August 14 – 18, 2023
~ submitted by Brian Fleming
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.
On day 1 we started hiking up Jack’s Trail from Buttle Lake. With fresh legs and an early start, we wanted to get this part of the hike over with. We took a brief rest when we got to the first tarns and refilled our water. Hiking further east, we took another brief rest on some heather before summiting Jack’s Fell.
After the summit, we hiked further east again to a nice set of tarns where we would set up base camp for the next two nights. Most of the group swam in one of the tarns to beat
the heat.
Day 2 we got an even earlier start and started our ridge ramble towards Augerpoint Mountain. We made it there for an early lunch and started looking towards Pearl Peak. Not
everyone was comfortable with Pearl Peak and it’s understandable. You can walk up to the base easily enough but shortly after, it was a somewhat exposed climb to the top. Four of us made an attempt but only one was comfortable enough to summit the peak. The terrain was beautiful and there was a nice tarn with shade that offered us some relief from the heat. It was still a worthy detour for those that did not make it.
We made our way back to base camp where most of the group would swim in the tarn to cool off.
We started day 3 by packing up all of our gear. Our next stop was Ruth Masters Lake with a trip to Syd Watts Peak along the way. We got to the col above Ruth Masters Lake and turned towards Syd Watts Peak and shortly after found a shaded spot to drop our camping gear. We approached the mountain by traversing a scree slope. The climb up to the summit itself was easy enough. A couple people chose to take an easier path while a couple chose to climb a harder route up.
The summit had a wasp nest but Su braved it and retrieved the register. We let it dry as we ate our lunch in the sun. Soon after we started the walk back towards our dropped gear and made the descent into Ruth Masters Lake.
The lake was cold and refreshing, we had a perfect camp set up at Ruth Masters. We were about to explore when one of us spotted a bear very close by. We called out to him and although he did turn away and move on, he took his sweet time climbing a rock wall and stopping to munch on some blueberries along the way. We set up our bear hangs and explored the area before dinner.
Day 4 had us packing up our camp once more and making our way to Circlet Lake. There was a good loss of elevation before we had to gain all of it and more to make the summit
of Mount Albert Edward. Again, we made it to the summit around lunch and lingered for a short while before making our final major descent. Circlet Lake had multiple sets of camp pads open and we had many choices of where we could all set up together. A few of us rested at camp, some went swimming, some went exploring the area and some did
everything.
On our last day, we took the old route out of Circlet Lake. The trail was obvious in parts, overgrown and nonexistent in others. We followed it as best we could to our destination; the cherry on top, Sid’s Cabin. Sid Williams (aka Century Sam) cabin was built in 1947 as a base to mine gold from Strata Mountain in a provincial park.
The walk back to the parking lot was quick and easy and before we knew it, the party was enjoying a drink and food in Cumberland before making our way home.