August 21, 2021
~ submitted by Mary Hof
Today I led a hike for Island Mountain Ramblers to Mt. Horne, Mt Wesley and the whole Wesley Ridge. 1225m elevation gain, 17 km and just over 7 hours.
There were six of us, and the pace was what I love on the faster side. It was also wonderful as 3 of the hikers I have never met. We had a young doctor, an oyster processor, a hydro linesman, and then 3 retired people. Our conversations and laughs were wonderful. That is what I like about organizing and leading hikes for a club, meeting people that love to do what you are doing. Yes as a leader you get many emails, cancelations, etc, and if you don’t know the hiker you have to question their abilities especially on a 1200m hike. I did turn away 1 hiker but there will be different hikes that I will do that I know will work better for some.
The weather was a blue sky day. For Mt Horne it’s a steep, steep start 5 minutes into the hike, then it’s up and up. Beautiful views. Then it was down, down, only to go back up, up for Mt Wesley. The ridge is lots of up and down, and thanks to Ray who led the way, as there are a lot of quad trails that you can go forever on, so he kept us on route. Coming down was dusty but no falls or injury which was great.
Aug 21 is a special hiking day, and I wanted the challenge as this is the day I conquered Terry Fox Peak few years ago, a 12 hour climb, so it was my day of thinking of family members and friends who have died from cancer and also friends, and friends of friends who have cancer now, you were in my thoughts and this mountain challenge was in your name.
