“Not all those who wander are lost…”
Last weekend was a hell of a weekend. As usual, we hauled our now-rapidly growing family up the Hurley Forestry Service Road north of Pemberton, BC, which leads to a small town called Gold Bridge, for an overnight backpacking trip. We were last here during an epic camping trip that took us over 9 hours each way to get to. Have you ever seen Cabin in The Woods? That was almost nearly our experience in that one (in our heads, anyway). I’ll talk about that one another day.
This time, we stopped about 10 km into the road. Because this hike is not in a provincial park or anything official in that sense, there was no actual parking lot–just a small section off the side of the road where cars can park. We were able to fit Badger, our GMC Acadia. This is the first overnight trip we’ve taken Badger in–last year, our car was a 2003 Pontiac Vibe GT, Patches. While Patches was a great car, she had always made us nervous on forestry roads after that one time we got stuck in Merritt. I’ll talk about that one another day, too.
So our party of seven went up–seven people, that is. We also had four dogs with us. The weather was perfect–a bit cloudy, which means I didn’t have to worry about removing my rain shell, but still fair enough.
The hike itself was fairly short although I became very unpopular when the supposedly “easy” hike turned out to be harder than we thought. Sections of it had 45 degree, maybe steeper, slopes, where I had to really use my hiking sticks to haul myself up. Note, though, that I was carrying about 40 lbs of toddler on my back, so someone without a pack would probably have an easier time. There was also some minor scrambling on some rock faces–a feature my daughter greatly enjoyed. Her dad had recently finished Uncharted 4, which she loves to watch, and she was still running on a high.
There were lots to do when we got there. The meadows were accessible, with lots of easy trails leading to higher scrambling and great vantage views. You also get a good view of Train Glacier, complete with a roaring waterfall. We were able to get some awesome selfies, although I warned my cousins that if they went too far the edges and fell to their deaths, I would deny any relation to their broken bodies. I don’t think they took me too seriously…
That night, we also got another, rare treat: a clear night sky where you could see the Milky Way. The last time we had seen this one was the aforementioned almost-disaster at Merritt six years ago.
Do you like sarcasm, drama, and lots of talking before sword fights? Do you sometimes wish your epic fantasy had more feelings? Then please support my hungry brood and give The Agartes Epilogues a try!
