Saturday, May 09, 2009
A Magical Hike
We left town at about 6:30pm friday night, drove up to Squamish, and at about 7:30pm, as the sun was sinking in the sky, started off on the trail up to Elfin lakes with our snowshoes. Given that summer is approaching, we in fact had quite a long stretch of daylight left, and were able to see a beautiful sunset over the mountains from up in the subalpine.
Just as the daytime sky was starting to fade, the nearly-full moon rose on the horizon on the other side of the ridge and started to cast our moonshadows on the hillside. We then hiked up to the top of the ridge and continued along with views of the rainbow-coloured fading sunset to the west and a bright moon large on the horizon to the east.
It was a clear and starry night (well, starry as possible, given the brightness of the moon), and we hiked without headlamps. When we got to the Elfin Hut, Vince cooked dinner and we reenergized ourselves to get ready for the next part of the adventure.
That consisted of hiking "[across] unmarked snow" up to a saddle above the hut, then along a couple of ridges to Little Diamond Head - a small summit at the intersection of three strikingly steep ridges perched in the midst of Garibaldi Park. It was really incredible to hike by moonlight up a snowy peak - it looked like we were hiking up into the stars.
We had some tea and Delicious cheesecake for dessert up on the summit but quickly started to get chilled, so we soon descended again. The moon was still large in the sky to our right but as we left the peak, we noticed that a glow was forming on the horizon to the east. By the time we got back to the saddle above Elfin lakes, it was clear that sunrise was imminent, so we decided to climb the eastern side of the saddle, from which we watched the pink moon setting, closely followed by pink rays hitting the mountains around us, and soon the point we were sitting on - the sun rising on a new day.
By the light of the dawn, we hiked back to our tent, set up next to the hut, and settled in for a morning slumber. It felt so luxurious to sleep the morning away, knowing that we had earned it. We hiked out to the car on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Now the question is: what to do with Sunday?
-kat
ps. Unfortunately I left my camera behind for the whole hike up to the peak/sunrise/moonset part of the trip, so I was not able to even attempt to capture those amazing scenes. Here is a small glimpse of a couple of moments on the trip, however:
melty spring snow makes pretty bands
looking for a bite to eat
feeding the wildlife (tsk, tsk)
hikers
Just as the daytime sky was starting to fade, the nearly-full moon rose on the horizon on the other side of the ridge and started to cast our moonshadows on the hillside. We then hiked up to the top of the ridge and continued along with views of the rainbow-coloured fading sunset to the west and a bright moon large on the horizon to the east.
It was a clear and starry night (well, starry as possible, given the brightness of the moon), and we hiked without headlamps. When we got to the Elfin Hut, Vince cooked dinner and we reenergized ourselves to get ready for the next part of the adventure.
That consisted of hiking "[across] unmarked snow" up to a saddle above the hut, then along a couple of ridges to Little Diamond Head - a small summit at the intersection of three strikingly steep ridges perched in the midst of Garibaldi Park. It was really incredible to hike by moonlight up a snowy peak - it looked like we were hiking up into the stars.
We had some tea and Delicious cheesecake for dessert up on the summit but quickly started to get chilled, so we soon descended again. The moon was still large in the sky to our right but as we left the peak, we noticed that a glow was forming on the horizon to the east. By the time we got back to the saddle above Elfin lakes, it was clear that sunrise was imminent, so we decided to climb the eastern side of the saddle, from which we watched the pink moon setting, closely followed by pink rays hitting the mountains around us, and soon the point we were sitting on - the sun rising on a new day.
By the light of the dawn, we hiked back to our tent, set up next to the hut, and settled in for a morning slumber. It felt so luxurious to sleep the morning away, knowing that we had earned it. We hiked out to the car on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Now the question is: what to do with Sunday?
-kat
ps. Unfortunately I left my camera behind for the whole hike up to the peak/sunrise/moonset part of the trip, so I was not able to even attempt to capture those amazing scenes. Here is a small glimpse of a couple of moments on the trip, however:
melty spring snow makes pretty bands
looking for a bite to eat
feeding the wildlife (tsk, tsk)
hikersLabels: adventure
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)