to the east we decided to leave them to their objective.
Beyond Malibu kids crossing snowfield on their way to Sun Peak (that's the "Whaleback" in the background).
We traversed across the back side of what they called Sun Peak and made for the higher objective which I gather is the true summit anyway. This traverse was on extremely steep snow but we came out on the other side of the sub peak on a ridge leading between the two. After a short break we identified a line that would take us to the top of the higher peak along a ridge leading up from the north. We edged around on firm snow and then clambered over broken blocks of granite to the top at 2280 m on the altimeter. The weather was sunny with intermittent clouds, unfortunately while we were at the top there was an emphasis on the overcast condition.
Descending ridge on north side of Sun Peak.
It was cold and windy so we started back after thrilling ourselves with the view down toward the Ashlu valley through holes in the clouds. We decided to go down around the North side of Sun peak and this had us walking through patchy fog across a snow field or edge of a glacier. We followed along the expanse of snow leading to a lateral moraine and we followed that line down around above the North side of Loquilts lake. At one point we could see some small lakes that sit above Loquilts, Loquilts lake, and the entrance to Princess Louisa inlet with a sea of mountains beyond.
Contact lakes (on right) and Loquilts Lake (on left) with Princess Louisa and peaks to west beyond.
We made great time and after a while arrived at yet another camp of the beyond Malibu kids. They had a large flat granite slab occupied with 8 or 10 tents beside a couple of small lakes (we were told that the lakes were called contact lakes) and they told us that there were 8 groups in the area at the moment. They obviously coordinate their movements to avoid interfering with each other. They were absolutely astounded by the distances that we were covering in a day so I gather that the leaders don’t push the groups that far and spend a fair bit of time hanging out at the camps. On the one hand it bothers me that there is such intense commercial use of what is public land. Is it commercial use if it is a not-for-profit church group? The flip side is of course that these kids are getting a great experience and in fact, I didn’t find ANY trace of the camps so these groups are working hard to have zero impact.
Time was moving on so Jeff and I moved down toward Loquilts lake following a ridge and a somewhat clear trail that eventually emitted us down a large granite slab leading to the outflow of the lake. Now, this presented a touchy problem because we really had to cross that creek because we weren’t hiking back up and around the way we had come. Fortunately a little picking along the shores and we found a series of rocks that allowed us to jump across. We finished up back and camp around 17:00 and lounged in the now hot sun and enjoyed a good dinner and a well deserved sleep.
Jeff had arranged a flight out at 15:00 so we broke camp early and started back down the trail we had come up at 7:30. The trip down was uneventful until we arrived at the Tea House cabin. After that, we lost the trail and ended up heading down into some logging slash (ahh, the wonders of helicopter logging). I mention this because on a subsequent trip down this trail I made the exact same mistake: the trail has been moved north to avoid the slash but it’s really easy not to see the branch and you end up following the old trail. Beware when moving out from the Tea House.
Once we got ourselves back on track we moved pretty smoothly and, as we were making good time, we didn’t rush overly. Just before we arrived at the Marine Park, we encountered a couple heading up the trail. What set them apart was that the women was wearing plastic sandals with carefully manicured red toenails showing through. They asked as to the condition of the trail further along. We diplomatically suggested that it did get a little rougher and we saw them back at the marine park not long after.
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