Season Opener

Although we've been out hiking for awhile this spring, the past couple of days has to count as the real "season opener" in this year's hiking/scrambling season.

The plan for this past weekend was for a group to cross the lake, spend a day working on the Mt Loki trail, camp overnight up near the mountain and climb the peak the next day.

Eight of us met Saturday morning for the 8:10 ferry and by 9:30 were on the trail. Loppers, grub hoes and a chain saw found use in clearing deadfall and even re-routing the trail in a particularly steep section. We crossed the remains of large avalanches from mid-winter, enjoyed the alpine flowers that were popping out all over (glacier lily, spring beauty, heather, mountain avens...) and by early in the afternoon we had pretty much completed the work.

Some of us had elected to stay overnight so we set up our camp and rested in the sun, admiring Loki which was only about 15 minutes away. A relatively early start saw us on the summit at 8 am with great views in all directions - the usual sea of endless peaks.

After an hour or so admiring the view, we made our way down to the camp, packed up and headed back home.

Catherine has posted on her thoughts about relocating in this part of BC. For me, the pleasure is being in an area that is only short distances to all the outdoor activities you can imagine. I really appreciate how welcoming so many of the people are here and how many of them make the effort to include you in their activities. It's quite amazing how many little groups there are here that get out to hike together on a regular basis, maintain trails, explore the mountains, go skiing together..... I can't imagine anywhere better to be.