Sunday, July 30, 2017

2017.7.30. Cooper Spur

7/30 Sunday. Sunny and warm. 10 of us in 3 cars drove to Cloud Cap Campground and Trailhead to hike Cooper Spur. Dusty, dusty, dusty! Almost no snow left. Expansive views most of the way (apart from the first mile or so). I was carrying this umbrella most of the time.

We did a loop. The trail goes down a bit to Tilly Jane (~5900') in ~0.5 miles all in the woods. Saw a deer by the trail. Then up and up via Pollalie Ridge (#600) to Timberline Trail. A little over an hour from TH, you emerge from the woods on to open terrain of rock and mini-flowers. Nothing steep, but non-stop uphill. Very exposed. Bring sun protection, and wind break on some days, not needed today. Soon you come upon this stone shelter. A good place to catch your breath, because you're not even half way yet. View is expansive, down to the brown eastern side of Oregon, St Helen, Rainier, Adams are clearly to the north, as well as Cloud Cap Inn where your car is. Plenty of low lying flowers: penstemon, dwarf lupine, yarrow, two kinds of sedum, a bit of phlox. Most prominent is sand and rock. It feels like walking on beach at times.

Continue up, pick and choose boot tracks. There's one track to the left (south) the shelter, that's more prominent than others, which does long zigzags, good for going up. Elliot Glacier has a lot of crevasses. Flowers disappear as you go higher. At the top of the spur, you can see Jefferson clearly. About 8500' now. I had my lunch here and an ibuprofen (I wasn't in the best shape and was in the slower half of the group). All but one of us continued further. It's a flat ridge walk for 100-200m, and then it goes up a bit, until hitting the steep snow. There's a camp site here!

Coming back is fast. After retracing the track back at the end of Top Spur trail, we were able to glissade down on from here for little bit. Slushy snow, so no danger involved. Then we went cross country, aiming at the south bank of Elliot Glacier, or East Moraine trail #600X. It's a nice ridge walk. At the very end, drop down to the woods, and shortly we are on main trail, and almost to the parking lot.

Drove out ~5pm. The 9 mile gravel road is slow and dusty (or it's possible to walk 2.6 miles from the bottom to Tilly Jane, only gaining 1000'). Flowers were blooming profusely along the road amidst burnt trees. Bigger and more colorful (fireweed, lupine and goldenrod). The car I was in headed directly back to Portland, while the other 2 cars went to Hood River for beer and dinner. It takes almost 2 hours to get back to town, with no traffic.

Total about 8 miles, and 3000'.

Sunday, July 23, 2017

2017.7.21-23 Mt Shasta climb

This is an easy outing, long drive, but hard climb and short hike (only 11 mile RT, but 7200' elevation gain). Sunny and warm. More windy than forecasted. I took 诺迪康 pills, that dad bought me from Tibet to help with high altitude.

7/21, Friday. I arrived at Marianne's house by 8:30am, waiting for the other 2 guys. At Lebanon, we picked up Jami, who works in grass farming. She's the youngest at 30. After another gas /coffee stop, we arrived at the ranger station at Mt Shasta, the town, ~3pm, to fill out the climbing permit ($25/pp) and to pick up some poop bags. Had an early dinner/late lunch at Gecko on the main street. 87°F. Drove to Bunny Flat. The road is closed from here. We are taking Avalanche Gulch (summitpost), the most common climbing route, to Mt Shasta. Lots of cars, and many RVs. One guy asked us to jump his car. Quite a number of folks lounged on the benches and enjoyed this view. However, you don't see the summit from here. We spent some time sorting out the gears. Decided to share tents and fuel. So I ditched my 1p tent, fuel, a fleece, and carried Marianne's rainfly. We didn't start hiking until after 5pm.

Very dusty trail. 1 mile (~360') to the only trail junction on this route (turn left to Hidden Valley for climbing Shastina). Horse Camp is 0.7 mile further at 7880'. We called it a day. Quite nice here at the end of the woods. $3/bivy or $5/tent. A stone hut for gathering / shelter, a spring, 2 solar compose toilets (saw dust for poop, tp, sanitizer). Quite a few scattered campsites on flat dirt. Not many people camp here (~5 parties). Almost all dried out. I had to look for snow to bury my sandwiches. The shelter has benches, shelves and posters, but no one is supposed to sleep inside. I found this picture very useful. There's a care taker here. She (Sharon) is very nice. Showed us potential sites. Later I inquired if I'm allowed to sleep on the benches next to the hut, so I don't have to distribute Marianne. She warned me about mosquitoes and traffic in the middle of the night. Both turned out to be true. But not bad. It's close to the water and toilet, which I profited the proximity. The stars were bright, no moon, clear milky way. I went to sleep at 10. Was awaken at midnight by mosquitoes, and by a group of very loud hikers around 2. I took half of melatonin, was able to go back to sleep not long after they left. My phone was giving me trouble.

