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 Satirical photoshop junkie who frolics in the mountains of the Chilliwack River Valley
THE GREAT OUTSIDE
Canada
5616 Posts |
Posted - 07/25/2004 : 10:13 PM
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Objectives:
1. Get to Lower Hanging Lake
2. Establish a useable trail to the Lake
Trail Distance: 7 km
Elevation Gain: 750 metres (net gain)
Participants
-BillyGoat
-Exscape
-Blackfly and willy
-Scarambler
-Bishop and bishop
-Aqua Terra
We met at the Tim Horton's just off the TransCanada at 06:00. By 08:00 we were at the end of the Chilliwack River Road at Depot Creek and ready for action!
We began our hike by accessing the Upper Chilliwack River Eco Trail, and hiked up that for about 45 minutes. There is no defined crossing for access to the Hanging Lake trail, so it involves a bit of guesswork to know where to cross, and then bushwhack in the 300 metres or so to reach the old Hanging Lake trail.
Here's a couple pics from the eco trail:
  
That last picture was where we were headed. the lake is below those peaks in the background.
Eventually, we found a good place to cross the river that wasn't so deep
 
There was a lovely little beach on the other side, so we took a bit of a break there. We knew we had overshot the trail, and that we would have to backtrack a bit, so after a bit of a break, we were on our way.
After close to half an hour, we got to Hanging Creek, which was a bigger creek than we thought, so we had to cross it, since we knew the trail to be on the other side. Fortunately, there were a number of logs we could use as a dry crossing.
 
Soon after, we found the trail, some 200 metres from the creek
Unfortunately, close to two hours was wasted in finding the trail. We should have crossed the Chilliwack River somewhat earlier. However, we were now on the right track!
Shortly into our trek up the trail, we came across what we believe to be the giant Cedar that Randy Stoltman talks about in his "Big Trees of Southwestern B.C," book; as this tree was near the bottom of the hanging lake trail, and there was a giant boulder right beside it, as described in the book. It's a truly impressive tree!
 
There are many giant trees on this side of the river. I believe there's even more giant trees on this side than on the eco trail side; and the hanging lake trail side is definitely more pristine in nature.
So now we're beginning our ascent! At 750 metres, we come alonside of Hanging Creek, and notice that the trail continues on the other side of the creek, yet there is no way across the creek at this point, so we had to bushwhack our way up another 30 metres of vertical to find a safe place to cross. We found one at just under 800 metres.
We crossed the creek and easily found our way back to the original trail, which is still in relatively good shape at this point. Our alternate creek crossing route has been cleared and flagged, so it should be easy to find.
From here, the trail rises steeply for a good 100 metres of vertical.
At roughly 900 metres elevation, you enter the infamous "bush bowl" 
It was here that we encountered some of the thickest brush anyone of us have ever had to hack through. We had three people hacking full-time, and two people were flagging. Notice the island of trees in the center part of the picture.
It was 2:30 in the afternoon when we entered the bowl.
 We hacked our way to a small boulder field. You can see the trees where we entered the bowl in the background. It took us two hours to reach this point from those trees. We eventually
made our way to the island of trees; hoping to pick up the original trail once again. We found it quite easily crossing the upper portion of the tree island, and so we followed this trail to it's exit point on the far end of the tree island.
From here, the trail seemed to rise straight up, and so we whacked our way along to what we figured was the original trail. Keep in mind that the bush here is extremely thick, and any trail that was around had become severely overgrown; kinda like this:
We eventually lost the trail, and we knew that we were in for a veeeery long bush battle if we were to try crossing the bowl, so we decided to continue heading straight up to what appeared to be a promising gully that we could ascend and perhaps skirt the bowl from above
We eventually found this to be too dangerous, as the gulley got too steep, and the ever increasing danger of loose rocks tumbling down on the group below became apparent. It was now 6:45, and we came to the conclusion that we should return to the tree island and look for a place to camp for the night. Fortunately, we found a lovely campspot at the lower end of the tree island that would accomodate our tents. It's in a lovely stand of old growth forest, and the creek is very close by. It truly is a beautiful place to camp.
 
