Summer 2013 Update

Greetings imaginary followers!  It has been quite some time since my last post, but I wanted to post an update of my summer activities before I get buried with schoolwork, otherwise this blog shall lay dormant forever (or at least for a few months).

A couple of the trips that I touch on in this post I'll likely do full updates for later, but for now this will serve as a brief recap of my summer so that my readers (.... yeah I know) will be happy.

The first substantial trip I took after returning from the states was a bike trip from Tulameen to Brookmere, and then from Brookmere to Princeton.  I'll do a separate post for this later since I took quite a few pictures.  Given that I hadn't done to much since my injury, I was quite happy that my knee managed to survive a 100 km bike trip.

The first actual hike I did after getting back was the Lightning Lake Chain Trail.  I like to use it as my first hike each year since it isn't too difficult and eases me into shape a little bit.  I was pretty surprised that I managed to do the trail in just under 4 hours, which is easily the fastest I've ever done it.

Frosty Mountain from Lightning Lake

At the end of Lightning Lake

Flash Lake

Strike Lake

Remnants of winter just past the Strike Lake Camp

Thunder Lake

A few weeks later I went up to Manning Park again with the intention of climbing up the ski hill.  On my way up I did the Beaver Pond Trail, the Rein Orchid Trail, and the Canyon Nature Trail.  All of those are short hikes (30 minutes or less), but I had a lot of time to kill and had never been on any of them.  Beaver Pond and Rein Orchid were pretty pleasant nature trails.  The Canyon Trail was way nicer than I expected it to be, and I'd say it's probably one of the nicest short hikes in the park.

Beaver Pond

On the Canyon Nature Trail

Boardwalk on the Rein Orchid Trail

After doing the three short hikes I took the Poland Lake Trail to the top of the ski hill.  I had much better weather than the last time I did it, and I had a little bit more time to spend on top of the hill.  I decided to venture into the operator's cabin since I'd never been in it, and I terrified a very neurotic squirrel who apparently had made it his summer condo.

The Blue Chair, with Snow Camp, Hozameen, and Lone Goat visible in the background

The Operator's Cabin

A few weeks later I went up to the Alpine Meadows to hike the Heather Trail.  I was intending to make it an over night trip, but my knee was feeling a little funny so I decided to make it a day trip.  I hiked in about 15 km, so by the end of the day I had done 30 km.  I was pretty excited to have done 30 twice this year.

I got busy with a few things so I didn't get a chance to do another hike for about a month.  I went up Silverdaisy Mountain with my Dad, and since I haven't talked about that trail yet, I'll do a separate post for it.

I also did the Frosty Mountain hike with my Dad (that's the one hike I try to make sure I do every year).  I went up the lightning lake side like normal, but I decided to go down the Windy Joe side since I had never done that before.  The initial descent is a little more sketchy in places, but once the trail settles onto the ridge it's pretty easy.  Overall I'd say the Windy Joe side is a little less scenic.  It's worth doing if you are a Manning Park fanatic like me, but otherwise I don't think it's worth the extra distance.  Adding in the section I walked on the highway to get back to the Lightning Lake parking lot, it ended up being another 30 km day.  I was really happy do have done 3 in one year, since at one point I thought it was impossible.  I did the whole thing in 8.5 hours which might not sound too great, but I'm really not in very good shape.

Coming down from the summit

On the Windy Joe Trail

Well, that was my summer in a nutshell.  I'll probably be too busy with University to do any major hiking until winter or spring, so I won't be putting out any content for a while (not like that is abnormal for me), other than the KVR and Silverdaisy post of course.  I have some hiking plans for next spring and summer, so if everything pans out properly, I'll be putting out a lot of posts then.