CDMC |
Trip Report |
MemberChanges today yesterday < 7 days < 30 days |
Eleven early morning risers met at 6am and piled into three 4WD vehicles for the longish ride to the trail head. Ken had warned us of a baffling amount of paperwork and requirements for access on Timber West logging roads. I had purchased a 5 lb. fire extinguisher (which I should probably have anyways), had $3M on my car insurance policy, and had read TW road guidelines, etc., etc. The guard at the gate turned out to be very reasonable, and after having taken photos of our vehicle license plates, we were on our way. As it turned out we did not see any logging activity all day. (Perhaps the CDMC will have to sit down with TW and smooth out any wrinkles for future trips). We bounced along quite good roads for 2 hours... the last 15 km of which required 4 wheel drive. The nice part was we gained over 1000 meters up the east flank of Castlecrag above Eric Creek. We did have a bit of a surprise with one truck having a flat tire with 10 km to go. Luckily we could all fit into the remaining two vehicles. At 8:15 we started our climb in old growth forest... soon to be made into Tim Horton coffee cups I suspect. Ken led us more or less straight up the fall line, following hints of a flagged route. The pace was moderate, with frequent rest stops to enjoy the ever expanding views of King George V to the west and the ridge containing Carey Lakes to the south. After an hour we encountered the first patches of snow, which soon became the dominant ground cover. We were forewarned of bushwhacking, and there was some, but not so much to discourage those in shorts. Higher up the constant slope fell back into flattish benches and easily ascended cliff bands. After 3 hours and 700 meters of climbing we were on the summit by 11:30. The only problem (if you could call it one) was which direction to face for lunch... we had superb 360 views. The winter snowpack was still holding its own on the Forbidden Plateau and on all features higher in elevation. Moat Lake far below us was still under ice, which had odd circular fracture patterns, much like crop circles. We had an hour and a half of lounging in the sun, with some dozing off... no doubt recouping lost sleep from the early start, with others imagining erotic cloud shapes (actually just Otto). The prize for best lunch had to go to Susan, who had brought a large salad bowl of fresh garden greens. By 1:00pm, after the obligatory group summit photo, we were heading back down. We conducted a mini Olympics of bum sliding on 3 excellent slopes. The rides were a little more bumpy than usual due to the summer sun cups, but at least we missed the tree wells... except for Darrell who is doing a scientific study of them. Most agreed that going down was a little trickier, resulting in a few more snowless bum slides. We reached the vehicles by about 3:30, just in time as I think the thrill of bushwhacking had peaked. The ride out was uneventful save for a few stops to re-inflate the flat tire with an electric pump thingamajig. Thanks Ken for a great trip, and for suffering through the red tape for us. Thanks also to all the participants, who stayed together and helped each other over some of the harder bits. (Bob)  [Bob St.John photo]  [Bob St.John photo]  [Bob St.John photo]  [Bob St.John photo]  [Ken Rodonets photo]  [Ken Rodonets photo]  [Ken Rodonets photo] Report contributors: Bob, Ken, Participant list: Paula, Kerry, Susan, Stephanie, David, Ken, Bob, Karl, Darrell, Otto, |