The boys are back... at Elkcoholic Mountain

It is a wonderful Saturday morning and I am feeling a little lazy since the alarm already went off, what feels like hours ago and I am still in bed. I hear knock, knock, knock come from my phone. I knew who it was and hoping that he was not already here. I look at time, only five twenty-seven, is he already here? I read the text, “want any beers” a sight of relief, I've still got time. I responded with, “maybe one” but seriously does he even need to ask, after all we were heading to Elkcoholic Mountain.

I jump out of bed, already thirty minutes behind schedule and furiously start getting ready. The weather was looking nice outside so I put on my bright green shorts and gray Frosty shirt should keep me cool and keep the sun from burning me. I was smart enough to pack up the essentials the night before but still have to get some food ready. So I put on an episode of How I Met Your Mother and started with my nutrition for the day. On today's menu, a couple of fruit pouches from the baby food section, quinoa energy balls and a BBQ chicken warp. (yes I failed again at being a vegetarian but for goodish reasons). As I put the warp aside to cool, I realize that I am running out of time and Dustin will be here soon, so I started getting things out for breakfast when the phone rings.

I answer, “are you here already?”

Dustin, “nope, I'm at A&W, want anything?”

Me, “shit, just about to make breakfast..ummm, fuck it, bacon & egger with a hashbrown. Thanks buddy”

A sign of relief that I have everything ready and don't need to worry about breakfast. Just as I finish cleaning up, I hear Dustin pulling up in the back. I run down to the garage to let him in.

Dustin, “can I borrow your flask?”

Me, “of course, what do you have?”

Dustin pulls out a bottle of Glenfiddich.

Head up to the kitchen to get the flask filled up and have our breakfast. As soon as I was done eating I decided to make a couple extra sandwiches for the day. Doubled check our bags to make sure we didn't miss anything and we piled into the car and hit the highway towards Chilliwack. The drive was uneventful as there were many police type people on the road pulling over speeders, of course I never speed so I had nothing to worry about.

By eight in the morning we were parking at the trail head, already there were 3 other cars there, wondering how many have spent the night up on Elk. The air outside was crisp as we start heading up, which did not last long. I was all warmed up within a couple minutes. Just ahead of us were a couple of guys who started maybe 5-10 minutes ahead of us, but in no time we closed the gap and passed them. I marched along to the service road while Dustin sprinted up the hill. I could hear him yelling down at me.

Dustin, “Jr where are you?”

Me, “I'm down here, you're up there”

At the service road there were several vehicles parked up there also. I guess there are more then I originally though. We continued along the way with little peeks towards the valley and every once in a while I hear something like, “come on jr, pick it up” Our usual time up to the mountain is between a hour and a hour-fifteen and today we were at the flag within a hour-ten. Chilliwack search and rescue was there; we did not bother to investigate what happening, since we were at the top of Elk and it was beer o'clock.

Looking towards the West

Chilliwack Search & Research, checking out the valley

We slowed our pace at this point as it was time to celebrate, thanks for the beers Bayly. (I found out on Sunday that although Dustin took credit for bringing the beers it was Bayly who bought them) And of course Dustin pulled out the scotch. We meandered along the trail talking about the old times and planning new adventures. Until we got to the false summit of Thurston, here we spent a bit of time fiddling with my camera and fueling up.

Looking South East, just after Elk Mountain

Climbing toward Thurston's false peak

Elk Mountain, far right peak just behind the trees

Mount Thurston on the left just above the white stuff

Looking down the steep slops of the ridge

After the false summit is where things started to get interesting. The snow began to get deeper, with a hard icy layer on top and a soft powder layer below. As you can imagine what that was like, every step was a mystery. Sometimes sinking ankle deep, sometime knee deep and the occasional falling in. We continued on until we arrived at a beautiful viewpoint where we flatted out the snow and sat down for some more fuel and to assess the situation. It was nice in the warm sun, with mountains as far as the eyes could see. As we were decided if we should continue, neither one of use really wanted to turn around and unless it was unsafe, we saw a decent route and marched forward. 

