Aug 21, 2019

You made a homemade birthday card for me once , in my teens. I may still have it somewhere. It had drawings of horses and you wrote "Wild Horses Couldn't Drag Me Away"...
Not them or anything truly could.

Aug 20, 2019

Lynn Ridge--> South Needle

Somewhere there is a photo of me from the late 1990s, aged 19 or 20. It's a little blurry taken as it was with a one of the cheaper automatic 35mm point and shoot, zoom-incapable film cameras of the day. You know the ones with 2AA batteries that would make that mechanical sound as the film tape forwarded itself after every photo?

Anyway, it was from my first hike up to the Lynn Peak viewpoint. I hiked alone, but the photo was taken by a park ranger who happened to be up there at the time. I've never seen a park ranger up there since, in countless visits, though I'm sure they do still make the grunt from time to time.
The photo of a scrawny tall kid in jeans and a striped, button-up shirt seems like ages ago. Well actually it was. Pretty much 2 decades give or take.

As I discovered later, the viewpoint is not the true summit of Lynn Peak, and is in fact no summit at all. But it's pretty enough and of course, increasingly popular nowadays. I've brought friends up there, even my Dad a few years after my first hike there. Being one of my first solo forays onto the North Shore mountains, the trail has always had sentimental value. There's even a little patch of old growth, dubbed "The Enchanted Forest" on the way up that to a more impressionable version of me, conjured images of what the entire landscape must have been like before the area was logged by hand, and later by balloon(!).

Tens or hundreds of thousands of vertical metres and a few decades later, in December of last year (2018), I finally decided to explore beyond the Viewpoint along the fainter trail that leads to the truer-- though view obstructed-- peaks of Lynn Ridge. Got as far as South Lynn (Rice) Peak in light snow and dropping temperatures.

Today I set out late but determined to get through Lynn Ridge, making a loop of the trip and exiting via the Hydraulic Creek trail. The late start meant I probably couldn't (finally) bag all of The Needles, which stand to the north of the Lynn Peaks and have been a source of ogling fascination for years from countless vantage points low and high.

Turned it out it was a beautiful day to be in the mountains; few bugs, a light breeze and great visibility, particularly to the north. Here are some photos from today's trip. And I'll post the old one if it ever turns up too!

Lynn Peak trail, entering the Enchanted Forest.

The trail is now about three times as wide and quite a bit rockier than it was in the 1990s.

The Lynn Peak viewpoint. These fellas and two following parties were the last people I saw.

The technically incorrect sign pointing to the Balloon viewpoint, the true Lynn Peak lies more than an hour beyond on a much lesser-travelled trail.

The not so glorious summit of South Lynn (or "Rice") Peak, about 15 minutes further on.

Another 45ish minutes from there, these three cedars mark the spot where a faint trail leads to the true summit of Lynn Peak.

The bushy true summit of Lynn Peak. A small cairn sits on a rock beneath the bushes.

Red-breasted Sapsucker, near Lynn Peak.

 Then I walked almost on top of this garter snake, as another slithered away.

It didn't move, even to strike the annoying human with the camera, so I got numerous shots of it.

Probably the best snake photo I'll ever take in the wild.

A short while later, the South Needle finally comes into view!

Some blowdown along the trail.

The bumps of Lynn Ridge as seen just below South Needle summit.

South Needle summit cairn. Goat, Crown, Lions, etc, at rear.

Lynn Valley below with Goat Ridge, Crown, etc beyond.

A zoom on Crown/Camel

View north of Mts Gillespie, Meslilloet, Bonnycastle and, very distantly, Snowcap Peak (!).

View southwest down Lynn Valley. Lynn Peaks at left, Fromme at right.

Large cedar on Hydraulic Creek trail

Lower Hydraulic Creek scene.

Trailside, LSCR

5km of path to walk back to the parking lot.

