Hammer Lake Spring(?) Hike
There are so many beautiful places in the world and these are what I get to look at.
This is a short spring hike I did the other day with a buddy who recently moved back to the valley. The goal was simple - get out for a couple of days to give our gear a shakeout.
The trailhead is 24km (15 miles) from my doorstep; 2 miles from my door to the Forest Road and then 13 miles up it.
Since it is still transitioning to spring, we couldn’t drive all the way to the trailhead. We parked and started hiking at about 5pm, with the first 2 miles on the Forest Road with some good views.
Once we hit the trailhead it wasn’t long until we ran into snow and by half way up the mountain it was all snow.
(Sorry I couldn't rotate the photo)
(Acting like Tourists)
We decided to camp at about 8:15 pm, ate and yakked then went to bed. (Good thing I talked him out of tenting.)
Next morning woke to light drizzle and a couple of small avalanches on the other side of the valley. We ate breakfast and then set out looking for a crash site. There is a Google Earth image of a plane in the top end of the valley, and a fellow who did crash somewhere there in the 80s so we hiked to the coordinates to have a look. No wreckage found, it might have been a real plane flying through that pass when the GE image was taken. We are going to do some research and go back to look more when the snow is gone. We hiked back to camp for late lunch, then broke camp and made the hike back out to the truck.
Overall it was a great shakeout trip, short and not too difficult. Total trip was only about 10 miles and about 1500 feet elevation gain. My pack was 21 lbs with bear spray (yes the grizzlies are out) and winter UQ. I had a couple of pounds extra that I did not need and I am working to get lighter.
Cheers
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