The Labour day long weekend is usually our last camping trip before back to school. As we had a wedding to attend on Saturday, we did not make plans for any trips with the kidlets. Late Friday night, Jeff and I decided to go backpacking to Mt Cheam on Sunday. The only chance we had to prepare was Sunday morning – the day of. I am not a fan of last minute packing (although I will confess that I’ve done it many times – and then hoping to get some sleep in the plane or truck because I packed late into the night….)
We stopped by MEC at Langley on our way to Chilliwack. While at the store, Jeff realized that he forgot to pack the stove fuel. Ugh. It was pointless to pick up new supplies – he already had 2 canisters at home and it wasn’t exactly an opportunity to upgrade. So, ugh, again, we drove all the way back to Burnaby to pick it up. Well, it wasn’t so bad, I picked up my glasses and changed my top – hate that clingy Nike dri-fit top. (Why did I even wear it in the first place?)
The road to the trailhead is only suitable for 4×4 vehicles – it was a slow go with lots of deep ditches. We saw less-capable vehicles parked on the side – I guess the occupants decided that it was better to hike or hitch a ride up to the trailhead instead of scraping the bottom of the vehicle or lose part of the exhaust.
The hike is considered easy – but when you have a 30lb pack on your bag, it makes it challenging.
Spoon Lake in the background.
We set up in an open area for the night instead of continuing further up the mountain as it was already 4pm and we did not want to set up camp in the dark. We heard that the summit was another 45mins from that point and it would be something we will do the next morning. We also heard about the bears in the area and we did see one rolling down the hill in the distance from our campsite.
Pitched our tent by a pond.. We had neighbours on the other end of the pond
As we were having dinner, our backcountry neighbours emerged from their tent and waved to us. The young man invited us over to their site to start a campfire. Having a campfire in the backcountry is such a treat! We got to know the young couple from Washington and shared stories of adventures and suggested places they should visit.
The next morning we hiked up to the summit. It was cold and windy – sure glad we had our long underwear on! The summit was under partial cloud cover – our view was limited but we could see the mighty Fraser River below.
We were on the summit for less than 10 minutes before it started to snow – guess it was time to hike down! Back at the campsite, we packed the gear and made our way back to the trailhead. There were many people that were heading up for the day, sadly ill-prepared and surprised when we told them it was snowing at the summit.
After the hike we made our way to Cookie’s Grill for brunch. Thank you Google for that recommendation.. Don’t you just love it when you’re at some unfamiliar place and you can depend on Google as a trusted advisor to direct you to a restaurant?
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