Category: Club

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Hiking the South Brooks Peninsula

–SUBMITTED BY MICHAEL PASKEVICIUS; ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON HIS TRAVEL BLOG

This report recounts a story from a less-visited location, although it is not about a club trip.

I have been fascinated by the Brooks Peninsula for some time. Geographically it is significant as it sticks out quite prominently on the west side of the island near the northern tip. It is rumoured to have its own weather system and significant hazards for boaters and kayakers rounding its western point. There are some very hard to reach mountains on the peninsula as well, one called Mount Doom that has a great mystique by name and remoteness. Up in those mountains contain some interesting flora and fauna as this part of the island may have not been covered by snow and ice during the ice age, resulting in some prehistoric plants still living to this day.

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Flower Ridge to Central Craigs

–SUBMITTED BY MICHAEL PASKEVICIUS; ORIGINALLY POSTED ON HIS TRAVEL BLOG

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.

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Steamboat Mountain

–submitted by Dean Beaulac

~14.7km/1620m (+/-)
Steamboat Mtn falls inside the Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks, A donation was made to the Tribal Park Guardians on the way through.

Up at stupid o’clock by all, had us all together and on foot for 6:30 am. An eager group of 6, we set out on what was planned to be a full day out. How quickly the gentle start of an easy spur trail to distract you fades away, leading to progressively tighter and tighter trail, until the forest consumes you completely and spits you out the other side! Up old creek beds, steep forest, around wasp nests, under logs, over logs, repeat and repeat again and eventually you’ll find yourself at a nice unnamed lake maybe halfway up. A chance to ditch some pack weight, refill water and have a quick snack.

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Splendor Mountain, member trip report.

–originally published by Eryn on her Facebook Account
What follows are Eryn’s words reporting her recent ascent of Splendor. Her final peak needed to complete her Lifetime Climbing Objective.
Splendor! How lovely. I headed into the backcountry for 5 days with Barry Hansen out of gold river, canoed across Matchlee Bay and up the Burman river until we could go no further, hiked logging roads for another 12ish km then unto the unforgiving bush filled with ground wasps and thick bush. People often ask me if i’m scared of wildlife such as bears and cougars, but really is those stinging tiny little *ssholes underfoot that truly terrify me. Within ten minutes of the end of the logging road Barry had stirred up a wasp nest and I suffered two stings, on my elbow (that turned into an arm with no elbow definition) and my butt (which resulted in half a brazilian butt lift.) The redeeming factor of the bush (and the subsequent bush on the next few days) was the overabundance of huckleberries and blueberries.

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Wrangling on Nootka Island with the Island Mountain Ramblers

–submitted by John Young; originally published on his blog

Untitled photo
This was billed as a work party, clipping salal, cutting some smaller deadfall, and, most importantly, replacing some of the decrepit ropes on the steeper slopes. A total of about 350′ of rope, in fact! However, we didn’t let this stop us from having fun!

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Maquilla Peak washed down with Mount Alston

–submitted by Matthew Lettington
 
In order to make the most of our time on the mountain, I organized a trip to the north island that included visits to two mountains. Both mountains are worth visiting individually, but by combining them into one day trip, we were able to save some money on fuel.
 
Friday evening Jes and Matthew camped out at the Forest Rec site at Klaklakama Lake. Predawn came even worse than it sounded after a poor night’s sleep (I think too much coffee). It was a short drive to the end of Chuckham Road, and we were hiking to Maquilla by 6:15 am. We parked to 800m, so there was a little more than 1000m to the summit. 
We ventured off the road and up a ridge to an adjoining route that gains the peak via the south ridge. We moved quickly through the light to moderate bush. There was no boot track to guide us but we had great beta provided by another club member – thanks, Eyrn! 
Lower ridge for Maquilla
 

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Nootka Island Trail Maintenance Trip

–SUBMITTED BY MICHAEL PASKEVICIUS; ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON HIS BLOG

[The below report is for the club trip done in June 2023]

The Nootka trail is a remote and rugged 40km through hike on Nootka Island. We accessed the trail via water taxi from Tahsis, starting from Yuqout with a pickup at Tongue Point. The trail passes through the Mowachaht/Muchalat First Nations territory. We planned a south to north hike with intention to conduct trail maintenance along the way. We brought clippers for clearing the trail, ropes for helping with steep sections, and planned to mark headland trails as well with buoys that could be found on the beach.

Day One: Travel to Nootka

After a long drive from Victoria with a pick up in South Nanaimo we arrived in Tahsis in the early afternoon. We learned a small plane had crashed in the area just the day before, so there was a fair bit of activity in town with first responders, reporters, and fire crews dealing with the incident. We were still able to board our water taxi and travel to Yuquot to begin the Nootka Trail from the south end. It was a short walk to our first camp where we spent the first night.

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A Flower Feast on the East Sooke Trail

–submitted by John Young

An Island Mountain Ramblers’ Trip

We had two groups, and after meeting at Roche Cove and swapping vehicles, my group drove to Aylard Farm, where we started off at about 9 a.m. A hot day! Even along the ocean, but much cooler in the shade of the trees. We didn’t hurry, and our total time was 7 1/2 hours, but according to my Gaia appears the moving time was only 5 hours 39 minutes. So we revelled in the sights along this beautiful trail for almost two hours!

Starting off from Aylard Farm

Untitled photo

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Mount Richards

–submitted by Mary Hof

Well it was to be the Sooke Hills with 10 people plus 3 others from Cowichan. The day of the hike it was Mt. Richards with 2 Ramblers and 3 other friends. I don’t blame anyone for canceling in the wet forecasted weather report for sure, I myself do not like hiking in rain. I must say 50 emails later of either people canceling or adding their name is a bit of a comedy. I changed it to Mt. Richards as Duncan was mid way between Victoria and Nanaimo. I want to thank Danial for braving the weather and coming out from Nanaimo. As it turned out we got no rain, and we had a wonderful hike. I did a different route from what Danial did before and he was very pleased. 

Mary Hof

 

 

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Wesley Ridge Traverse including Mt Wesley/Mt Horne 

–submitted by Dean Beaulac
📍 Wesley Ridge Traverse Loop
~Mt Wesley
~Mt Horne
~Echo Mtn
Had an awesome day leading my first hike with the Ramblers yesterday. Waking up with it being dark and 2 degrees, I spent way too much time trying to dress myself haha. An equal mix of being ready for the cold start, and the hot day I knew would show up once we started. I’d hoped for a bigger group, but in the end..the 3 joined was perfect. Much easier to surprise only 3 people with cheesecake haha:p

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