Beaverfoot - High Lake and making friends

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It's 18.31 on the 27th June. As in writing this, we are on the second to last day of our stay here at Beaverfoot, and I will write about Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Just a quick note before I start, many of the photos I upload with the Beaverfoot blogs aren't necessarily in order as I've collected some from earlier in the stay from others, so it's all a bit of a jumble!
Anyway, Monday. This was our second day off of the week, and we had decided to do the hike from Marian Lake up to High Lake with Rico and the two French girls Selenn and Floriene. Kate had decided the morning before that she would rather stay back at the lodge and catch up with reading and writing. We woke up early, about 7.30, and headed into the lodge from the still cold wagons for breakfast and to pack some lunch. When I arrived all were there apart from Matt. It got to nearly 9, our departure time, and there was still no sign of Matt so Rosie and I went down to the wagons and banged on the door and shouted at him, and yet he still wouldn't wake up - and the door was locked. So, after 5 minutes we gave up and considered it his loss.
Laura was leaving that morning, so we all said our goodbyes to her then headed into the little people carrier Selenn and Flo had bought for their travels, and headed off. It was about an hour and a half journey up the logging road to our destination and we were a little concerned about how well the car would deal with the poor road surface. But, apart from nearly not making it out of a dried up river bed, the little 'Ladybug' coped remarkably well.
We parked in a rough car park, which was of course devoid of any other cars, and headed down into the forest. Before long we emerged from the trees to face the still, turquoise blue water of Marian lake. The path then took us around the lake to the right, and to the foot of the mountains upon which High Lake is nestled. This is where the real hiking begun. The path was non-existent at this point, the route was a compromise between the easiest and the quickest way up the steep face littered with boulders and patches of snow.
After a little while the way up was blocked by a rock wall of about 2 metres. To bypass this. We had to walk across a rock ledge with the wall of stone to the right, and then steep descent into the lake to the left. Before long it was again possible to climb up the rock wall and push through thick shrubs out onto open ground again. What followed was a long slog up the mountain face, walking on small, loose rocks or great slabs of stones.
We stopped periodically to rest, drink water and, after a while, put on extra layers as the temperature dropped. After maybe two hours of steady climbing, with Marian lake no bigger than a 50p piece below us, we reached the crest of the mountain and below us saw the perfect blue water of High lake, half of which was still covered in a thin layer of ice. It was a beautiful sight, with the still, sparkling waters surrounded by the great shoulders of the mountains that encircled it.
From our viewpoint the lake seemed small and almost in touching distance. As we descended, however, it became clear the lake was a lot bigger and further away than we had first guessed. We stopped halfway down for a lunch of pasta and wraps, marvelling in the silence and peace upon the mountains. We lay for a while, almost dozing, then roused ourselves and headed down to the waters edge. The side we approached was still frozen and so we sat for a while throwing stones onto the ice and filling our bottles with the freezing water. Eventually we decided we better head down.
The walk down was easier but, as always, never quite as easy as you might expect. We came, at one point, upon a belt of trees that blocked off the path. From the we had two options, either climb up and around it as we had done on the way up, or shoot straight through and try and find a short cut through the pines. We went for the latter, and clambered down the huge, jagged slabs of rocks that ran through the trees. We reached the tree line and searched for the way down. Beyond the trees was a several metre sheer drop and we were close to turning around when I found a small crevice that was a little less steep, and attempted to lower myself down it. I managed to do so with some difficulty, then helped the others down. I had to, at one point, catch Flo when she lost her grip and swung out away from the rock face.
We all made it down in one piece, and headed to the original path having saved maybe 20 minutes of uphill hiking. As we walked, Marian Lake grew beneath us and the temperature rose perceptibly. Once we finally reached the bottom, we walked a little way back round the lake and found a good spot to jump in and cool off. Flo and Selenn went first, and leisurely swum about in the inviting water. I took this to mean the water was of a pleasant temperature and dived in. The coldness of the glacier water knocked the breath right out of me, and had me spluttering and gasping for air as I surfaced. I could stand maybe 30 seconds in such cold before I had to climb out and warm up. I watched I disbelief as the girls swum for nearly 20 minutes in the freezing water. It was, however, quickly inviting once more - so I jumped in again with Rosie, and swum for a short while with a peculiar sort of pleasure.
Once we had all dried off, we walked the short distance back up to the car, and headed back. It was, without a doubt, the most spectacular hike I have ever done. As we headed back, we talked of Linguistics and the way learning a new lab father can change the way you perceive our surroundings.
We arrived back just in time for dinner. By all accounts Matt and Kate had had a relaxing - if not a tiny bit dull - day. We ate dinner and settled down to watch a film, The Grand Budapest Hotel - in the lobby, as there were no guests in the lodge that night. That night, as you might expect, we slept like logs.
