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The Red Lobster Journal for 1993
The AGM Hot Tub, Hollyburn with Eric
Scampi at Gold Creek, on Mt. Cheam, at the Himmelsbach Hut, and on Mt. Baker
The Stein Valley Traverse, and the "Half Spearhead Traverse"
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The AGM Hot Tub
Alan Lizee, Keith Akenhead, Ryan Shellborn, Chuck McCafferty, Randy Wheating
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| What? An AGM not up in the hills of Manning Park? Well, Ryan's parents had a cabin at East Gate and it had a hot tub. Well, frozen tub to be more exact. Fire up the wood burning stove and wait for the ice to thaw. What to do, what to do? Sit around, and regale with munchies and some of Scotland's favourite exports of course.
The water finally became hot, at least on the surface, and down in the depths of the tub, well, it was best not to pout your toes down there lest they get cold.
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Don't we look thoughful?
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I like AGMs
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Hollyburn with Eric - North Shore of Vancouver
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| Most people know Hollyburn Mountain because of its cross country skiing in the winter, but there are also a lot of people who know it as a summer hiking destination. A well marked trail festooned with blueberry and huckleberry bushes winds its way up to the summit.
This picture of Eric is looking north-east from the summit area.
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Keith Akenhead and his son Mathew with the Lions in the background. The Lions is a long hike from the Cypruss Bowl ski area parking lot. |
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Scampi at Gold Creek (Golden Ears Park)
I managed to talk my son Eric into an overnight hike up Gold Creek. Swimming and hot chocolate were popular!
It was a special time for a father.
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Scampi on Mt. Cheam (Cheam Range-Fraser Valley)
Chuck and I took our boys up the trail
to the summit of Mt. Cheam. It was good to share with them some
of the pleasures we had enjoyed in the mountains.
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Scampi at the Himmelsbach Hut (Whistler-Blackcomb area)
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Chuck and I got our boys up to the hut east of Whistler and Singing Pass in glorious weather. We pointed out peaks we had climbed, and tried to educate them about the joys of outhouses and hut mice.
This picture of Eric was taken above Singing Pass with Castle Towers in the background.
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The Himmelsbach Hut on the north shore of Russet Lake. The Platform glacier is in the upper left corner, with Mt. MacBeth in the upper middle. It was seven years later that Eric and I came up here again and we went up Fissile.
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| The high point emotionally for me was when we reached the high point of the trail and could see the hut, Eric (my son) said that he felt the hike showed how a good effort created its own rewards and wanted each of us to add a stone to the cairn nearby to commemorate our being there. Talk about a proud father. :-) |
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Scampi on Mt. Baker (Washington State- North Cascades)
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| Chuck and I took out boys, then age 11, up to the base of the regular climbing route on Mt. Baker for a night out. The final part of the trail goes up a steep moraine, and the boys did very well. The night was clear, and being at about 2000 meters, the sky was extremely clear. |
The boys were amazed at how many stars there really were. The constellations were hard to make out for all the stars! The boys got to go on the very edge of the glacier and see how much ice there was, and sleep in their own tent. It was great to share this special place with them.
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The
Stein Traverse
Stein Lake looking west
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Ken, his son David, and I did the Stein
traverse from Lillooet Lake to the Fraser River in July, 1993.
We spent the first day driving up the Fraser Canyon to Lillooet
as the ferry was out at Lytton. We then had to drive down the
west side of the Fraser back almost to Lytton to leave a car.
We then drove back to Lillooet, along the Duffey Lake road, and
down Lillooet Lake a distance until we turned east and up to
Lizzie Lake. We hiked for a couple of hours to a point just above
the cabin and pitched the tent beside a small pond.
Day two was spent going to the east
side of Tundra Lake amid rain and millions of mosquitoes. Going
along the north side of Tundra Lake was not pleasant. The slopes
were slippery, it was raining, and whenever you stopped, the
mosquitoes attacked.
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The next day dawned gloomy, misty, and cool. We did a slow descent to the north, discovered a hornet's nest in the gravel, and then ascended into the wind and rain up to the ridge top and the trail. By the time I reached Stein Lake I was beat.
Day three was a 20 km hike through timber
to Log Jam Camp where the weather cleared and we finally started
to dry out.
Day four was a looooooong day to a point
just upstream of the last cable crossing. I was not eating enough
and by the end of this day I was almost sick. I was stupid not
to eat more and stop earlier.
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The morning of day five was spent doing
the last kilometers out the the road and our car. We drove back
to Lizzie Lake and got my car. Ken, bless his heart, hiked up
the last couple of kilometers to get it.
In retrospect, the alpine western and
dry eastern sections would be worth doing again, but the middle
section was only especially attractive because it hadn't been
touched by commerce. In the middle section we also realized how
long it would take a person to get help if you ran into trouble.
A twisted ankle would be more than a little trivial.
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The Half Spearhead Traverse - Coast Mountains - Whistler/Blackcomb Area
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| August, 1993 saw Keith Akenhead, Chuck McCafferty, Randy Wheating, Ryan Shellborn, and I head out again on the Spearhead Traverse. We spent our first night on a flat spot on a ridge just north of Decker. The "Photoshopped" picture above was taken on the Spearhead-Blackcomb col. |
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This kind of reminds me of an old expression ........
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Here we have just dropped down from the Trory -Decker col and will head over to the south end of Pattison. |
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After ascending the Tremor - Shudder col, we take a break and enjoy the view to the south.
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Myself, Chuck McCafferty, Randy Wheating, Keith Akenhead.
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This is our campsite on the Platform glacier. Now, I'm not absolutely sure what Randy was doing here. Based on the mumbling I heard, it either had something to do with religion or airplanes.
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Sadly, the next day was really socked in and we decided to retrace our steps. We didn't feel it was a great idea to try to "feel" our way onward. We did not reach our goal of finding out about the route up the Iago Glacier and around the south side of Fitzsimmons, but we had a good time.
This picture is of Keith Akenhead in the foreground and Chuck McCafferty and Randy Wheating in the distance crossing the glacier between two rather large crevasses. This was during our first day of retreat.
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