Good Morning Seymour

BrownDude has been on bit of a spending spree over the last few months and upgraded some camping gear. So what do you do when you have new gear? You get outside and us it. This outing is from back in mid-November, I went out to trying out a new tent, sleeping bag and sleeping pad and what better place then Seymour Provincial Park.

It was around 2PM when I parked the donkey in the overnight lot at Seymour. I looked around and noticed what a beautiful day it was with the sun shining in the backdrop. I got out and took in the fresh crisp air, the storm clouds were to the south east of me, a couple strangers were at the opposite end of the parking lot. They appeared to be having a smoke. I was just bursting at the seams to get going.

After doubling checking my gear, I loaded my 25ish kilogram pack on back and grabbing my snowshoes and got moving. On the way out of the parking lot I stop to chat with the strangers who were visiting from Winnipeg. They seemed to be enjoying what BC had to offer. I wished them a safe and fun trip out in BC and I made my way on to the road to make my way up to the the trail head.

The walk up to the trail head was mostly boring, few cars driving by, some giving me a smile, some a thumbs up and some looking confused. As I passed the parking lot, I scoped out a place to get my snowshoes strapped in and get going on the hike up to first pump.

Once on the trail, I made my way uphill through the forest, there was lots of activity happening at the sky resort, still not open but I could see why, there where some bare spots on the ski runs. I continued forward taking in the views and taking in solitude of the forest. 

I came across the memorial for Tim Jones and paused to pay my respects for a man that I never knew but greatly admire. 

There was much on my mind but I focused on the beautiful views around me, I kept one foot in front of the other and kept on trekking.

It was getting dark really quickly and I was moving very slowly, almost 3 hours had passed, a sense of panic started to overwhelm me. I opted to make camp about 200m from Pump Peak, found a relatively flat spot that felt somewhat protected from the wind. 

I used my snowshoes to level and pack down the snow to make a comfortable base for my tent. The snow was difficult to pack down since it kept crumbling. I had to use my snowshoes and poles as anchor points in the snow. Using the rope I brought up, I tied down the 2 edges still floating to near by branches that were poking out of the snow.

Once the tent was up, I quickly got my bag inside the vestibule and inflated my sleeping pad and got my sleeping bag set up. I took a few steps out of the tent and admired my work. I was proud to say I was setup for the night. 

By this time it felt like the middle of the night, the lights of the city were no longer visible.

One thing I was not short on was food, I brought enough to survive a couple days. So with my tent pitched and sleeping pad and bag setup I opted for some pizza to start. Yeah that's right I brought up a whole large Hawaiian from Panago. 

It was still early in the evening and I decided that I should have some hot chocolate. I setup the stove on the metal windshield that I had to provide a flat surface to place the stove on. As I was boiling my water, I saw a headlamp in the distance making it's way up towards me. 

It turned out to be a runner just doing a night run up to the first peak. I finished up my Irish hot chocolate and crawled inside my tent to read. As the runner was going back down he yelled, "Have a good night!" It would turn out he'd be the last person I would see. 

As I settled in for the evening the wind picked up and mother nature had made her presences known.
 

I felt alone and isolated from the rest of the world. 

Even though bears would be sleeping and no food for cougars up here, my mind ran through ever scenario of what to do if there was bears or cougars up here. I went to sleep hoping I didn't have to find out.

All of a sudden I was wide away, the wind was hollowing and shaking the tent. I could hear the sound of movement but couldn't tell if it was from the wind or someone or something walking around.

I know I had to step out of the tent to brush off the snow from the tent, I bravely put a few more layers and stepped outside. I kept saying, "Please no eyes, please no eyes."

There's noting more scarier then seeing eyes looking back at you in the middle of the night in a remote area. The last time that happened to me was Squamish 50miler were I saw a deer at night staring at me.

I had to get out several times throughout the night, each time at night I would take a look around with hopes that I don't see the reflection of any eyes staring back at me. I'm not sure what I would of done if I did see eyes but I'm glad I didn't have to find out. 

The morning brought white out conditions for me, I didn't bother to stick around and have breakfast. I was expecting about 10-12 cm of snow overnight and I got 30+ cm of snow and lots more snow in the forecast for the day. The ropes anchoring the tent had blowing snow frozen on the line. Ice sheets had formed on the fly and snow had completely collapsed the vestibule facing the wind, luckily for me I didn't have any gear stored there. My boots were totally covered in frost, including the inside.  Everything that was in the vestibule was covered in frost.

It was a quick hot chocolate before I took down the tent and packed up my belongings. The heavy snow forecast for the day had me worried and I opted to get going as soon as possible. 

Once I was on the move, there was no trail to follow. Fortunately for me I am familiar with Seymour and used the terrain to navigate my way back. After about 30 min of steep descents the weather finally improved where viability was okay. Shortly after I came across my first human contact in over 12 hrs. They thanked me for breaking trail for them, I did the same. Their dogs seems to be more interested in frolicking in the snow then me so I continued onwards. 

I was just below Brockton Point when I decided I should finish off my last 2 slices of pizza before continuing. When Colin came around and was heading back towards the parking lot. He had made a trip up to Brockton for some morning coffee. He was welcome company back towards the car and as luck would have it, he gave me a ride back to my car saving me the last km on the road. 

I couldn't have asked for a better outing. That said, I was very happy with my new purchases but know the tent will need to be stronger if I want to wake up on snowy peaks more often.
 

Sadly I missed out on some amazing photo opportunities due to my laziness of not wanting to protect the camera from the snow so I opted to leave it in the dry bag, I guess I'll need to go out again soon to capture some amazing night shots.

 

Till next time, stay safe and happy trails. :)