Capturing the Art of Nature
Hollyburn with Ralph
A perfect morning to hike a mountain, cool, dry and empty
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
Summits on the Air
2021
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I really do love these mid-week hikes. The popular summits are so crowded on week-ends that one doesn’t get the space to enjoy nature. Mid-week we encountered only a few people on the trail and had the summit to ourselves almost the entire time.
Our adventure began at 9am when Ralph arrived, I loaded into his car and we set off for, as required, Starbucks. I picked up a latte but they were out of juices to pack for the summit so I settled for a lemonade. Then it was back to the roads and any traffic jams that may be lingering. Fortunately, we had only a short delay at the Cassiar tunnel. We were soon climbing the slopes of Hollyburn and then pulled into the parking area. Only 4 cars in the area! We started to get our gear on when a couple came by asking about the trail. They wondered if it was well marked. I said not really by the trail was easy to follow. I said just follow the service road up the slope and around the bend then just past a building the trail proper begins. They left and we continued gearing up.
As we started for the service road, I saw the couple heading up it above us, they made decent time and had arrived at the trail before us. There they asked more about the summit and realized they were on the wrong hike. They had wanted to do St Marks! I suggested they were already well on their way here and to just do this one. Ralph and I then continued along and never did see them again. So, I guess they walked back and drove to the other parking lot to start the longer trail. They did not seem to be prepared to be doing these hikes.
Ralph and I continued heading up eventually encountered a chap jogging towards us. He was jogging the entire Baden Powel Trail! He was 3.5hours into the jog having started in Horseshoe Bay and ending at Deep Cove. He said he had another 5.5 hours to go, then he could stop into their famous donut shop!. Oh, to be young with much energy! We stopped to watch him zip by and then continued our slow ascent to the summit. The trail was actually quite dry and in good shape so we made decent time for ourselves. We started up at 10:15 and arrived around 12:25, so climbing took 2 hours 10, not my best time but we were having a nice chat as we went.
I quickly scouted out a spot and spread out my gear and then set up the yagi. I no sooner turned on the radio when Ken – VE7HI - called back and I had my first contact. Fellow club member Don – VA7GL – was right behind him, next was a chap in Richmond followed by John – VE7JBE our association manager – who was hanging by a rope on the side of a Vancouver hi-rise. Ralph was still stringing his antenna wire through the gnarly old tree at the summit. As I turned my beam, I picked up a station on a summit on the flank of Mt Rainier 295km distant. We worked each other for a summit-to-summit, he was using only a 5 watt handheld through a Slimjim antenna. This was a good example of just how effective the beam can be. For most closer contacts it doesn’t do much and I can get people clearly off the side but for these very weak stations it can pull them up to a good signal. Turning it just slightly will lose them completely and often one has to point the beam in a direction not towards the source but at a summit for a reflected signal. After our contact I let him have the calling frequency for a while so I could finish my lunch. Meanwhile Ralph had finally gotten set up and had 3 CW contacts in the log.
As I ate lunch, I could hear the summit station making all sorts of contacts I could hear the odd one but most were not readable. Eventually he slowed down and I tried a few more contacts reaching a a few stations in the Victoria area and Everett. Ralph took a break for lunch and then made a few more contacts. I finished with 9 and he had 11 so we were both happy with the results and didn’t want to stay longer than needed so that we could get back before rush-hour. That is the one bad thing about mid-week hikes. We soon packed the gear and started back down the trail.
The return hike took us just over an hour and a half. We encountered only a single person on the return, a woman heading up the trail. The solitude was so pleasant. The cool air was also very nice for hiking, that trail can get quite hot in the sun, especially the part along the road. On a hot day that last bit down the road can seem interminably long. We arrived back at the car around 3:20 and stripped off our gear. Then set off for the highway. It was looking good for a while but then we reached the backup. Stop and go for half the way along the North Shore. Once we got across the bridge things moved better but it wasn’t until we got to the HOV lane that we could start making better time. We arrived home at 5:21, roughly 2 hours after departing! That really does tend to diminish the enjoyment of a nice hike.