Capturing the Art of Nature
Lady Peak
I hiked Lady Peak several years ago and have planned to try it again, hopefully reaching the actual peak this time, so I had scheduled it as one of my 5 peaks for this summer.
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2009
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The weather report showed mixed weather for the day though the likelihood of rain was low there was still a fair chance of being caught by it. We therefore set out early in order to get a good distance along the trail before the heat of the day and to hopefully get back before any rain came. This was also our first drive on the logging roads with our new F250 truck! The old trusty Pathfinder had finally become a bit unreliable and I was no longer comfortable taking it off the pavement. The new truck performed very well for us, it handled the cross ditches on the road easily though the potholes shook us up a great deal. With so little weight in the back and the truck having heavy duty suspension, this road which was badly potholed made for a very shaky drive.
We arrived at the end of the road and the normal parking area at a good start time and immediately began the setup the cross-band repeater. This proved to be a bit slower than expected due to the swarms of flies that were devouring every exposed piece of skin we had. The number of flies we had to fight off was the most I have had to deal with on any hike so far. After setting up the mast I had to fiddle with the beam direction to in order to reach the White Rock repeater, after pointing it south-east and bouncing off of the Cheam range we were able to have reliable communication to White Rock.
When the antenna was set, we started off on the hike. Once we had cleared the parking lot and its shade trees the number of flies dropped to a more endurable number. We made very good time along the remaining logging road and on into the alpine meadow with the small stream. Spoon lake was still completely covered in mud and dirty snow. It certainly looked a mess again this year. It seems that it isn't ice free till late in August. We made our way over a thick snow pack, past where the lake should be and started on the steeper accent on the slope of Lady Peak. By now the sun was starting to be fairly hot and our progress was starting to slow.
We were still making decent time through this initial section on the slope and on past the small wooded patch and the long sloping alpine meadow, but soon we started to feel the heat more seriously. After a few rest breaks we had made our way past the meadow and were now on the more rugged slope leading to the saddle point between Cheam and Lady Peak. I had decided to try and find the proper trail to Lady Peak this year rather than follow our previous route which cut up the slope through some very steep areas. So though the trail was longer it was less steep.
We arrived at the small lake in the saddle and then made our way to the northern limit of the saddle where we had a great view of Waleach (Jones) Lake to the north. Here we stopped for lunch and an extended rest. Next was the tricky part of finding the start of the Lady Peak trail. This was supposed to be easy as I had the waypoints marked in my new Garmin 60CSx GPS. But shortly after we set out on the trail I accidentally reset the unit and erased everything from its memory! So much for pre-planning! The unit is much better than the old Magellan Platinum unit but learning all its controls will take a bit longer to master.
After lunch we set out on the search for the trail head. As there was still snow pack in the depressions it made following the less used trail difficult and we had to try a few alternate routes before locating the start. Once on the trail we made our way up the first section which was quite steep and soon we had made our way up onto a small ridge having lost the trail in the process. Though it was a lovely view and worth the visit we would have to retrace our steps to try and find the path. On our way down we did spot the trail on the opposite side of the ridge and so we decided to make for it and recover some of our lost time. By now the weather was starting to turn and it looked like rain would soon be upon us.
We made our way along the trail and past the spot where the short cut of our prior trip joined the path we were on. The next section was a steep scramble over loose rock which took its toll on me. Half way up the first of the light rains hit us. I was concerned that the rocks would become slippery but the rain soon slowed to a slight intermittent drizzle and so we decided to continue. We made our way past the cliff and up to the high alpine meadow but by now Ethan's foot had gotten quite raw and sore and so we stopped to evaluate our situation.
As we rested another group of hikers came by and continued on up the slope. As the rain was getting heavier again and his foot getting quite sore we decided to stop at this minor ridge line and head back. It was disappointing to not reach the peak but between the weather and sore feet the wisest course of action was to reschedule the hike to next season when we could try again. After carefully picking our path back down the cliff and across the steep loose rock section, we were soon on the trail through the wild flowers heading to the place where we lost the trail on the way up. This time we were able to follow it and should have no trouble following it on a future hike especially since I now have a complete GPS track to look at.
As we made our way down we came upon a group of hikers I knew from my church photography group and so we had a pleasant chat as we made our way along. Keeping up with the young people was a challenge for my old bones but it was nice having a few more people to chat with. Once back at the truck we quickly took down the antenna. The flies were motive enough but we could see some rapidly approaching rain squalls and so we wanted to be done and safely inside the truck before the first one hit us. We made it with a few minutes to spare! The drive back to the main road though bumpy went without incident and soon after reaching pavement the real rain hit and we could barely see through the windshield as we drove along. Turning back when we did was fortunate as we were able to avoid the serious rain. So I guess I will need to reschedule the hike for next summer when we can try again for the peak.