It was our intention to make it to the lake on the first day, but alas, we had run out of time, and what's more, there was an aweful lot of work that had yet to be done if there was any hope of us making it to the lake. Stay tuned....
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"That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable" |
Edited by - BillyGoat on 07/26/2004 8:37 PM
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double-double seeking, snow-chasing, short-cutting, vertical feet collector
Vancouver, BC
Canada
4402 Posts |
Posted - 07/25/2004 : 10:21 PM
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spectacular pictures ! spectacular story!
more! more! more!
cheers - C Wall
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Weather forecasts are horoscopes with numbers |
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12 Posts |
Posted - 07/25/2004 : 10:40 PM
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| MORE!!!! MORE!!!!! |
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Trail running, bike hucking, fast packing, beer drinking collector of pine cones on a day pass
AKA
Dances with Trees
Forest Gnome Cabin
Canada
11093 Posts |
Posted - 07/25/2004 : 11:23 PM
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Awesome tale,hard work.Nature doesn't want to surrender that part of the world Cheers to you all,nice job! |
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Manitoba's misadventurin' bushwhackin', dog sloggin', dehydratin', beer drinkin' biggie - who's eager to peak bag Mt Currie in a dress
Squamish
4700 Posts |
Posted - 07/25/2004 : 11:25 PM
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Excellent report so far BillyGoat!
You even have me sitting at the edge of my seat clicking "Newest posts" to see what happens next! |
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chwk, bc
Canada
168 Posts |
Posted - 07/25/2004 : 11:31 PM
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| thats one bigass tree |
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 | DW2
Senior Member
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West Coast, B.C.
1325 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 01:27 AM
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| If I hadn't already committed to Cathedral when your up there I'd have loved to have joined you on this one. I haven't been to Hanging lake since the '80s, before the bridge at Sappers Park was removed. It was tough then, must be brutal now. Oh well, I thought it sucked when the bridge was removed, we lost a trail-but gained a piece of lakefront, no more buildings on wheels parked on the sand at the south end of Chilliwak Lake. Once you reach the lake if you have some scrambling skill you can do a cool traverse up to Lindeman Peak, along to MacDonald, and down the Radium trail. |
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| Terra
Intermediate Member
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Never-Never Land, B.C.
Canada
720 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 05:55 AM
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Fabulous reporting so far BillyGoat!!!
Now I know what the kids feel like when they are waiting for the next Harry Potter novel to be published.
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A sensitive plant in a garden grew, And the young winds fed it with silver dew,
And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light, And closed them beneath the kisses of night.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley~
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Outdoors addicted flyfishing, skiing, snowshoeing, hiking car crooner and resident motormouth
Da'Wack, BC
Canada
3909 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 07:47 AM
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Stay tuned folks! I have this funny feeling that Part 2 will be posted sometime today Of course, and I believe I can speak for all of us, Day 2 was by far the longest and most emotionally challenging day. Hmmmm perhaps it deserves two parts in and of itself
And I wanted also say, what a fabulous team! Everyone was top notch, endurance and strength of mind and spirit were abundant on this trip! And though we all had our low points, I must say I am very proud of what we accomplished together. I look forward to hiking with you all again in the future. |
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Grouse Grinding, GPS carrying, lawn chair packing, bike riding North Shore tech addict who stares at Crown Mountain from his office window all day
North Vancouver
Canada
1857 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 09:09 AM
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Nice report! I'll definately be tuning in later for part 2!
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Herbal tea drinkin, tree huggin, view seeking, tortoise paced, ultralite wannabe
Vancouver, BC
Canada
2780 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 10:59 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by exscape
And I wanted also say, what a fabulous team! Everyone was top notch, endurance and strength of mind and spirit were abundant on this trip! And though we all had our low points, I must say I am very proud of what we accomplished together. I look forward to hiking with you all again in the future.
I want to second that I would go anywhere with these folks anytime. 
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HikeOn,
Rich
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Satirical photoshop junkie who frolics in the mountains of the Chilliwack River Valley
THE GREAT OUTSIDE
Canada
5616 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 11:27 AM
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"And there shall be great tribulation; such as has never been seen before, or will ever be seen again...men (and women and dogs)will be fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming..."
Matthew 24:21, Luke 21:26.
A couple of bible verses that were floating around in my mind for most of day 2, which perhaps is a good way to sum up much of what went on in our second day.
On our first day, we had spent nearly 12 grueling hours of bushwhacking, route-finding, enduring cuts, scrapes, devils club thorns, near misses from falling rocks, precarious creek crossings and the like. At camp that night, we were all very tired and feeling a bit dejected since we didn't make our destination that day.
Now today, the second day, would decide whether we would be successful or be forced to admit defeat. We had decided the night before that our best chance of success would be to attempt the lake as a dayhike; therefore significantly reducing our pack weight. We would leave camp set up as is and return to it that evening; either victorious or defeated.
We were camped in an old growth oasis amidst an ocean of unforgiving
devils club, alder, vine maple, and salmonberry bush; most of which was taller than we were. We knew from the day before that we had at least started out on the original trail from the island of trees, as the original trail when amidst forest is marked by those florescent orange squares.
It looked to us like the trail went straight uphill for abit from the island of trees, and then turned right near a large fir and began heading back up the bowl towards the falls. And so we began our bushwhack at 9:15 AM in hopes of still being able to make it to the lake.
Looking at the steep wall where the falls came from, we figured that the original trail went to the right of those falls; possibly in the grove of trees to the right of the boulder gulley/ avalanche chute.
Our plan was to thrash our way steadily back towards the creek and cross it opposite of the small gulley that you can see below the grove of trees to the right of the falls. We figured this gulley might be easier to make our way through; as it contained small boulder fields that would make for easier passage.
Progress was very slow however; much like it was the day before. we were measuring progress not in kilometres per hour, but in hours per kilometer. It was sunny and getting increasingly hotter as well. We began at 930 metres, and the lake lay at 1375 metres; still plenty of ground remained to be covered. Blackfly and I did most of the preliminary bushwhacking, and Aqua Terra did further bush clearing. The others also helped with smaller clippers; as the salmonberry brush was difficult for machetes to chop down effectively.
  