I woke up Tuesday a little stiff, but nonetheless well rested. We breakfasted then headed out to begin the day of work. Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty uneventful days (bar Wednesday night) and so I will whizz through the day's events. On Tuesday Matt was recruited to help out with the construction of the pavilion floor with some of the others, so it was just Rosie, Kate and I in our little work group for those two days. The work was easy, and varied enough to keep us occupied and interested. The majority of Tuesday was spent making sure all of the wagons were good to be used, so we swept them and moved mattresses up to the lodge so that mattress covers could be made for them. The distance between lodge and campsite is pretty big, so this took us pretty much the whole day.
That evening I was sitting in the lobby when Rico came up to me and said he had the red truck and was ready to move my stuff. The blank expression on my face clearly told him that I had no idea what we has talking about, so he explained that the decision had been made - probably when I was training - to move me and Matt up into the mountain house where the rest of the guys stay and the girls into the lodge. I was a little pissed off about this as I had enjoyed the privacy and personal space of the wagons, but I went down and quickly packed up. Once I had carried my stuff up to the Mountain House, I returned to the lodge and sat reading with the others until maybe 1am, when Rico and I walked the short distance up the logging road to the House. The House is made up of three floors. The ground floor has a living area (where I'm sitting currently writing this), the first floor has a kitchen and 5 mattresses occupied by Cami, Vlad, Felix, Mariah (German girl who arrived the day before), and Adam, and a top floor with two bedrooms in which Rico and Josh stay, as they have been here the longest. I was sharing a queen size mattress on the floor of Josh's room with Matt.
I woke up Wednesday morning not freezing cold, for once - which was nice. We headed down for breakfast, then spent most of the day cleaning the wagons we had vacated the day before, then finishing off by painting a fence at the back of the lodge.
The evening was uneventful up to about 11.30pm. I think the best way to explain this is to go through the course of events, then explain what I had seen of it all. Josh, the huge British guy, was feeling a little under the weather that day, so decided to head up a little earlier that night - about 11.30. Because it was pretty much dark he took the bear spray, a canister much like pepper spray, but that using chemicals 10x the strength as it is designed to incapacitate a bear. He was walking up the logging road to the Mountain House, when we heard a rustle in the bushes that sounded 'too big to be a bird' and so put on the torch on his phone and shone it around, but could see nothing. He took off the safety latch from the bearspray and carried on. About 30 seconds later 3 large shapes burst from the bushes and went straight for him.
I will pause here to explain that, before we had arrived, Josh had made the girls jump at one of the campfires, and since then had tried to get him back. Maybe you can see where this is going. That night Denise, Nathalie and Georgie had hidden in the bushes when they heard Josh leaving, and jumped out at him in the dark. As they did so Josh reacted on instinct and shot the bear spray, at point blank range, into Nathalie's face. Once the commotion had died down and the realisation of what had happened dawned on them, the spent 30 minutes washing Nathalie's face in a nearby stream and then had to lead the poor girl back to the lodge, as she could still not see. From there she continued to wash her face for about an hour, until the burning subsided and she regained her sight. Unfortunately, as they approached the lodge Josh rubbed his eye with the hand he had fired the bearspray with, and thus rubbed the chemicals straight into his eye, and spent an hour washing it out.
The rest of us where just chilling in the lodge, when all of a sudden all hell broke loose. People were rushing around with water, and it took some time to actually piece together what happened. Everyone was torn between feeling very sorry for everyone involved, and finding the whole incident hysterically funny. I will quickly mention a few things that made the event even more extraordinary: 1. Josh had originally left without the bearspray, only to return 5 minutes later having changed his mind, and took it with him. Although this sounds unfortunate, it may not have been - as who knows what he would have done without it. Bearspray to the face is marginally better than a fist to the face 2. The safety catch was luminescent, and Josh said that was the only reason he noticed it and removed it - if he hadn't he wouldn't have had the chance to fire before he knew who had jumped out at him. 3. And this is the most incredibly fortunate part - as Nathalie jumped out her sunglasses fell from her head and onto her eyes, covering them seconds before she was hit by the bear spray. If this didn't happen, the event could have been much worse. 4. Nathalie has had the worst luck at Beaverfoot. Before we arrived she had been doused in petrol when filling a truck, getting it in her eyes and mouth - requiring a trip to the clinic, and had been kicked in the face and had her hand stood on when a horse she was tending to reared. 5. This is certainly the most funny: the next day, Thursday, was Josh's 24 birthday. The event happened at almost exactly 12 midnight - so the first thing Josh did on his 24th birthday was to spray a girl, at point blank range, in the face with a spray designed to take down an 8 foot bear.
And that, everyone, is a usual three days at Beaverfoot.

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