And Peaks

Sat Jun 19th

Capt Jack

It was something of a motorized day on the water in the morning and up the mountains in the afternoon.

John Henry's does boat hire and the archipelago of islands and inlets around the Pender Harbour and Garden Bay areas of the Coast would offer a different perspective to looking at it from atop a mountain.

Safety demo complete, gear loaded on board, Jack wrapped around my knees, we headed out of the harbour.

Nick took in the view from the foredeck and once Jack was peeled away from me he rather got the hang of watching the birds, seals and general flotsam and jetsam.

Hugging the coastline of the bays and avoiding the flotilla of racing boats heading out to the Georgia Strait, we followed the coastline around Pender Harbour.

The black line shows the route.

It is a fantastic way to get a better view of the area, but not always easy to locate the familiar areas we know so well on land, from the water.

Jack was clearly taken by the seal but resisted the temptation to go in after it! A few more images below.

In the afternoon Nick announced we were going off-roading and he and I headed off down to the Halfmoon Bay area, about 20k away, before turning up in to the mountains on Trout Lake Rd, which quickly becomes a logging trail. We climbed circa 1000m to Lyons Lake, his Toyota 4runner making easy work of the rocks, drainage ditches running across the track and water. It was just as well Fred opted out as Jack would certainly not have enjoyed and I'm not sure Fred would have either.

About five other off-roaders passed us at different intervals heading down, as we made the climb. Some in serious off-road machines. As we neared Lyons Lake we came across patches of snow, two days short of the longest day. We drove down a side track to the lake and took in the view. Quiet, remote and very scenic.

Tool cold for bears up here, advised Nick, as we hiked up the last 150m to the top of Caren (Spipiyus) Mountain. It was only a short distance, but the loose rocks at the bottom of the track, snow and scrub towards the top made it hard work. The slight mist and haze rather limited the view, but it was nevertheless impressive. Ours were the only foot prints in the snow, so we were probably the first people to hike up there this summer. Importantly there were no bear paw-prints either! The water is the Sechelt inlet, with the Skookumchuck Narrows just out of sight to the left and Sechelt just out of sight to the right. You can see the quarrying on the First Nations land in the distance.

It was not cold on top, but it was surprising how long the snow had lasted. Small flies were everywhere, which you may just catch sight of in the video.

Nick's Toyota made short work of the journey down and despite some of the drainage channels running across the trail being pretty deep, only gently grounded out once.