After some three hours of hard thrashing, we made it to the creek.
We decided to follow the creek upstream a bit, as the going that way looked fairly easy. After some 100 metres or so of following the creek, we came to a beautiful little place that had a fairly good place to cross, and also had a lovely little waterfall with a deep pool at it's base. We wondered if anybody had ever seen this particular spot before, as we were making our own route at this point; not knowing where the original trail was.
  
We were now at the base of the small gulley that would lead us straight up to the grove of trees. We were all getting exhausted, but we pressed on after replenishing our water supply.
The gulley did have some easier breaks, but not nearly as many as we had hoped. Thee were a few groves of ferns that we tried to follow as much as possible, as fern hacking was very easy. We also found that climbing up an old overgrown boulder field also presented challenges such as deep hidden holes, or trying to skirt or go over car sized boulders half covered in salmonberry brush. We were faced with some of the most difficult terrain yet, and the heat of the day was bearing down upon us. Keep in mind that we are also fully clothed with hat, long sleeved shirt, pants, and gloves to protect us from the myriad of thorns and sharp sticks.
We also were beginning to realize that perhaps Hanging Lake was beyond our reach today, and thus we were beginning to face the ever increasing possibility of defeat. We had established a turnaround time of roughly 4:00 pm, as Aqua Terra was the only one who had the presence of mind to bring along a headlamp on the dayhike; therefore, it was all the more important that we left ample time to make it safely back to camp before darkness fell.
We pressed on further straight up; Blackfly and myself taking turns in routefinding and making the initial attack on the relentless brush that lay mercilessly before us.
At around 1:45 PM, we came to a small boulder field where we could make some quck headway for about 100 metres. At the top of this boulderfield was a bit of a flat spot with some shade provided by a grove of alders. Bishop and Aqua Terra had already began to take a lunch break below, and so the rest of us decided that we needed to stop and rest awhile, as we were all feeling quite exhausted at this point.
 Blackfly's dog Willy enjoying a break
 Scrambler and Exscape
 "Men of C.T." Blackfly taking a break
We sat there in the shade overlooking what we had accomplished thus far
A larger pano can be found here:
http://www.billyscape.com/TimsTrips/hanging/panobowl1.jpg
The straight cutline that you can see in the mtns across the valley is the Canada/ U.S. border; which the bowl also straddles.
we continued our rest break; it was now 2:30 in the afternoon. we had entered the bowl yesterday at 2:30 PM, and now we were near the top of the bowl, with old growth forest some 150 metres away. We weren't sure if we would pick up the trail there or not. We were only at 1000 metres; some 375 metres of vertical still to go with many unknowns in between. We were also 1 1/2 hours away from our agreed upon turn around time. Defeat was staring us in the eye at this point.
Bishop radios us from below (we were all carrying FRS radios, which is an essential item for this kind of trip) "What's the plan?" she asks us. We decide that we must at least conquor the bowl, if nothing else. We would press on uphill towards the trees and see what we can find once there. If we find a trail in good condition, we may continue on, but we all knew that time was no longer our friend, and exhaustion was beginning to take it's tool on us all. We were now nearly 5 hours into our second attempt at conquoring this bowl, and we were averaging 3 hours per kilometer. What would be the outcome...I'll post the rest of day two tonight! |
Edited by - BillyGoat on 07/26/2004 11:32 AM |
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Manitoba's misadventurin' bushwhackin', dog sloggin', dehydratin', beer drinkin' biggie - who's eager to peak bag Mt Currie in a dress
Squamish
4700 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 11:42 AM
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I had to sneak away from work to come and check out our progress! Great storytelling, Tim, I'm excited to see what happens!
Back to work for me |
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Cycling guru, Wig wearing, James Bond wannabe, answers to the call of "Eurobabe"
Langley
Canada
1231 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 12:07 PM
