Thought I would share some pictures from my solo trip over 5 days. I look forward to these solo trips as I can do whatever I want at my leisure and at my own whim. I also get a chance to test some new gear, work the kinks out of some existing gear and as always, find a few things that need to be improved, changed, added or deleted. In any case, it was great and rewarding time by all measures and I am looking forward to my next solo full week solo in just over a month from now.

1) First night camp. For years, this is my usual stopover spot when traveling in this particular area. It is fairly well hidden and the short trail in, is not on any map that I have ever seen. The campfire ring has been there for about 10 years perhaps longer and although I have a love/hate thing with stone campfire rings, I will usually make use of it, however I will not make a new ring just for the sake of having a fire. There is just enough room here for a small tent and thats about it.




2) Night time on the river. This was around 9:20 pm.



3) Just after day break, around 6:10 am.



4) Some scenery in the area that is accesible by old FSR roads then hiking up to. This high country sees snow on the ground until August. The snow on many of these surrounding mountains though is year round.



5) The other side of the pass at about 3400'. This is the same pass I wrote about in a post here a few weeks ago.



6) The .gov and forestry service provide rudimentary and bare bones campsites. Many times, it may just be a fire ring and spot for a tent. One good thing about many of these campsites is that they are isolated and see little to no people at all. This particular camp just had a fire ring and a spot for the tent. Without building a large fire, the grill is too high to be all that effective so a little improvising helps to lower the kettle to be much closer to the flame.



7) Another camp spot. I had hiked up an old and overgrown trail(s) to this spot. It was almost 3 hours of sweat filled exertion that I would not want to do again...I pitched camp here in an old fire break which was exposed to the hot sun (around 90F) but had a nice breeze to keep the mosquitoes mostly at bay. The only other choice would be to find a shaded area in the trees but be eaten alive...In any case I rigged up the sil-tarp and I always carry 100' of nylon rope which comes in very handy when there are no nearby tie down points. I then put some surveyors tape on the rope to make it more visible so that I did not close-line myself in the dark if and when I got chased by a bear, sasquatch or a couger...and I am not referring to the 4 legged cougars.



8) The view from here was great. This is the front view. Notice the dark clouds rolling in? That was another reason for the sil-tarp as it did rain later that day.



9) Backyard view facing roughly NE.

10) That night was cold and went down to almost freezing by morning. My lightweight sleeping bag was barely adequate and I woke up more then once because I was cold, however once I added a sweater and wool watch cap, I slept fine. By 9:00 am, it was again warm enough to wear shorts and a t-shirt.
With the cold temps that morning, the MSR Pocket Rocket frosted up after only about 3 minutes and that canister was still 3/4 full.



11) Needless to say, after the trail trip the day before, on Monday morning, I walked the FSR down which was a lesurely 5 mile jaunt, I stopped at this outcropping and think that with the view, this would be a very good place for a camp as there is a couple of flattish spots for a small tent. Then again, I would be concerned that rolling off the cliff face would hurt just a little bit...



12) Looking in the other direction. This is the same river as in the first picture. My first camp is way down around that bend always.


13) My last full day out and went up to this area. This landslide here which occurred in Aug 2010 (There is a post here on this forum) was at the time, the 2nd largest in Canadian history. One year later after more research and study, some say it should be considered the largest. In any case, I was completely awe struck by the size of the debris field and the first words that came to my mind was "unbelievable devastation." I spent a few hours out in the debris field and these pictures in no way give a true sense of the sheer size and scope of the debris field. What you see here is the front end of the debris. In behind the mountain in the first picture is the true nature and scale of the slide. Due to time constraints and not being properly equipped, going up and around the mountain to the right in the first picture for a closer look was not contemplated and I will save this for another visit perhaps later this month.





16) Looking down river. The debris field is an extremely hard surface, however with the loose rock on top, it makes for treacherous walking at times and a few slips while wearing shorts can play havoc on the legs...ask me how I know.



17) There is a forestry campsite right beside the landslide. Here I took a break from being out on the debris field and had some lunch and tea.

18) My Primus LITECH pot and LITECH kettle are 2 of the best investments I have ever made when it comes to hiking kit and I cannot say enough about them.



19)While waiting for lunch, I noticed the tree with what we call "Old Man's Beard" or "Goats Beard."



20) Whatever it's real or proper name, I just know that it makes excellent fire tinder and burns very rapidly. In this case, it started to burn my fingers so I let it go and still managed to get a good photo.



Found some Huckleberries for lunch desert and made sure I left plenty for the bears. (This is prime black and grizzly country and there is sign all around.)



After lunch I went back out into the debris field and took a few more pictures. By this time, I realized that I was the only person up here and being out in the debris field really gave me a sense of in the big scheme of nature, how small and insignificant we really are



I sadly had to leave and return home but I was able to spend one more night to enjoy one more campfire and a few more cups of tea.

Just lovely. I'm glad you enjoyed your trip.

Old Man's beard also makes a great substitute for TP btw.

I am also a really big fan of that album of Blue Rodeo... I've listened to it over and over on some road trips.

I sure would not use that Old Man's beard seen in that picture for TP. It has the texture and feel of dried straw...even when wet. There are other moss that is much softer and does make a good substitute for TP.

Good catch on the BR album name, I was not sure if someone would recognize it or not! I heard one of the songs from the album on the way home and the name kind of stuck when I was thinking about the title for my post here earlier.

Thank you for sharing. The pictures were great!

Great post and spectacular pictures as always.

As a flatlander where even many and close contour rings on the topo map never add up to more than 350', I rarely get to see such landscapes.

Thank you for sharing the photos.

Cool pictures and a great trip.

Very nice post, photos and album. Thanks for sharing and refueling the daydreams.

Wow, looks like a fun trip. Great photos.