Cathedral - day 1

Day 0
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4

Park map again for reference. Actual route in/out is green slime colour. Intended route (where different) is orange. Start/end point is the star at the top right. Direction is clockwise.


So here was the plan.
- Take 1.5 days to hike in the looong way (32km) to the core, camping at some alpine lakes along the way.
- Do a day trip within the core on day 2.
- Do a long day trip in the core on day 3.
- Hike out the short way (16km) on day 4.

Pretty straightforward.

Day 1. Broke camp and drove about 10km to the Ewart Creek Trailhead. The Lakeview trail to the park's core is 16km long and can be done in a short day, but we wanted to go in another route and come back out via Lakeview. So we parked the car at Ewart, knowing we'd have to trudge back to the car on day 4, as the trailheads are about 10km apart.

At the Ewart trailhead were a number of horse trailers. A few guys were preparing their horses for a ride in. Horse riding into the mountains and to the area east of the park is fairly common.

Raring to go. Estimated pack weight: 80 lbs between the two of us.


The trail was very dusty and the day was fairly warm. It eventually reached 28 degrees.


Just over an hour in, while crossing a creek I noticed some lovely driftwood that would work well as walking sticks, so I retrieved two specimens. Around this point the horse party from the trailhead caught up to us.


The lads was totin' guns, ready fer b'ars 'n' catamounts 'n' other varmints what prowls these parts. Or just for hunting mountain sheep... whatever. Last thing the guy says to me is "Watch out for bears, haha!" I almost wished I had me a gun.


So, not 10 minutes later, Carrie pointed out our first wildlife. Yeah, a stinkin' bear. And he was too obscured for me to be sure it was just a black bear either. I wasn't too thrilled about non-black-bear presence, so I chose to get out of there rather than get some nice photos and risk letting him see us. He was busy mauling some leaves a ways away, and I was happy to keep it that way. (I've chased black bears in my youth, but I have a healthier respect for other types.) I was armed with a can of bear spray, but it's good for about 1.5 bears, so I wasn't prepared to use it all up this early into the trip.


Three hours after heading south along the edge of the park, we were already a bit sore. Carrie was developing some serious blisters, so stops were becoming longer and more frequent. We went through duct tape, moleskin and blister packs like it was going out of style. Finally we got to a main bridge where the trail heads west into the park. We stopped for lunch there, preparing for a brutal climb.

Carrie's feet only got worse, and my knee started aching. We were quite the aging, unfit pair, limping up the mountainside, running low on water, wondering what we'd gotten ourselves into. It didn't help that the supposedly well-marked trail wasn't always such. One is supposed to find orange markers on the occasional tree, to supplement the well-worn trail. Well, in various places, the markers were plentiful when the trail was evident, but scarce when the trail disappeared. We lost the trail a number of times, but casting about for a bit eventually got us back on track soon enough.

No trail, but at least the scenery is decent.


If you'll consult the map, we were planning to strike out further south and camp at Haystack Lakes the first night. However, the trail we were on was supposed to be well-marked, while the trail to Haystack Lakes required route-finding skills. Seeing as we got lost often enough on the "marked" trail, it would be less than wise to veer off it. Fortunately, it wasn't even clear where to turn off to head south, so that settled it anyways.

We decided that we should instead camp at the Twin Buttes campsite. But 5 hours after leaving our lunch spot (3.5 of trudging plus 1.5 of resting/foot-treating) there was no sign of a campground and we were simply too tired to go any further. We found a small creek in a clearing and pitched the tent there. Actually, this was after trying to locate the trail which disappeared as soon as it hit the clearing. Camping spot: around the 2nd star on the map (bottom right-ish).

While I went to hang the food a ways downwind, I encountered a lovely looking deer. Unfortunately I had no camera with me, so no evidence of that.

We were too tired to heat up a meal, so we crashed by 8pm and slept 12 hours...

Cathedral - day 0

Day 0
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4

Earlier in the year, Carrie had the bright idea of doing a serious hike. Not 5-hour serious, but 5-day serious. Initially she had wanted to try the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island. This is a demanding 75km route that requires some level of fitness and good backpacking gear, neither of which we possessed.

I talked her out of that trail, but that meant finding an alternative hike. And somehow, while traversing the Interwebs, I stumbled across Cathedral Provincial Park.

(Click pictures to enlarge.)


