August 28, 2021
~ submitted by Matthew Lettington
Another fine day on the high ridges of Vancouver Island! Six members total participated in a traverse of Wesley Ridge on August 28th. This is a much-loved hike for the club and is one of the club’s Ridge Rambler objectives. Even though another leader led this route just a week prior, I led it again as a last-minute addition to the calendar when I cancelled a more complex trip.
Saturday was warm and sunny, but fortunately not nearly as hot as the past few weeks have been! My plan was to spend the day on the ridge. Though we didn’t hike to Mount Horne, as the previous trip did, we still spent 7 hours covering the 12 km and 1100 metres elevation gain.
We had lunch with a view at the site below Mount Wesley, where we had a great view of Cokely, Arrowsmith and the lake below. At one point, I was delighted to stop the group in the shade and asked them to turn around. We were about midway along the route, looking back along the route over the bumps. I think there was some genuine surprise as they revelled in their accomplishment; of course, that might have been a look that recognized where their fatigue came from!
We kept to the route Phil and I usually use, higher on the ridge and off the ATV track for the most part. In these lesser travelled areas, there’s no boot-track. It feels more remote than it often feels in other more travelled areas. Regardless, the more travelled areas still offer a lovely hike. The traverse provides a great introduction to navigating and moving through mountainous terrain. The light scrambling provides enough variety and challenge to accommodate hikers just starting to do more complex hiking.
I had a great day on the ridge. I enjoyed the time we spent together! Thank you to Carol for her work as the sweep and to everyone who participated.