Living the best adventure life, since 1958
March 14th, 2020
~ submitted by John Young
Snow in the trees, again! My sixth excursion in the last two months, and each time has been beautiful, and always in different ways. This one, we had clear skies with snow decorating the trees, and glorious vistas, not only from the summit, but from the viewpoints along the way.
March 8th, 2020
~ submitted by John Young
Lucky or what? My fifth time snowshoeing in the last 2 months and each time the trees have been adorned with snow! Some years, you might never get that, as the snow melts off or is pelted off with untimely rains.
This time, we had snow on the trees right from the parking lot, and although the skies were clear when we set out at 9:45, cloud moved in, limiting our view from the summit.
Ascending Wood Mountain:
March 8th, 2020
~ submitted by John Robertson
It was cold and dark when we set out from our parking spot near the highway. The moon was low, shining through light cloud. Our headlamps made the frost and ice sparkle. We made quick time on easy trails, making quiet conversation.
March 7th, 2020
~ submitted by Matthew Lettington
The plan was to summit Mount Allan Brooks, but the weather had other ideas. On our start up the road to Raven Lodge, the snow on the road was so slippery that a long line of cars had formed not far from the lower chain up area—forget that noise! We detoured to Mount Becher, perhaps a bit far from our original destination, but the road was plowed and the snow just as fresh.
March 1st, 2020
~ submitted by John Young
Ah, lucked out with another beautiful day snowshoeing up Mt. Elma with a wonderful group of nine members of the Island Mountain Ramblers.
We started out from Raven Lodge at 9:45 and meandered through Paradise Meadows, then up to Battleship Lake. The snow in the trees! The view of Strathcona’s peaks from the summit–oh!
Continue reading “Mt. Elma Snowshoe”
February 29th, 2020
~ submitted by Matthew Lettington
It’s been a lot of sleeps since I last walked the Blue and Yellow trails that traverse the east face of Maple Mountain. Today, it didn’t disappoint.
February 15, 2020
~ submitted by Phil Jackson
There was a good showing of members on the easy, though brisk, hike around Whisky Lake.
By day’s end, the 10 of us covered 13.5 kilometres and 390 metres elevation gain. Though we didn’t have blue skies, we managed a few peek-a-boo views of the strait and lots of clouds.
There are lots of trails to explore; I’m sure we’ll be back.
Twelve members and guests made a quick loop around Lake Helen Makenzie and Battleship Lake.
–submitted by Goody Niosi; originally published on goodynoisi.com
It’s hard to believe – but here it is, February 2 (Groundhog Day!) and I just went on my first snowshoe trip of the season.
It was late January. I’d been signed up for a winter snowshoe ascent of Mt Becher with the Island Mountain Ramblers for a while, but the weather had not been easy to predict of late. In the end, it had to be postponed for a week, but with a forecast of light snow and afternoon clearing, the trip was a go for Groundhog Day. Well, I’m no meteorologist, but that sounded good to me. I’ve only seen that movie about twelve times by now!
As our trip leader John was later heard to say “In Saskatoon, you know, we never really worried about the groundhog seeing his shadow. Six more weeks of winter didn’t sound too bad at all!” But I digress, despite the torrential rains of the previous Friday, it was time for us to gear up and head for the hills!
There were seven of us altogether: Fearless leader John, Mo, Karen, Sylvie, Goody, and I left Nanaimo at 730 am. We met Kristy on the mountain a little later on. As we drove up Highway 19, the sun and skies put on a bit of show, once we got north of Qualicum. I remember musing that it might just be the best light of the day, and that there had to be a storm behind it. Sure enough, when we reached the turnoff to Piercy Road, it had begun to snow lightly, and by the time we’d parked near the site of the old Forbidden Lodge, it was snowing harder and the wind had picked up considerably.
Continue reading “Mount Becher: ONE DAY INSIDE A SNOW GLOBE”
