The weather this fall has been nothing short of spectacular. The opportunity to explore new corners of our back-yard before the snow falls is too hard to resist. This summer the BCMC reactivating an old logging road systym that leads to a very old climber's trail above Skookum Creek. The trail provides the most direct access to the rock and ice world of the Mamquam Mountain area. The government bureaucrats of the forest service actually applied a "Stop work order" on the project and claim they will deactivate it. No problem to completely devastate the valley with the massive Skookum Dam project and the countless years of unethical clear-cut logging. This is such a special area and there are so many reasons another trail should provide this access point into Garibaldi Provincial Park. So before the trail was deactivated once again, Danielle, Juneau and her dad Karl joined me for a week-end in this fabulous valley.
The first part of the trail follows an old logging skidder road....
And after about 3kms the BCMC added a couple of pieces of wood and a wire handrail to an existing ALREADY FALLEN old log to help aid the crossing of Paranoid Creek....
Then there is absolutely no trail and we just followed some old game trails up through the steep old growth....
It's a beautiful west coast forest....
After an hour Howe Sound became visible....
Darling Peak and the surrounding glaciers showed themselves once we gained the ridge....
And just across the valley we could see the OVERCROWDED Elfin Lakes area with the Tantalus Range beyond....
After a few hours we reached Darling Lake....
And set up our home for the evening....
Danielle, Juneau and I decided to climb Manic Peak before sunset....
We passed by an ancient piece of ice who's days are very numbered....
The summit provided unreal views of Squamish and Howe Sound....
And Delusion Mountain....
Crawford....
Judge Howay and the Cheam Range in Chilliwack....
The mighty Mount Garibaldi....
Back at camp we enjoyed a fabulous Fall evening....
And a Stellar Night!
Sunrise at Manic Lake....
Best friends....
It was a COLD morning so the first rays of sunshine were very welcome....
Juneau didn't want to leave this place....
A glimpse of Mamquam Lake on the right hand side go the pic....
We hope to be back to Manic Lake soon....
When we arrived back at the bridge we crossed only 26 hours earlier the hand cable and extra logs had been removed and once again it was just a bare NATURALLY FALLEN log. I later learned the at the BCMC had come in the same day we had and took this apart as a peace offering in hopes to renegotiate the section 57 trail proposal. Hopefully this all works out in the end and we will soon have a legal trail to access this amazing area.
2 comments:
We're so lucky to have such a beautiful back yard.
I can't argue with that Ina! I just finished the Blog FYI...
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