Timberline Tales

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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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Rappel Workshop

June 25th, 2023

~ submitted by Matthew Lettington

Two members joined me for a half day of hanging out on the rope.

We all learned to tie a few knots, and put themself onto the rappel device. By day’s end each of us was able to get on rappel, set the backup Prussic and rappel down the 30 foot cliff safely. 

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Mount Maquilla

July 15th, 2023

~ submitted by Matthew Lettington

Another day in paradise! Our group of eight had a luxurious day on the slopes of Mount Maquilla. 

In June, Jes and Matthew found this easy route up Mount Maquilla. I described the route as minimal bush, and I’ll stand by that statement. The majority of the bush is found on the overgrowing road, but even that has been trimmed over the years. It wasn’t much more than a minor annoyance. 

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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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