Timberline Tales

September 10, 2014May 19, 2016

Beaufort Range Traverse — submitted by Matthew Lettington

Earlier this year I made late spring trip into the Beaufort Range to visit Mt. Joan. On that trip we ended up making a winter ascent to the summit of Mt. Joan, where we were promptly socked in. Saturday, August 30th the Island Mountain Ramblers made an attempt to traverse the three peaks in this small range of mountains: Mt. Curran, Mt Squarehead and Mt. Joan. The forecast called for 2 mm of rain and light winds. Although the conditions looked a little miserable on our approach, it made for excellent hiking conditions.

Taken from Squarehead, looking back on Mt. Curran and the ridge we ascended (right in photo)

GPS Route with Photographic Annotaion

Starting Elevation: 594 m
Max Elevatyion: 1562 m
Total Elevation Gain: 1347 m
Horizontal Distance: 13.8 km
Total Time: 8.5 hours

Read the full report on his blog…………

September 4, 2014May 19, 2016

Curran-Squarehead-Joan Traverse – August 30, 2014 – by John Young

After making our way up the rough logging road,
the 10 of us started hiking at 9:48, under not bad looking skies. Mt. Joan’s
summit looked to be covered in cloud, but other than that it looked like a good
day. We headed up the Curran trail, which Ken Rodonets has done such a fine job
of maintaining, and by noon we were heading over the Curran-Squarehead col.

The group enjoyed the nice rock on Curran, and
views of Georgia Strait. We omitted the “true” summit of Curran, as
we figured it was going to be a long enough day, and the summit isn’t much
anyway.

The col to Squarehead was a bit bushy in places,
and going up to Squarehead was a bit of a rock scramble that raised the heart
rate of a few people. We finally lunched on Squarehead, about 1:30, and it
started to rain as we headed over to Joan. The rain was brief, though, and at
the Squarehead-Joan col I gave people the option of skipping out the Joan
summit, shortening the trip by an hour total, but the group voted to bag it.
And we were glad we did! Yes, the view was somewhat obscured by cloud, but that
made it even more spectacular, as we could see Port Alberni poking out from
beneath the clouds.

We then began our descent, and it showered some
on the way down, but didn’t really begin raining until we reached the vehicles
just after 6 p.m. Another fine day in the mountains with an enthusiastic bunch.
Especially nice to have 3 guests along and 3 fairly new members.

Participants: Matt Lettington, Dean Williams,
Christine Rivers, John Proc, Fran Proc, Tyler Proc, Mary O’Shea, Mo Goreyan,
Alana Stott, John Young

September 2, 2014May 19, 2016

Mt. Klitsa — An Honest to goodnest 5000 footer behind Sproat Lake!

I had previously only been up Klitsa in the spring from the north side, and it was mostly on snow. I was a little concerned about finding our way on the logging roads, but with detailed driving directions and the Backroads Mapbook, we found our way without difficulty. We left Nanaimo shortly after 7 a.m. Rod and I commenced hiking at 9:20 at the 525 m. elevation point, and after walking up the deactivated logging road for 40 minutes reached the trailhead at 800 m. elevation. We then ambled through beautiful first-growth forest for another 40 minutes before breaking out into the sub-alpine. We now had our first view of Klitsa, and walked beside tarns and through meadows for another hour, before we came out into the alpine. A short while later we reached the summit block, and we followed the trail up to the right, whereupon Rod scampered up steepish rock to the summit. But me, not feeling comfortable scrambling up rock, waited at the bottom. After Rod joined me, we headed further out to the right to have our lunch, where we had stupendous views of Sproat Lake 5000 feet below, and the snow-covered peaks of Strathcona to the north. We then started back down, but noticed a trail heading to the left, and quickly and easily made our way to the summit. From here, at 1642 m., the view was even better, with views of tarns and lakes and the Mackenzie’s to the west as well. We then headed down, reaching the truck about 4:30. Quite the day!

