Adventure on Alice Ridge

AUGUST 4 - 5, 2007

This hike ended up being much more of an adventure than I anticipated - check out the video at the end of this blog entry...

Paolo got sick at the last minute so after much contemplation, I headed up to the mountains on my own at 2pm Saturday afternoon. Two sweaty hours later, I was at Elfin Lakes which were still frozen over (a lot of snow on Paul Ridge too) and the bugs managed to maintain squadron-force numbers even in August!

Elfin Lakes

I filled my water bottles and headed up to the Columnar-Gargoyles saddle (photo above) where I was greeted by the view of a massive snowfield all the way to Little Diamond Head. My plan was to scout a route down Alice-Cheekye Ridge, so after crossing the snowy slopes of Little Diamond Head, I made camp just below treeline on the ridge where I enjoyed a magnificient sunset... and a visit by a black bear that evening! He didn't get too close but close enough to keep me wide awake for a while that night.


On Sunday, I headed down towards the Cheekye River to see if I could find a route down, across the river and make my way up to Brohm Ridge and hike out to Garibaldi Lake following a similar route I hiked last September... but after 5 hours of serious bushwhacking I was thwarted by steep cliff after steep cliff above the Cheekye River. Expecting to reach the Cheekye River to refill with drinking water, I didn't bring enough water and soon ran out on my climb back up to Alice Ridge: a 600-metre straight up, exhausting, leg-cramping slog... pulling myself up on tree roots and shrubs while using my ice-axe as an anchor in the ground of the steep slopes.


-Phew-

I returned to the top of the ridge by 3:30pm and proceeded to melt 3 litres of snow to rehydrate while feeling soundly defeated with my effort to get down to the Cheekye River. My route-finding expedition would have to continue on another trip... so I began my impromptu descent off of Alice Ridge towards Alice Lake... and that's when I walked right into the T-rex nest.

I was bushwhacking along Alice Ridge when all of a sudden I smelled the distinct and strong odour of animal... and then pile after pile of fairly-fresh bear scat... I started talking out loud and making my presence known... I broke through some trees into a clearing (aka "the nest") and right in front of me was a half-eaten deer carcass... and much more bear scat... scared as hell I walked past the dead deer, talking out loud every step of the way, holding my ice-axe in the "ready" position. I never did see another bear but I was paranoid for quite a while as I bushwhacked down off of the ridge towards Alice Lake.


I found the old, overgrown trail (indicated as a dirt road on the old topo map) about 30 minutes from the nest and hoofed it the remaining 15 or so kilometres to Alice Lake by 8:30pm, where I called Christy to come pick me up... exhausted and beaten... quite the adventure. We drove through the Wendy's drive-thru on the way home so the trip wasn't a complete loss. Good times. :)