Cathedral - day 4

Day 0
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4

Yes, the map again. Just cuz.


Day 4 we wanted to fit in a day trip before leaving at 3:30, so we got up a little earlier than usual. I got up at 7:30 and went for a jog. My ankle needed loosening up before I could do much with it. I also hoped to see some wildlife at that hour, but I was not rewarded in that respect.

We packed up our gear except for the tent. Then we headed south toward Ladyslipper Lake. We hoped to access the rim from the Ladyslipper Lake trail and see the views from there.

On the way we saw what we had unknowingly avoided on day 2 by not hiking in via Haystack Lakes. We would have had to come down through these mountains... not an inviting thought.


Ladyslipper Lake. It is at a much higher elevation that the other lakes, and it was fairly windy.


Going past the lake, we headed up the slopes once again. We kept scouring the hillside, looking for the wildlife that had eluded us so far. And then Carrie point to the trail dead ahead; it seems the wildlife had come to us.


Mountain goats are nice looking creatures, but they do half very sharp horns and are simply not domesticated. They were blocking our trail. Should we wait for them to leave? throw rocks? simply wander through them? Unsure of how aggressive they might be, we decided to take pictures for a while and see what transpired.

Not openly aggressive, but certainly curious. This young goat came quite close and actually circled around us to get a better view (or sniff), nonchalantly eating as it went.



Carrie the goat herder. We counted eleven goats under her care.


The goats were in no hurry to move on, and they were in fact grazing their way down the trail, so we turned back toward to the lake. We took a side trail along the lake and had lunch on the scenic lakefront.


When we headed back from our side trail, there were the goats again, blocking our main route back! Aargh! Now we had no choice but to go through them. The big billy of the herd was our main obstacle, and we weren't entirely sure how to shoo him aside. Well, it turned out that pounding our hiking sticks against some rocks was enough to send the goats scurrying 10 feet away. We made it to the main trail and headed back down around Ladyslipper Lake. We had time to kill, but not enough time to go back up and access the rim.

A few of the goats of course followed us, trying (and failing) to be discreet. Peekaboo!


Always following, and play fighting while they went.


We passed a kid fishing on the shore, so of course he was the next object of the goats' curiosity. The kid thought it was the greatest thing, being stalked by goats! He wasn't too worried, but also wasn't sure what they planned to do once they caught up. We sat and watched his predicament.


Turns out all they wanted to do was get past us, and we happened to be on their trail. Odd how we had thought the exact opposite.



The boss. Thanks for posing!


Well, the goat encounter really made our day. We weren't too sad about not making it up to the rim that morning, although we missed out on reaching some seriously awesome natural clefts in the mountain face (one on either side of the inset)...


...but we also avoided getting socked in by a sudden turn in the weather. Quick, where's my snowboard?!


We headed back to camp and took down the tent in what was a light drizzle at the lower altitude. Then we made the 20-minute trek to the lodge at Quiniscoe Lake. Ugh... we'd quite forgotten how heavy the packs were... yay for lightweight day trips!

Relaxing near the lodge. The rain had stopped.


We then had a beer and a hot chocolate in the lodge. For a princely sum, the rustic accommodations serve those people who'd rather not camp outdoors. Phooey!


In the lodge we met up with another couple who had done essentially what we had: they'd taken 2 days to hike in (but had started a day later than we had), and they weren't--well, she wasn't--up to hiking out so were getting a ride. On top of that, they hadn't brought any warm clothing so hikes up the rim were decidedly uncomfortable. At 3:30 we hopped into a rickety Suburban. The driver was a Dutchman who was temporarily in Canada and working for the lodge. He gathered from my height and my surname that I had some Dutch in me as well.


The road down was a rough 4x4 road; we hit a top speed of maybe 30km/h. The other couple was in the same predicament as we were: their car was parked at the Ewart Creek trailhead, whereas we were about to be dropped off at the Lakeview trailhead. By road the trailheads were separated by about 10km, although with a river fording we could reduce that to just over 3.


However, we'd heard talk of an old road that stayed on the south side of the river; it was about 3km and didn't require fording the river. We'd asked around in the park to see if anyone knew of this old road, with little success. Once we were dropped off, we asked around some more and found someone who knew about the road. (He happened to be someone from a horse party we'd met on the trail Monday.) Anyway, he gave us guys a lift to the old overgrown road while the girls waited with the gear. My fellow hiker and I struck out through the back country, running the entire way (in hiking boots)... except to stop and rediscover the route whenever we lost the trail.

We got to our cars a little after 5pm and drove back to fetch the ladies. Then we went on our separate ways toward Vancouver.

And thus ended our successful first hike. May there be many more.