We left Raven Lodge in a faint haze of smoke. Good conversation made the hike up past Lady Lake fly by. We exchanged pleasantries with groups of weekend campers making their way out as we headed in. We found the route towards Ball Lake fairly easily, and set off on our adventure.
I met the Ramblers group for 9am at the Flower Ridge trailhead. Our group of six set out just after 9am. We got to the ridge in about four hours and continued along for another hour or so to camp. It was windy on the ridge but the sun was out, so my gear finally had a chance to dry.
After a solid night’s sleep, we had a casual start to the day departing camp at 9am. Our goal for the day was Central Crags, the summit of this mountain is just over 1650 metres. We made our way along Flower Ridge gaining and losing elevation as we went. The ridge is wide and open offerings lots of different paths and perspectives along their way. The Septimus Rosseau massif started to come into view topped by a thick layer of cloud, but we caught great views of the hanging glacier and snow fields.
Five Ramblers spent five days rambling the Augerpoint Traverse, visiting five summits along the way. It ended up being a 52km hike with approximately 4376m of elevation gain in the middle of a heat wave.
Boston Ridge returning by way of Mt. Becher was an awesome day. I have never done it before and my co-leader Leslie was there in full support whatever I needed.
Only 2 people arrived at the old Wood Mountain parking lot for an 8:30 start. The colour of the sunlight betrayed the presence of a smoke haze in the air, and the otherwise clear skies promised a hot day.
We had originally planned a trip to Flores Island, but with Highway 4 being closed we came up with a Plan B–hike up the Elk River Trail to the second gravel bar camp on Wednesday, Thursday a hike up to Burg Lake and back, and Friday hike out. And what a great alternate hike it turned out to be! Perfect weather, great company, and some beautiful forest and mountain scenery.
Wednesday–A beautiful trail to the second gravel bar camp
Mt Milner is southeast of Sayward and part of the Prince of Whales mountain range. Access is right off the highway up the Siberia Main logging road, which was in excellent condition. We did pass one gate but it was open and didn’t look like it was being used.
We parked at 1040m and made our way up the recent slash to the tree line where travel got a bit easier. We wound our way up and across the ridge to the first high point and began to get confused.
I had thought we could get both Mount Elma and Mount Allan Brooks as one big loop but with all the fresh snow in the last few days, we would have to settle for Mount Elma.
As we approached the trailhead on Sunday the temperature dropped, frost formed in the slash, and wearing shorts was obviously a mistake – but onward and upward. With only four we kept a good pace up to the first tarn which was still liquid, although frost was forming around the edge.