7/22, Saturday. Sunny. A bit of wind, pleasant. Woke up around sunrise. The sun was behind Shasta. Only the southern sky line was pink. Didn't bother to get up until the care taker came to open the hut. She was pretty quiet about it. She let me use her binocular to look through the window at the climbers above Helen Lake, on their way to Red Bank. I finally managed to poop (after 3 attempts since our arrival yesterday). Changed and packed. Filled water and headed to our camp site to cook breakfast. Used Chatchay's fuel canister, since he was still in the big tent. Marianne was up, reading her Kindle in her tent. They really took it easy. We didn't depart until ~10am. There was this Indian group of 6, two of them wearing jeans, and some never used crampon before. I help one put on a crampon, after it got loose on the hill. I hope tomorrow, I wouldn't be behind them!

The first mile or so is on big rocks laid on the track (these rock steps really mess up your knees, especially when you come down). Dusty trail. 2nd mile is on snow. Not too steep: gaining ~2500' today. There were phlox, paintbrush, heather. Not too many flowers, maybe too dry. I was feeling fine. One guy coming down told me that his group left 4 fuel canisters by the side of the ranger's tent, because they overestimated their consumption. Good news for me.

We arrived at Helen Lake (no lake, or frozen) in less than 3 hours, again, taking it easy. Met Megaman, taking a 0 day on his PCT to climb Shasta. He is doing this as a day hike, in broken running shoes and micro-spikes. No helmet, crampons nor ice axe. He said he walked 28 miles yesterday and 33 miles the day before yesterday. No wonder his trail name is Megaman. After chatting with him, we had to go down a bit to look for campsites on the rocks. The late arrivals camped on the lake. Drank some chai, ate. Pitching the tent took a lot longer. The best sites were taken. Had to make do with limited space and shoveled some rocks. I would have preferred to camp at the lake (on snow). Peter also found dried feces next to his tent in the rocks. Some people are disgusting. I offered to scoop the dried poop away, but I didn't put it in my poop bag. I also saw the 4 canisters outside the ranger's tent. 2 one lb, 2 half lb. I took a half lb canister and melted snow. Later, the ranger hiked up, checked permits and told us where to pee and when to leave tomorrow morning (2-4am).

It was quite warm here. Maybe in the 70°Fs (over the night, it probably didn't go much lower than 50°F). Around 4:30pm, I decided to go up the snow and check out the pee place east of the "lake". It's quite disgusting. People threw toilet paper and got-knows what else in it. There's a rod marking the pit, with a duct taped sign. The next pit is labeled as private place. I guess you poop here and pack your poop. I continued up to the next rock pile. The snow was soft, easy going without crampons. I decided to stay here for a little bit to acclimatize more. I was typing this note, when I saw a guy coming down the snow slope. It was the Megaman. Very nice young man. Didn't mind to chat with me. You can follow him on Instagram. He said he's trying to promote himself into this hiking business. He said he was the first PCT through hiker this year who summited Mt Whitney. He also showed me his broken shoes. After bidding him goodbye, I walked up a bit more before returning to the camp. Marianne was reading in her tent. She had some trouble with her contacts. I gave her my solution, unfortunately not enough left to wash her eyes the next morning. I cooked and changed to sleeping clothes. Just realized that my hiking pants were torn in the butt :(

Went to bed around 8pm. This photo was taken from the tent. My heart rate was registered by my phone at 86 - not good. Marianne left the fly open both nights, so she could see the view. Both nights were warm. However, tonight, it was windier, and we were coated with a layer of fine sand. Despite of taking a 3mg melatonin, I wasn't able to sleep. The tent flapped all night long. I forgot my earplugs in the car. Trying to listen to some podcast, but my phone was giving me trouble. I got out of the tent once around midnight. The sky was not as good as at Horse Camp. Enough light pollution from homes down in the valley.