Cathedral is a park in BC situated on the US border east of Manning Park. A little over 3 hours east of Hope and 2 hours south of Kelowna, it's about 24 km across and over 80,000 acres. Before the park was a park, a privately run lodge was built in the core; this lodge still operates privately nowadays, and the only road into the park is owned by the lodge operators.

This means that, unless you care to pay exorbitant amounts to be shuttled in, the only way into the park is by foot. Of course that's how we like it since that means fewer people.

Leading up to the trip, we spent oodles of time researching and shopping for backpacking items, probably more time than we'll spend buying our first house. Stores such as Mountain Equipment Co-op, Sail and Expedition Shoppe became favourite hangouts.

In the end we spent more on fancy new gear than we did on flights to get to BC. I suspect we're in for a few more hikes to justify our purchases.

Anyway, we headed down to the park Sunday night to camp and get an early start Monday. Driving into a parking lot revealed exactly how many other idiots actually hiked in (our car is on the left). The alternative is to pay $50 each to the lodge operators for a ride in and then do day hikes within the park's core.


To aid you on our journey, here's a park map. I've marked our actual route in and out with a green slime colour. The intended route (plan A) is shown in orange where it deviates from the route actually taken. Stars mark some points of interest. Start/end point is the star at the top right, with travel direction going clockwise.


So on pre-hike night we stayed at the Lakeview Trailhead (top left star), which was not where we would start hiking from. We set up camp beside a creek and sat around a fire for a bit. There was no one to give our money to, so we got to camp for free.

holidays

After noticing I hadn't written a blog post in quite some time, I decided we should go on holidays to give me something to write about.

Carrie left already in mid-August to spend a week in Geneva for work. A week later we each flew from our respective spots to BC.

Her parents are blessed with 35 years of marriage this year, and they wanted to treat the family with a few days on a houseboat. So we drove to Shuswap Lake in the Okanagan to spend the better part of a week afloat.

Each day we covered some ground, stopping when we wanted to do some swimming, and mooring on random beaches each evening.

The captains.


Tied down for the night.


Nightly campfire on the beach. We had to beach overnight, on any of numerous stretches of shoreline that weren't privately owned. Mostly we beached alone, but one night two other houseboats parked a little too close by and cranked their annoying music for our listening (dis)pleasure.


Roomy interior (had to be, to accommodate of 11 of us -- including a newborn). Well equipped with everything from TV to hut tub to microwave, although learning what ran off the generator and what ran off the inverter took a bit of figuring.


Enjoying sun and a breeze while underway.


The lone toddler on board. As you can see, sneezing is a great way to clear the airways!


Snorkelling...


...swimming and playing on the waterslide.


Toddler even had her own kiddie pool on the top deck. We enjoyed great weather, warranting the setting up of a sun tent on deck. My skin is still peeling as I type; guess I should have used the sun tent more.


A few of us spent the weekend in Vernon where the in-laws are the proud new owners of a pile of rocks with a view. They hope to move there eventually to escape the damp Fraser Valley. Looks a little arid, but hopefully it will suit their needs! We may have to add Vernon to our visit list before too long.

The rocks.


The view.


The following week was a little more hectic, but that will have to be covered in another post or two...

running on empty

I haven't gone running in five weeks. My main excuse has been that it's way too warm out; conditions were nice in April/May, but since then we've had some very hot days. So what could make more sense than to go for a run today, probably the hottest day of the year?

Yesterday I thought it would be nice to try running today, as it was projected to be a scorcher. After all, if I can run in this weather, I must be in rather fine mettle indeed.

I saw other people out running yesterday (almost as warm), and a brave friend of mine did as well, so I figured I better lace up too.

So around the hottest time of day I headed outdoors, ill-prepared...

• 35°C (humidex: feels like 46). Almost cool compared to Toronto/Hamilton...
• I recently spent a zillion dollars on my first ever pair of shades, but that's not helpful if I don't have them on me.
• long pants of course! but I did upgrade to a short-sleeve shirt (I felt so exposed!)
• I was just getting over a headache (which came back at around km 1)
• I don't carry liquids with me, although the only time I did so (the official 10K in May) I ran very well indeed. Coincidence?

Thanks to the above factors, I got as far as 2.5km and that was it. Talk about draining. As usual, I quit because of the lungs, not the limbs. I imagine dry air at 35 degrees might have felt harsher on the lungs, but this wasn't a whole lot better.

Interestingly, I've not lost all my conditioning from training in the spring. My pace is still on par with than just before the 10K race in May. Granted, today's run was a tad short.