–submitted by Matthew Lettington


The 5040 hike of July 11 took place on Aug. 15 as snow levels and visibility were still an issue on July11. This hike was appended to Matt Lettington’s hike up 5040 and 7 people came along. It was a beautiful warm day so we started early, meeting at 6:30 am with 2 people coming up from Maple Bay (a VERY early start).
The coordinator, Sherry, was sweep and the reluctant hiker, Peter, was lead. This worked well until Holly realized that Peter was waiting too long for Sherry to catch up on the way down and took the lead. One and ¼ hours got the group to Cobalt Lake and about ½ hour further got us to the cabin. It was occupied but closed for visitors. We had snacks and the 4 am starters from Maple Bay decided to enjoy views from the cabin porch while the rest of us trudged to the top. By noon, we met the other Island Mountain Rambler group led by Matt Lettington and had nice chats about flying ants, bugs in general, and how to fine tune trip participant levels.
On the way down, Holly took the lead with a good pace and we congregated at Cobalt Lake for swims, dips, and water refills. The rest was a slow but steady descent through trees, roots, and rock to the cars. All were down by 3:30, thankful that we’d gotten an early start on a very warm day.
July 5, 2020
~ submitted by Matthew Lettington
Four of us braved a spotty forecast to hike Douglas Peak. Instead of patches of sunlight, the four of us hiked up the logging road to its terminus and then headed into the bush for a few hours of light bushwhacking to the old-growth summit.

July 5th, 2020
~ submitted by Bil Derby
With cooler temperatures and light drizzle in the forecast four of us gathered at the “old Forbidden Plateau Ski hill” trailhead under overcast skies. After a few minutes spent catching up and discussing the day’s plan we headed downhill, replete with the expected commentary about starting a hike downhill, to pick up the trail to Boston Creek.

July 4th, 2020
~ submitted by Bil Derby
Seven of us left from the Paradise Meadows trailhead at 08.45hrs under mixed skies.

June 28th, 2020
~ submitted by Christine Rivers
The group met at the bottom of the road that goes up to Mt. Washington, drove in two high clearance vehicles to the trailhead.
Continue reading “Indianhead Mountain”June 27, 2020
~ submitted by Matthew Lettington
On June 27, under dark grey skies, six club members set off to trim out the Sno Bird Trail between K-15 branch and the verdant meadow on the west side of the Green Mountain massif.
Continue reading “Green Mountain sub-summit and trail work”June 13th, 2020
~ submitted by Matthew Lettington
On Saturday, June 13, 2020, six adults and my two kids summited Green Mountain. If you’re familiar with the hike to Green Mountain, we used the older -less frequently used- Sno Bird Trail. It’s much different.

June 14th, 2020
~ submitted by Greg Deabler
After watching the mountain forecast for Arrowsmith all week, we decided to move our trip up the Unjudges route to Sunday and take advantage of the partial sunshine forecast – haha. 5 of us met at Whiskey Creek and picked up a sixth at the Alberni summit hump. We dropped a car at the judges route and took 2 cars to the unjudges trailhead.
Continue reading “Mt. Arrowsmith – Unjudges Route”June 7, 2020
~ submitted by Mary Hof
Having said I would lead an official hike under the new normal for the Island Ramblers I kind of felt a bit apprehensive. I knew 5 of the 6 people (4 were members, and 2 were guests and no other member emailed) but for some reason I had this feeling that I never had in the 24 years I have been leading hikes.
I arrived at the Mt Richards trailhead early and with clipboard in hand I made sure I had everyone’s emergency contacts cell numbers. Usually I just pass the clipboard around but with COVID, I held on to it and took the information myself. I then carry that paper with me in case it’s needed. It always amazes me (not this hike) but some hikes that people don’t have a emergency contact they can give me, once I even had someone gave me their lawyer I mentioned their office was closed how would I reach him Lol.
Today, once we made a circle and everyone introduced themselves, I felt good to go. It was a beautiful hike using my new trails on Mt Richards, hitting many few points and so many beautiful flowers, ferns, lake, and pine trees. We even had a photo shoot with some beautiful foxgloves flowers.
The hike was 11.5km and took 4.5 hours and the company was awesome. I love where we live and hike.