7/23, Sunday, tough. 2:10am, Chatchay came to wake us up. It was still windy. I didn't mind getting up, but not looking forward to hike 4000' in this wind. Eventually we got up. Marianne was having trouble with one eye. She didn't take my suggestion to wear framed glasses today to let her eyes rest, even though I offered her my ski goggles so she could wear glasses. Eventually, Jami and her decided to stay behind. Chatchay, Peter and I started hiking ~4am. The slope was lit up by many head lamps (see Peter's photo to the right). I actually didn't need mine to see where I was going. I put all my clothes on when cooking breakfast: rain jacket, rain pants, down vest, thermal long underwear. I was afraid that I'd get cold on the summit (forecasted to be in mid 30°F's), so packed my sleeping bag with me. Pretty soon, I had to take off a layer, then another. Problem with gaiters and crampons. It took time to adjust. But I was glad to sit down and take the time, as I was tired quickly, short of breath. The slope is quite steep. The wind wasn't too bad, but still a bother. I also realized that some mice had chewed on my energy bars, leaving 2 holes on one hip-belt pocket, at 10 thousand feet! ~30 minutes into the hike, an India guy, AJ, caught up with us, and asked if we knew the route. Yes, and Chatchay said, that he's welcome to join us. AJ's teammates abandoned the climb yesterday, didn't even make it to Helen Lake. He had to sleep outside without a tent (3 of them shared a tent). He quickly went ahead of me, but not for long. Chatchay and Peter are much faster than I am, and they waited for me every so often. Sun rose when I was still on the gulch, the southern sky was pink, and Shasta's shadow over the valley. A bit of cloud today, so quite pretty. I was wearing ski gloves, so difficult to take photos.

At the Chute of the Red Bank (~2000' above Helen Lake), AJ was so behind that I lost track of him completely. However slow I was, I was able to overtake one roped team. They were roped at about 5' apart, their rope was not sagging. Dangerous being behind them. At the Chute, I really struggled to overtake another roped team, this one on a fixed rope here, as it's very steep. I really dislike them. The Chute is very narrow, so they took up the whole space with good footing, and was very very show. At the top of the chute, I met up with my two teammates. The hard climb is over. But still about 40% to go.

Above the Red Bank is a long upslope of snow. Not so steep, until you reach a flat gravel area. Here, time to take crampons off, and put on more clothes. Be sure to have your mouth covered by thin cloth, so you can breath through it. Very dusty here, due to the wind. Zigzag up the Misery Hill. Afterwards is a football-field-size snow field. An obvious track was beaten through the crusty snow. Flat. Very pretty here, albeit windy. The view is expensive. Even though almost 14000' here, this is the easiest stretch of today. By now, I've put all my clothes back on (except for the rain pants).

At the end of the snow, you'll see about 3 rocky hills. A trail zigzags up one, hard to tell that it's the tallest. On top of this rocky hill, there's a registry in the middle of more rock piles. Met people coming from a different route. Back down where the register is, two rangers were sitting in the shade of the rocks. They were checking permits.

~10am, going down. Much faster, except for the chute: more dangerous. I glissaded before and after the chute. The upper sections were steep enough that I had to use elbow to add pressure slow down with ice ax. My arms were sour 3 days afterwards. Back at camp by noon. Jami and Marianne already packed her tent out, leaving my stuff in Peter's tent. It took him considerable amount of time packing up his 3p tent. I carried the tent body. Yes, there's cell signal on the slope, so we can contact each other. I was way behind even going down. Should have glissaded here too. It's possible to go down on snow much further, but stupid me followed the exact trail as when we came up, mostly on rocks. So, much slower.

After a dinner at the same restaurant, Gecko, we drove back north ~6pm, watching climbing movies. There was traffic on I-5 near Woodburn. By the time I got home, it was past midnight. Exhausted.

Overall a great trip, excellent company. Ski goggles are good in case I had to wear framed glasses. It doesn't fog up, and keeps dust out. Neck gaiters are useful to cover mouth and nose so to block the sand in wind. Should have zipped down the rainfly in wind no matter how warm. Should have brought a thinner sleeping bag, and earplugs. Shouldn't have put rain pants on until ready to glissade. I used one hiking pole and one ice ax going up on the climb day, two hiking poles all other times. Seems to work well. I need more regular aerobatic exercises to build up my heart and lung.

