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Published: June 25th 2017
Geo: 50.1158, -122.946
What an adventure. The last few days have been all about camping at Lake Cheakamus.
Friday was a big day for Ian. He left Whistler on the bus at 4.30 am for Vancouver for his once a week workday in the city. We didn't see him again until 7.30 pm .... but we were thinking of him on our our almost daily visit to The North Face store.
We wanted to get hiking packs for Mindy and Ian to thank them for their hospitality. We spent over an hour in the store with Nic as he went through the features of the different models. The decision was finally made: a 50 litre for Ian, a 35 litre for Mindy and a 20 litre little grey number for Mac. He did take some convincing because he never carries anything...but I have news for him...he will be carrying everything on our adventures in Alaska...jackets, beanies, gloves, insect repellant, water, camera....just as a start!
The rest of the day was spent assembling the necessities and making sure we would all be ready for an unusually early start for us.
Alarms were set and we were on the deadline to be on our way at 8
am to ensure we had a camping spot! We were off for an overnight camping trip to Lake Cheakamus.
The Lake is south of Whistler and is accessed from an 8 km logging road which is dirt and very potholed. The cab driver, who had to be 90, was not bothered by the state of the road and happily took us to the car park at the head of the hiking trail. He told us he wasn't worried about the damage because it was a "company car." We were just grateful for the ride.
We were certainly loaded up. Mindy and Ian with their new packs carried their gear, plus a tent for us as well as food and drinks. They took off at a zippy pace to secure one of the 10 camping spots that were available. They did pause on their journey to leave arrows to point the way at the first turn off....um, we missed that little hint...but made the right choice of tracks!
Mac and I, ladened with our version of packs (including the new little grey number), with food and sleeping bags followed at a much slower pace. We were oohing and aahing our way along the
4 km trail, chatting with hikers who passed us and stopping regularly for photos. We made the 4 km trip in 90 minutes and at one stage Mac did remind me that Michael used to run the 1500 metres in 4 minutes. We were a bit outside that PB. Couldn't help thinking that Kathy and Darryl would love this adventure!
Of course, every sign we passed warned us of either bear or avalanche dangers! But other than repeated attacks from monster, blood sucking mosquitoes were were danger free.
True to their word, Mindy and Ian had secured a beautiful spot for us right on a beach on the edge of the lake and had completed putting up the tents. It was a great walk and as we entered our secluded little camping spot I commented to Mac that I would "love a beer" ...and the perfect host that our Happy Whistler Guide is....a cold beer was produced! How did she do that?Heavenly.
We unloaded the gear, had a lunch snack that included egg bread rolls, chilled watermelon, an apple, trail mix and home made chocolate chip cookies and then headed further along the track. Again, the younguns took off at a blistering pace
while we dawdled. Mac had trusty Endomodo on and we trekked a further 2.2 kms along the lake hugging trail and discovered beautiful stony beaches, birds and butterflies, towering trees, closeup views of the surrounding mountains and what seemed like a never ending smorgasbord of views. Little did we know at the time, but if we had travelled just another 800 metres we would have hit the end of the trail. Oh well, next time.
Pre dinner drinks, cheese and crackers and a reprise of Cribbage was played out on tables and chairs created by Mindy and Ian. Very resourceful campers and except for the BIG mozzies that swarmed in waves it was heavenly.
Mindy and Ian were the card champs and beat us by a mere four points in the before dinner game!
Dinner was cleverly prepared using a portable disposable BBQ...the embers heat up...it has a grill...and all that is needed is a "heat up" of the precooked sausages. Believe me, as the sun was setting at 8.30 pm and the temperature dropped - after a long day of walking - dinner was scoffed and enjoyed. There were no leftovers!
It had reached a maximum of 25 degrees during the
day - but quickly dropped to zero overnight. We were bringing out the layers of warmth - beanies and gloves, track suits and Michael's ubeaut socks ensured toes as warm as toast.
Back to the card table, this time by the light of miners' headlamps (very cute idea) and the oldies took another beating! Again, a tight finish, but clever strategy and calculated risk taking had the newbies over the line!
Time to pack up for the night. Of course, the last comforting word from Mindy and Ian was that we needed to clean up the campsite and gather up all the food and walk it up the track to hang it up in the food cache so the bears wouldn't visit us during the night. Right!
That little bit of private time actually gave me a chance to break out Sheweena. As usual, what a star! She did not disappoint.
And so to bed. What a night. Poor Mac! I was not a great tent buddy. The floor of the tent was so cold I just couldn't get comfortable so I kept turning Mac over, backwards and forwards, trying to steal his warmth. It didn't help that we were on a slight
slope so I kept sliding down to the bottom of the tent and somehow got stuck at regular 15 minute intervals on the single Princess and the Pea tree root that was under the flooring. I felt I was scaling Mt Everest every 15 minutes, clawing my way back towards my pillow and when I tried to find it and yank and pull it under my head I somehow managed to punch Mac in the face,,,NOT once, NOT twice, NOT thrice but FOUR times! At 2 am on one of my mountain assaults I rolled over and managed to hit the on button of the miners' light torch! The tent was filled with bright light. That was just the last straw, Mac and I just burst into laughter and agreed to give up on sleep and to just wait for morning. At 3 am we were playing "what animal noise is that" as the owls took over the forest. The next round of mirth was dedicated to Von as the woodpeckers started their early morning tree thumping (I used your "big woody" joke @Von, but didn't get much of a laugh out of the sleep deprived Mac!)
And at 5.30 with
sunrise approaching I vacated the tent and Mac finally got to enjoy some sleep and 100% of the sleeping bags. I fell asleep in the camping chair happy to ward off the mosquitoes, the blue jays and chipmunks.
(Late addition...on our return to civilisation we heard the headline news report that a man had been killed by a black bear overnight....sleeping in his chair beside the fire....while his fiancé was inside the camper. True story! Glad bear sightings for the trip = zero!)
The happy tent snoozers emerged around 9 am and we compared overnight stories. I felt guilty when our Happy Whistler Guides informed us we had the warm sleeping bags and the warm under blanket. I can only imagine how cold they were.
A quick retrieval of the food from the cache, a speedy decamp and we were back to hiking out to the car park. There were lots of bikers and hikers out for Mothers' Day. One family was pulling a canoe on wheels through the forest to launch in the lake.
A cab ride home, a shower, some messages from home from Anthony and Michael, a special Pandora charm from Mindy and soon we were all sound asleep for a
pre dinner nap.
We finished the weekend with a magical dinner organised by Mindy at Hy's Steakhouse. Absolutely top class dining and it delivers all things steak. We all took advantage of the special menu. It offers recommended selections for entrees, mains and deserts and includes a warmup of cheese toast. I am sorry @Aunty Gail but there is a chance (according to Mindy) that your monopoly at number #1 may be challenged. We washed the dinner down with a bottle of SavBlanc for Mindy and Ian and a collection of cocktails for Mac and me including an appropriate "Corpse Reviver."
We rolled out of the restaurant for the obligatory daily walk up the hill to The Aspens, this time in darkness.
What a wonderful weekend. What a fabulous Mothers' Day!
Friday
Temperature: 23
Pedometer: 5 708
Bear sightings = 0
Saturday
Temperature: 25 Overnight = 0
Pedometer: 12 944
Bear Sightings = 0
Sunday
Temperature: 22
Pedometer: 10 554
Bear Sightings = 0
Total Bear Sightings = 2
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carolyn
non-member comment
Wow! Very impressed adventurers. Makes our camping seem very mild :-) xx