Snow field fun

Marking our own markers for the return route

Snowshoes would of been a good idea

Dustin far behind for once

We continued on at a slowish pace, there was not much to tell since we were just route finding in the snow between sections of the trail that were on the south side of the ridge. It took us a mind blowing two hours thirty minutes to cover just over three kilometers and make it to Mount Thurston. This is where Dustin decided for both of us that it's time to head back. To be honest, I was ready to head back also but did not want to let Dustin know that.

On the way back, we bad good time since we had tracks to follow and knew the deep sections, were made it back to Thurston's false peak which had more humans on that peak then I have ever seen. I usually see only one other human on this peak. But no time to chat, we were almost out of food and still very hungry. We kept up a decent pace between running and walking.

Our own trail markers

My surveying the situation pose

Somewhere in that snow field is our footprints

If you look carefully you can see our route

Almost back at Elk, time to pick up the pace

As soon as we got to the Elk mountain flag, we picked up the pace downhill. Dustin had the hard decision of waiting every little bit for me or run down to the car and wait a long time :)He choose the former. I had a tough time getting up to speed with a little bit of pain in my knees. I switched between walk and run, but by the time we hit the service I was getting a little little frustrated with my lack of speed. But I kept on smiling, even when we passed a couple going up asked, "How's it going?"

I responded with, "can't complain"

Dustin chimed in with, "don't listen to him, he's been complaining the whole way down."

Now I was starting to get mad, and in getting mad I thought of this image:

So I followed the advice of the internet got mad that I was tired and hit it harder, and to my surprise the knees were not giving me any issues any more. On the way down we ended up running into a group of friends from work that did Elk and there we a large group of ladies near the end which I greeted with, "Hello ladies" as Dustin and I raced to the race. First on to touch the car wins, guess who won, yep Dustin. In just over hour and a half we made it back to the car, our total time was just under 5 hours. We stopped off at White Spot for some much needed food and headed home to call it a day.

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Sunday morning the alarm goes off at five and I am thinking, can I stay in bed for a little longer? No not today, I hand an ambitious plan to to a lap or two of Diez Vistas. Funny thing about plans as you'll soon see.

Getting ready was easy, I had everything prepared the night before pizza and a veggie warp. Today I was going light, waist pack with two handhelds. Quickly had a liquid breakfast (leftovers from a failed attempt at using liquid meal replacements for trail running), made my fruit smoothie and hit the road.

I was at Buntzen Lake by eight and got a prime parking spot just in front of the trail. I started off slow with slow jog all the way to the south bridge before starting the climb up to the first vista. As I started to climb, I could feel I was dehydrated from yesterday's adventure and I was already struggling. I decided to just take the day as it goes. About forty-five minutes into my day, I hear voices above me. I decided it is time to pass this guys ahead of me. It took me awhile before I got a glimpse of one of them. I just put my head down and power hiked until I caught up to them just as they were about to stop and take a break.

One of the guys asked me, "where you here last weekend?"

I could not remember at the time if I was I responded with, "probably"

I wish them a good day and head over to the first look out point. It was just a quick stop before I continued on to the first Vista. There I stop to have my wrap and some water, but before I knew it; I finished all my food and was still hungry. So I made the smart decision to call that my breakfast spot and time to head back. It was a relaxing thirty minutes to myself up there. Then I suspected that people would be up here soon enough so I started to make my way down.

Sure enough within ten minutes, I came across a couple of runners. I took it leisurely all the way to the spot where I passed the guys and picked up the speed. I was able to maintain some solid speed all the way to the power lines. There is a trail marker there that says Buntzen lake, sixty minutes. I am thinking, there is no way it would take that long to get to the lake, so I timed myself. It was an easy eighteen minutes to the lake and twenty-three minutes to the car. That was the end of my day. I headed home to have some liquid refreshments.

My morning view

About an hour later

Breakfast spot, the first Vista (I think)