Sunday, July 16, 2017

2017.7.15-16 South Sister Summit

7/15, Saturday. Left after a leisurely breakfast at home for Devil's Lake TH, after a stop in Bend for gas, and a lunch stop at Spark Lake. Tons of people and cars along the gravel road to the boat launch of Spark Lake. The large meadow/swamp by the road is very pretty right now, lushly green, with patches of purple Prunella vulgaris elongata.  A warm day with bright sunshine. No clouds. Temperature ~81°F around 3pm.

A National Forest trailer was parked at the trailhead labeled as "South Sister Summit". A desk with 2 rangers sat under a canopy with a map. To my dismay, they have never hiked this trail this year (probably not ever), so had little knowledge of the condition other than what I can find on the USFS website. They also seem to have little interest asking people who finished the hike about the snow condition. They told me "as of last weekend, Moraine Lake was still frozen solid". Alas, it was completely thawed out, as you can see in the left photo. It's about 2 miles from TH. The next mile is more or less flat. Potential campsites, due to the readily available snow. Bugs were not a concern other than the first 1.5 mile in the forest.

We continued our accent from snow to screen. Wind got a bit stronger. Forecast is 18mph. We decided to setup the camp below the climb to Lewis Glacier, around 8600'. Not a lot of flat space, nor sheltered. My ultralight tent (Flycreek UL2) was blown crooked. The sunset was quite beautiful, even though no clouds to decorate the sky.

7/16, Sunday. Equally warm, and sunny. Got up ~5:30am to catch sunrise. It's even prettier. The lakes down the valley each has its own cloud hovered over. They soon evaporated. Packed up, didn't cook for breakfast. I should have waited sometime before climbing so the sugar could get to my blood. Was laboring even going up to Lewis Glacier. The blue pond looks very inviting, and quite some blooming penstemons. There's a campsite, just on the ridge, but more protected from the western wind than ours. I think it was occupied last night.

Soon I was at where I turned around last summer. Wind didn't abate and it was blowing towards me. I was having hard time breathing, because of the sand was filling my nostril with mucus, and flew into my eyes. Had to turn around often to catch my breath. By the time we reach the crater, the grade eased to flat. It's a football field size flat snow field. I found this flower in the rocks surrounding the snow field. The Teardrop Lake was melting. There's also a tent site protected by a semi-circular rock wall. Soon, you could see the other 2 Sisters, as well as Washington, Jefferson, and maybe Hood. Walking past the white world to the other side, slightly higher. Found an ion rod amidst of rocks, probably an indication of the summit. There's also a small ceramic urn with a piece of folded paper commemorate a lady. It wasn't even 9am.

Coming down is easy, as the wind was behind me. Only managed to glissade two small sections. Visited Devil's Lake (nice green color, a lot of people) before driving back. Stopped at Bend for a lunch at Immersion Brewing. Tried Twisted Sisters (a pale ale) and Heat Wave (a white IPA), liked both. I had beet salad. No beet, but I very much enjoyed it. Got home around 6pm, end of a leisurely paced climbing weekend.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

2017.7.12 Jean Ella Speaks at Lucky Lab Tavern

REI Force of Nature presents Jean Ella, who along with Lynn Wisehart became the first women to hike the Continental Divide Trail in 1978. Jean and Lynn completed the proposed route of the Continental Divide Trail when only 19% of the 3,100-mile distance was termed "suitable for hiking". Little published information was available. No GPS, no weather forecast. They used hand drawn map from the former hiker as well as USGS quadrants. They had to hike through Wind River Range in the dark (colder so they didn't sink as much into the snow). An 11 day rest for Jean's frost-bitten feet to heal. This documentary was played after her introduction. Q&A is followed. I was very interested in knowing her gear. She is 5'3", her pack was 70lb on the snowy sections. They drank the water without filtration or cooking along most of the trail. They never encountered a bear.

I also found Jean's 1976 PCT journal.

Sunday, July 09, 2017

2017.7.9. Coldwater Peak from Johnston Ridge Observatory

7/9, Sunday. Warm but with pleasant breeze. 9 of us (in 2 cars) started at Johnston Ridge Observatory ($8/pp. My America The Beautiful interagency pass allows 4 adults in, and prompted the event organizer to add me to the hike above others in the waiting list). The observatory opens at 10am where you can get a ribbon on your wrist once the fee is paid. Saw a little snake on the pavement. Flowers are in full bloom a mile or two around the observatory, mostly Paintbrush, Penstemon (from pink to deep blue), Lupine (dwarf and broadleaf). Mountain Golden Pea in the parking lot (only), and plenty dandelion-like yellow flower. Higher up, we saw Pasque Flower, Avalanche Lily, Rose Spirea, Valerian. Expansive views, almost no shade, dusty, 2+l water + electrolyte. Wheelchair accessible pavement near the observatory.

