Last weekend we went on a two day hiking trip to the Semaphore Lakes area. The original plan was to go to Vancouver Island to visit our friends Jan and Warrick, but this didn’t work out, and they agreed to come over to the mainland instead. Our friend Michelle also joined us, freed from her two young kids for the first time in four years. We left Vancouver at 5am and made good time to Pemberton where we filled up gas at an exorbitant price. From there we drove another hour on logging roads high up into the mountains to Railroad Pass. Just as I stopped the car to check…

Maya and I were entrusted with entertaining our friend Yaron for two weekends while his wife and children were away. Last year we had spent a long weekend in the South Chilcotin, and I was just waiting for an excuse to return. It also seemed like snow levels would be lower there and we could actually do some early season scrambling. We decided to make it into a long weekend by taking off the Monday too, preparation for the next weekend: the super long weekend (Sat-Tue) for Canada Day. We left Vancouver at 5am and made good time to Pemberton. From there we drove 60km on gravel roads following the…

Over the BC long weekend Maya and I spent three days backpacking in the South Chilcotins, located about 5 hours north of Vancouver. We left Vancouver at 4am, just like an alpine start. There was no choice really, since we wanted three full days. The roads were empty and quick, but even before 5am there was a line at the ferry terminal at Horshoe Bay. Just after Pemberton we got on the Hurley Forest Service Road and set in for about 50km of bumpy gravel road. The road is maintained and totally passable in a regular car. There are great views from the road down to the L-shaped Downtown Lake…