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Great trip report so far Tim. You guys rock, even if you didn't make it... staying tuned for the rest of the Epic tale or should that be Epp tale .
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Geez!!! damn pole is stuck again!!!!! |
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challenge seeker, bagless sleeper, bare bones, trail trooper
Abbotsford, BC
Canada
1937 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 12:46 PM
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The best lunch break reading I've had in a long time!
Thanks for sharing your weekend adventure in a well detailed trip report - I too will be checking back for the next instalment. |
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double-double seeking, snow-chasing, short-cutting, vertical feet collector
Vancouver, BC
Canada
4402 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 12:48 PM
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wow, great story telling, and great pictures too!
and shaggy, doncha go introducing spoilers into the story we don't know yet what will happen next
what will happen next? will they make it? will they extend their turn-around time? will any dogs faint from fear (or from the heat)? will they reach the lake?
is there a lake?
[ominous organ music]
stay tuned as another episode of Club Tread Adventures returns after this brief commercial message (aka work)
cheers ! C Wall
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Weather forecasts are horoscopes with numbers |
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 adventure seeking, peak-bagging, high-enduring, strong and silent forest gnome
N49°09', W122°47'
Canada
3814 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 2:52 PM
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Wow - great story so far, BillyGoat. Looking forward to the rest!
LOL - nice one cwall
quote:
Originally posted by seawallrunner
what will happen next? will they make it? will they extend their turn-around time? will any dogs faint from fear (or from the heat)? will they reach the lake?
is there a lake?
[ominous organ music]
stay tuned as another episode of Club Tread Adventures returns after this brief commercial message (aka work)
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Who's yer Gnome!! |
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Herbal tea drinkin, tree huggin, view seeking, tortoise paced, ultralite wannabe
Vancouver, BC
Canada
2780 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 3:14 PM
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OOOOUUUUHHH, you got 'em hooked, BG. Excellent story so far and one of the best pictures of me ever taken, if I do say so myself And I'm not tellin any secrets
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HikeOn,
Rich
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trigger happy, bear bangin', beer swillin', dirt-lovin', event organizin', hell raisin' REDneck
Maple Ridge (Redneckville), BC
Canada
2615 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 3:18 PM
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Great report and effort. You guys all deserve two thumbs up !!!
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"Do, or do not. There is no 'try'."
- Yoda
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Herbal tea drinkin, tree huggin, view seeking, tortoise paced, ultralite wannabe
Vancouver, BC
Canada
2780 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 3:32 PM
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One thing BG hasn't mentioned and I don't think he'll mind my "outing" this is that Bishop had a video camera so she was not only route finding and taping and you name it but she also captured a whack of it on video which Aqua Terra is going to put into some kind of presentation with video and stills. May take a while, though so don't pester him about it yet
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HikeOn,
Rich
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Satirical photoshop junkie who frolics in the mountains of the Chilliwack River Valley
THE GREAT OUTSIDE
Canada
5616 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 3:45 PM
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| Yes by all means the rest of the team can fill in whatever they like up to the point I've been taking the trip report. This evening you will see, "the rest of the story"! |
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Hanging Lake Bushwhackfest...Complete TR
