Capturing the Art of Nature
Zoa Peak
Our third peak hike of the season, it was a fun area to explore and provided a lovely view of the other peaks in the area. The trail was easier than we had expected which was a welcome discovery.
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2011
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Earlier in the summer I was still uncertain as to which peaks to hike this year. In perusing the hiking book we finally noticed the Zoa Peak hike as being about the right length and in a new region. So Zoa was selected as our final challenge for the summer. Zoa is located just a bit north-west of the summit of the Coquihalla Highway, so we had a fair amount of driving to get to the start of the trail. As the weather was expected to be hot we planned to leave the house quite early so we could get the bulk of the hike done before the day got hot.
Geoff arrived at the house at 6:30am and we on the drive a few minutes later, stopping in Abbotsford for the traditional coffee and then in Hope for lunch supplies and a breakfast sandwich as I didn’t have time for my normal bowl of cereal. Once done in Hope we returned to the highway and were soon at the Falls Lake turn off. We left the highway and made for the parking area for people visiting the lake and starting our hike. Now the maps showed some logging roads and service roads that looked as though they would take us up past the initial portion of the hike which follows a pipeline. Since neither of us like hiking where a truck can drive us, we decided that we would take a few minutes to see if the road was drivable to the spot on the pipeline right-of-way where the trail leaves the pipeline.
Following the logging road we soon came to the connector leading to the pipeline service road. It was steep and rough in places but nothing all that challenging for us. So continuing along we were soon on the right-of-way just above where the trail leaves the clearing. This was great as it cut off a third of the elevation gain. The spot we found to park in also allowed us to set up the truck’s cross-band repeater with a solid connection to the repeater back in Hope which in turn was linked to Sumas Mountain and then to home. So once parked, our first task was to set up the antenna mast with the Yagi antenna. In starting to organize the mast, we ran into our first problem of the day.
Where Geoff had parked the truck there was a narrow ledge along the passenger side of the truck for me to work from and as I was reaching items in the back of the truck I was slowly sliding to the end of the truck. Then suddenly I felt a burning sensation in my right leg which led to a rapid repositioning. I thought little of it as I had bumped the exhaust pipe before. I made my way around its protruding presence and grabbed a few mast items to take to Geoff. When I got to him he immediately noticed my leg, it seems that my brief contact had caused a fairly serious burn on my calf! So we stopped the mast work and Geoff got out the first-aid kit and covered up my burn. It didn’t seem to be bothering me much so we continued with the antenna set up and then we got ready for the hike. The Yagi gave us an excellent quality link to Hope.
Communications established, leg bandaged, we were now ready to head to the trail and start up the next segment. Our first section of the trail was quite steep for a few hundred meters but then dropped to a fairly pleasant grade for most of the remainder of the trail. As we were quite high in elevation the trees were not overly thick along the trail giving a pleasant open feel, but thick enough to provide lots of shade. The trail was quite easy to follow with a well-worn path through the ground cover for most of the way and on the rocky spots they had a good number of cairns to show the direction. The trail we followed seemed to follow a different path than that described in the book. It avoided climbing the first of the two peaks, electing to stay level and round the first peak on the north slope. This was fine for me but it did leave me a bit uncertain as to whether we were on the right trial.
As we gained altitude we soon came by snow patches and one final steep section before we achieved the rounded top of Zoa Peak. Once on the top the trail carried on past the seemingly highest point to a cairn on the western edge. There we found a large cairn with a number of spots that camp fires had been built. There were also several trails branching out in various directions leading to clear spots between the trees where one could get a nice view of the peaks in each of the directions. As it was a rounded dome, there wasn’t any single place that offered a 360 degree view. Being tired, we opted to eat lunch before we explored the side trails.
Geoff had brought his single element stove, so while he was setting it up I did do a bit of exploring and found a lovely view of Yak Peak to the south. After gathering a few photos, I returned to Geoff where he had some boiling water for tea and we took a few minutes to enjoy a warm beverage before gathering some snow for the hot dogs. After boiling them for a few minutes we had a warm meal up on the top. The day had actually gotten a bit cloudy and cool at this point and with a fresh wind we were actually getting chilled and both of us put on a jacket! It seems that the heat we had expected had decided to give us a pass. By the time we had finished eating and were ready to move out to explore the side trails, another couple with their dog had arrived, the clouds had gone and the day was suddenly getting hot.
We followed the trails and forged a few of our own paths to locate some good angles at the surrounding peaks. Soon we had gathered a nice collection of photos and decided it was time to start on our way back to the truck. The return hike went well and we made good time along the trail. In the end we traveled 6km on foot, somewhat less than what we were expecting from the notes in the book, but we weren’t unhappy with that but this did leave us with some extra time. So rather than just head back to the highway, we decided to see where the road went. We were curious to see if it connected back to the highway having bypassed the old toll booths. We made our way along the north slope of Zoa Peak and soon were inching through a road with overgrowth encroaching the road. We soon came by a viewpoint of the Coldwater valley below and a well groomed road, we just had to hope our road connected to it. After making our way along and down the slope we finally joined the major FSR. We felt it was getting a bit late to explore this area so we chose to return to the highway. At one point we crossed the river where a number of campers were parked, their two dogs came out and generally blocked our way. One of the campers finally came out and grabbed the offending hound so we could pass without squashing it.
Once on the highway we saw that we were past the tool booth area, so one could indeed have bypassed the toll but the cost of travelling the side road would have made it uneconomical. We soon were back at the Blue Moose Bistro in Hope ordering a nice latte and then on the road to home. It was a good hike for us, we enjoyed the scenery and also not having to kill ourselves on extended steep slopes. In seeing Yak Peak just to our south, we felt called to try it next season. It looks challenging but should be one we could achieve, so the first of next year’s peaks has been identified – only two more to find.