After leaving the paved walkway, the trail follows a flowering ridge for awhile and then slowly descend to the basin of dusty pumice plain and leaves most people behind. That's about an hour in. 45 minutes later, you'd reach the trail junction to Harry's Ridge. There you'll start to see Spirit Lake and all the white logs floating on top. Seems more log and less water than what I saw it last. We headed up the hill along Boundary Trail. The view gets progressively better, until the top of this hill. A few snow patches, nothing big. A good lunch spot if you turn around here. From here, loosing elevation, through an ugly stone arch, towards Coldwater Peak. Then zigzag gaining elevation, until you see these big antennas (seismic equipment?). Penstemons here are bright pink. That's about 3.5 hours and 6 miles from TH. We weren't running (as we have a 70-year-old with us), but I still worked up a lot of sweat and feeling very tired when gaining elevation. View is amazing, deep blue St Helens Lake, and the bigger Spirit Lake. Rainier, Goat Rocks, Adams, Hood, and St. Helens.

Return as we came. I slipped on the sand at one point. Didn't realize that it killed my phone until I was on the drive home. I switched to the car going straight back to Portland. The others went to dinner. Back at home shortly before 9pm.

Saturday, July 08, 2017

2017.7.8. Silver Star, the south route (Grouse Vista TH)

7/8, Saturday. Almost 90°F. I joined 6 Young Mazamas (a local group) on the Grouse Vista trail to Silver Star Mountain. My first time on this trail, but 3rd time to Silver Star (Ed's Trail, Bluff Mt Trail. Overall, Ed's Trail is the prettiest and easiest, just the access road is the worst. This one is my least choice. Peak flower: anything from early summer avalanche lily to late summer gentian.

The drive is on gravel, wide enough with minor potholes. Passable in all passenger cars. The trail resembles a logging road, just not as wide. Filled with loose rocks of various sizes, hard on your feet. The first hour is in the woods, passing a very small creek. When it emerges from the trees, the view gets better and better, so are flowers. These two photos were taken facing forward (you can see Silver Star in the top photo) and backward at this section. This is the nicest part of the trail. Then it goes into woods again and begins zigzag. Before long, it hits a couple of trail junctions, all in the woods.

Finally, you emerge out of the woods again, and on to an open saddle. The view here is spectacular. Flowers are quite good here beside bit rocks. Turn left for the summit or to the right for another slightly lower one. Both are short and easy. A lot of people here. Not surprising. I know 4 groups coming here today. The kids I was with spent quite some time taking turns for photos as well as selfies.

This is about 3 miles, 2000'ft gain from TH. We continued down to Ed's Trail for ~1 mile to check out the arch. The trail gets quite steep at times. But we didn't push further to the wide open meadow which made Ed's Trail special. Had lunch in an open cave looking at the arch. I chatted with a couple whose dog came into the cave to lie down in front of us in the shade.

On the way back, checked out the "water" sign. Not the best source in a black pipe and a blue plastic container, with visible debris. Still good to know a water source, since all the snow is gone.

Our event organizer planned to visit English Estate Winery in Vancouver. Nice property (was in the same family for about 100 years, but only became a winery about 30 years ago), over looking St Helen, and a quarry. It was their 10th annual Art and Wine Fair. A lot of people were here despite of the almost 90° weather. The guy who oversees the parking is super nice. He brought us chairs and showed me the trailer-turned-sitting room used by the late Ms. English. Their wine is a too sweet for my liking. They also sell brandy mixed desert wine - which are nicer (still sweet, but somehow lighter). Out of all the vendors, I like this lady's egg decoration. You can watch her makes them on the spot. A lady who was playing on stage sat with us for awhile. She was taking a year off from being a high school teacher.

I didn't return home until ~9pm, hungry.


Monday, July 03, 2017

2017.7.2-3. Whistler - Lilooet - Lytton loop

7/2, Sunday. Headed out on a road trip with my parents, to re-visit some of the places dad and I visited 6 years ago. Overall, a lot more people, a lot warmer.

