Brew Hut snowshoe trip

March 15-16, 2008

For this year's annual winter overnight backcountry trip we chose Brew Hut, which is located in the mountains on the west side of Highway 99 just about halfway between Squamish and Whistler.

So after breakfast at the Squamish McD's, Jeff, Geri, Scott, Cindy, Pat, Christy and I headed up Saturday morning... thinking that we might be able to drive up the Roe Creek Forest Service Road all the way to the trailhead. But two stuck vehicles later, we discovered that the road was only passable to snowmobiles, snowshoes and skis so we unstuck Jeff and Geri's Toureg and had to abandon Pat's truck which was impossibly stuck in deep snow, hoping that we would be able to get it out the next day. This added about 7 km and 500m elevation to our hike but we thought we were starting early enough to make it to the cabin before sunset. We might have underestimated the trek...

Trekking up the ridge to the hut.
A bright half-moon and a clear sky full of stars made the night-hiking magical!
8 hours later, we arrived at Brew Hut about an hour after sunset.
Good morning in Brew Hut.

The next day involved a lot of sliding back down (we brought crazy-carpets!) and what took 8 hours up only took 3 hours down... and with a little help from some friendly snowmobilers, we got Pat's truck unstuck and made it home safe and sound. Good times. :)

Hawaii

February 13-21, 2008

Hawaii - The Big Island
After discovering that Christy's backpack had mistakenly flown to Kauai all on its own, we picked up our rental car at the Hilo airport and killed time until the backpack arrived with a sidetrip to the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory. Mmm...free samples!

On our second day we drove to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and set out on a trek across barren lava fields to the oceanside beach oasis of Halape.

Our tent at Halape.

Halape beach (almost all to ourselves). The Halape "Guardian" overlooking the sea turtle nesting beach.
Green Sea Turtle (we saw a lot of these guys!)

Self-explanatory sign

The aforementioned "dangerous gas" - We did keep our car windows closed but we actually saw a couple of people hiking through this area - yikes!

Snorkelling in Kealakekua Bay.

The Pu'uhonua o Honaunau Place of Refuge - an ancient Hawaiian religious sanctuary. Christy at Pu'uhonua o Honaunau
Our gecko friend on the kitchen wall of our B&B.

On our last day we drove up to the top of Mauna Kea (13,796 feet, highest point in Hawaii) where there are several huge domed astronomical observatories. The high elevation and thin air can make your head a little dizzy but it didn't stop two guys from snowboarding down the snowy volcano slopes!

Aloha!