Aug 1, 2019

ZLA+Vicuna+Bushwhacking

Route track 07/27/2019-07/29/2019.
2900 metres, 37km


 Started at the Zopkios truck stop

 Up the old Ottomite Road

 First clear glimpse of Zupjok

 Getting high on the Zupjok trail, views open to the south; Needle Peak &etc.

 Crested Zupjok, where Alpaca, Vicuna and Guanaco become visible under grey skies.

Past Zupjok and hiking the ridge bumps

Looking ahead on the ridge to Llama, Alpaca. Vicuna and Guanaco at right.

Filtered sun through the western valley below.

 Filtered sun and the Anderson River group.

Day Two. Early morning light near ridge camp

 Sunrise above the upper Coldwater valley

A human and a shadow checking out the sunrise near camp

Morning light on a cairn and the Anderson River group

 and on Old Settler

and on some alpine trees near camp.

 and on the ridge leading back to Zupjok

 Clarke, Recourse and Viennese, distantly.


Heading down to the treeline to bushwhack into the upper Coldwater valley and access Vicuna/Guanaco.

Had to bypass some slimy slabs, which steepened at bottom.

 aforementioned slabs having been bypassed to the south.

 A KM or so of full-on bushwhacking followed

 Followed, an hour or two later, by an extremely overgrown but navigable logging road

 upon which were some ginormous hoofed tracks
Moose? Elk?


Finally on the actual approach road to the Vicuna/Guanaco trail.

 Up the very muddy at times, but scenic Guanaco/Vicuna access trail.

Resident marmot.

Getting into alpine, contouring around Vicuna

Looking up and left at this point is a sight.

Up at the saddle and eyeing the route up Vicuna.

A super zoom of Alpaca's summit (two folks and a dog), from the Vicuna/Guanaco saddle.

Another long zoom between Steinbok and Ibex reveals Clarke-Recourse-Viennese and Judge Howay lining up closely.

On the way up Vicuna, a look back at the saddle and Guanaco

 Yours truly just below the airy Vicuna crux. A futile effort with a wonky knee and super blistered feet... and probably wrong footwear. Tough pill to swallow. I'll probably be back.

 Mario at the same spot, heading down on the somewhat iffy fixed line.

 A closer look at the east approach to Vicuna. Standard route follows the ribs and cracks at right. An alternate 4th class approach appears possible-- complete with barely visible fixed line-- using steep grassy slopes and treed ledges left of centre.

 Some dejection going on.

Descending the always-photographed natural staircase.

Back to the overgrown road. Complete with 10L of water from Coldwater Creek in the pack. No water available near ridge camp. Camp was located on top of the distant ridge bump.

After a slog back to camp, some magic hour light on Mt. Baker.

Sunset over the Anderson River group.

Day three. Morning shadow.

Looking ahead to the trip's final objective, Alpaca.

A look down at the Upper Coldwater valley, site of yesterday's "tougher than it looks from here"  bushwhack.

 A young and unafraid ptarmigan.

 Carved out tarn between Llama/Alpaca.

 How many ptarmigan?

Can't tell at all I'd been wearing the same shirt and shorts for the entire trip!

Summit area of Alpaca Peak.

 A look south from Alpaca towards Llama and Zupjok. Needle, Flatiron, Markhor, etc. 
Coquihalla and Jim Kelly distantly seen at left.

 Mario gets a closer look at the not-so-connecting ridge to Vicuna and Guanaco.

 East face of Alpaca and the complex and interesting terrain beneath it.

 Very sore feet pointing towards the Anderson River group; Steinbok and Ibex most prominently.

Closer look at the logging-scarred bowl beneath the Anderson River group's granite.

 One more battle with the krummholz, near Llama peak.

 The ridge that leads back the way we came.

 Prominent bump between Zupjok and Llama.

 Final look back at Llama and Alpaca. Some fine ridge hiking here.

 Last glimpse at Upper Coldwater valley, Vicuna and Guanaco. From Zupjok.

Back on the Ottomite Road nearing the highway. Needle Peak in background.