September 1, 2014May 19, 2016

Lomas Lake

To read his full report check Matthew’s Blog

GPS Route with photographs

Total Distance: 21.9km
Max Elevation: 1189 m
Total Ascent: 1678 m

On Saturday July 5th, six hikers, many members of the Island Mountain Ramblers, rendezvoused in Ladysmith outside Coronation Mall. After fueling up on coffee and meeting with each other we listened to the hiking plan and objectives before then head toward Youbou. Our first destination was the trailhead located at Cotton Wood Creak East Logging Road.

The day was beautiful, full sun, with only a few white puffy clouds to keep the sun company. The hiking temperature was wonderful, though it was full sun much of the hike was in heavily treed area or in the shadow of the surrounding mountains. Even though the ascent was relatively strenuous the hikers were able to keep their temperatures down.

To read his full report check Matthew’s Blog

June 20, 2014May 19, 2016

From John Young — Quadra Island Camp and HIke, June 20th-21

Another wonderful trip on Quadra Island, with four of us this year, Peter and Sherry Durnford, Blake Drummond, and John Young. We caught the 12:30 ferry over, set up camp, lunched, and then headed to

Shellaligan Pass Trail–a lovely 2-hour seaside walk. Saturday, we hiked to Maude Island and back, just under 7 hours return, and we enjoyed a wonderful 1-hour lunch break watching the boats motoring
through Seymour Narrows. Good weather and a wonderful group! (Luckily, though, I was able to borrow a sleeping bag from the Rebecca Spit Campsite managers or I would’ve spent a cold night!)

March 19, 2014May 19, 2016

Flores Island’s Wild Side Trail with Ahousaht Way Point

–submitted by Matthew Lettington. Read the report on his blog

GPS Route Link

March Break, 2014 marked our trip to Flores’ Wild Side Trail, was exactly as the name suggests wild. We started our trip on Saturday morning from the First Street dock. The passenger ferry was bumpy trip, the seas were not smooth, easily swelling 5′ in the highest places and the driving rain. Regardless the captain brought to Ahousaht Village, safe and sound. Tara, from the Wild Side Trail management team, met us at the dock and escorted us through the village to the office where we recorded our itinerary and paid our trail fee.

taken on the trip out, hence the nice looking sky

Our intent was to hike the whole trail from the village to Cow Bay, mother nature demanded other plans. By the time we reached the first river the tide was high and we needed to take the inland route to the bridge. The trail for the bypass was rough, mostly because of the amount of water, sections were entirely puddles. By the time we made the full bypass both Michael and I had soaked boots. At this point the rain let up slightly to a light drizzle and we took a quick break to enjoy the foggy view and take stock of our wetness. It is at this point we made the decision to seek out the emergency shelter (AKA Don Macdonald’s Cabin).

they smell even worse!

Fortune would have it that the walks along side the cabin, taking no effort to locate. We made our home for two nights at the cabin, using it as a home base for cooking, sleeping and excursions. The first day we ventured to reach Cow Bay but the water on the trails for the headlands slowed our progress so much that we feared not being able to return to the cabin if we continued across the final headland. However, the next day the conditions were much better and most of the water on the trails drained off and progress through headlands was significantly easier. Throughout the day the wild Pacific raged onto the shore, rollers as high as 10′ were evident on the not too distant rocks and close to shore. Making it to Cow Bay was easy but we failed to find the route to Mt. Flores and truthfully it was bathed in fog and cloud and the promise of no view at all (because it is treed at the top) was not enticing us to look as hard as we may have.

It wasn’t until after dinner on the second night that the first signs of something other than rain became visible, at first just a single blue patch of sky and later a beautiful sunset combined with low tides permitted us a late evening walk on the beach and ample time to explore an islet that is normally cut off from the beach.

The third day, the trip back to Ahousaht, was gorgeous. The sky was spectacular, with fluffy white cloud formations and excellent blues and a general lightness in the air. These conditions accompanied low tides that meant we were able to walk the beach almost the entire way with the warmth of the sun, cutting travel in time in half. Even though the trail reads 11k each direction with our various wanderings the GPS tracked us at around 35 km of walking. For those interested, Mr. Stinky Feet Michael P has his own spectacular trip rerpot on this trip! Honestly I much prefer his reports to my own.