ASCEND & WANDER

Leaving Tally outside the Birkenhead Provincial Park gate at the start of a spur road I opted to walk the road instead of taking our chances at the official 2WD staging area further up. I had parked here during my Winter trip to the area in years prior. We were sharing the cabin with a VOC student trip and they had staged Evos further up the logging road.  Stoke level is high  One of the many slide paths on the approach  We hit snow around 1600m this time of year  Hiking the outskirks of Long Lake  Brian Waddington Cabin I think a few months later this season the roof had collapsed and the VOC sent an urgent repair crew to fix it. Wish I had been a part of that... \ Exploring the terrain west of Mount Shadowfax Cool evening up there The approach was steep and overgrown but likely completely covered in winter Next morning we went further west of the cabin to the col between Mt Galdolf and Frodo Mountain. Indeed would be a great place to ski... Quick stopover for ...

  The hike around Devil's Dome in the North Cascades has been on an old outdated list of mine for a decade now. Upon further investigation this time in the summer and fall of 2022 I realized that the section of the loop that goes through the Pasayten Wilderness is actually part of the long distance Pacific northwest trail. Which then made me remember that 'Kindle Ninja' from Arizona completed this long distance route a couple weeks after our time together on the AZT.  We had managed to squeeze 3 full days off in the unusually warm, dry and smokey October month. The new day in the annual calendar called National Truth and Reconciliation Day may have helped facilitate this. Forecast was clear so we loaded up backpacks and drove south across the border to the little town of Marblemount to get permits for this hike. The elevation gain from valley bottom into the alpine was planned for a long day 2 so camping the first night was on a beach in the Ross Lake National Rec Area. I t...