First stop, Shannon Falls. Had to park across Hwy-99 and walk over. Yes, a lots of people. The waterfall was in full swing. A lot better than last time. As always, visited the restroom here: running water.

Second stop, Brandywine Falls. Had to wait around for a parking spot. 5-10 minutes walk, across a railway track. This one is always flowing nicely, often has rainbow like today. Walked a few more minutes to the end of the fence for a view of Daisy Lake, and Black Tusk.

I didn't go into Whistler Village. Made a stop by Green Lake at a pullout. Got chairs out and had some snack overlooking the green lake and mountains behind.

Third and last waterfall of the day, Nairin Falls. 3Km RT. More or less flat, along Green River. Some mosquitoes. The last bit is going up a fenced rocky outcrop to view the twist and turn of the water. Thundering. On the way out, saw a jet boat heading upstream of the river, making a lot of noise.

Had a proper break at One Mile Lake, outskirt of Pemberton. Lots of kids. Swimming decks. Standup paddle for rent. I have an inflatable lounge chair, set it up on the lawn under a tree, and dad took a nap. Lots of waterlily, but not many flowers. I walked around the lake on the boardwalk. The view on the NW side is better.

Joffre Lakes was the highlight of my last trip. This time, we only visited the lower lake, 10 minutes from the gigantic parking lot. Even thought it was already 5:40pm, there were still quite a number of people. You have to take turns to take a photo. Didn't see any climbers this time.

Duffey Lake is further north on Hwy-99. There's a boat launch area to stop by, looking out to west. A good place for sunset, but right now, the sun was very bright.

Seton Lake is on the outskirt of Lilooet. Maybe owned by BC Hydro. A bit windy here. Nice, because otherwise it would be too hot, even at 7:30pm. Saw one guy fishing. Last time, we took a sightseeing train ride on its northern shore. Now it runs only on Friday.

Checked into an Airbnb in Lilooet. Even though our host turned on AC, the room was still stuffy (over 30°C, gradually dropping). She brought us a few pieces of freshly baked cake. Yummy. Some mosquitoes.

7/3, Monday. Already warm at 8am! Walked in downtown Lilooet, checking out the jade stones in front of the visitor center and a few businesses. Less than I remembered. Took a photo of this stone monument commemorate mile 0 of the Old Cariboo Road to Alexandria, where you could catch a steamboat to Quesnel to pan gold or continue to Bakersville's gold field. We filled gas here next to the museum/visitor center (10% more expensive than in Pemberton) waiting for it to open (9am). It's small but has quite a lot of things. Don't forget the downstairs. The girl who operates the place was not enthusiastic at all. Afterwards, we walked across the Old Bridge (1913), yes, at the end of the Old Bridge Rd. Very nice looking sturdy suspension bridge. A falcon family lives on one of the tower. Saw two adult falcons. There's another monument by the main bridge coming into the town, which commemorates the 23 camels imported in 1862-3 as pack animals. They didn't last long in their job, because of harsh ground surface to their feet, as well as the fact that every other animal was afraid of their looks.

Drove further north to Pavillion Lake hoping to see why fresh water microbialites were able to survive in this lake. According to the researchers, the communities at the lake bottom are stable. Of course, I saw nothing of importance. Saw a couple of cars in the neighboring lake side of the Marble Canyon Provincial Park (not impressive). The drive here is somewhat scenic and open.

Almost lunch time when we got back to Lilooet. Stopped by Fort Berens Estate Winery for lunch (recommended by our Airbnb host and on all the local websites). But lunch only starts at noon (till 4pm daily), so we did some tasting while waiting for the kitchen to be ready. The girls who man the tasting counter were very nice. We tried all their 4 whites, a bubbly and 2 reds (Cabernet Franc, Meritage). Their Riesling is not very sweet, so bought a bottle. Lunch is served outside under a white canopy. Even though it's very hot in the sun, enough breeze made our lunch comfortable. View is good. All dishes nicely presented. Whoever did the grill needs to be more watchful. Way over cooked. Our morel mushroom was just charcoal, the wine braised burger (recommended by the girls at the tasting counter) was well done and dry (I asked for medium rare). The lamb is excellent. I do recommend the lunch, just stay away from the grill.

Now heading home via Hwy-12, and then Hwy-1. Checked out Lytton Ferry, operated daily by the local Indian Tribe. Free. Holds only 2 cars (or a small RV). The pontoon is angled so the current propels the right direction. We drove onto the ferry just to experience it. The current is strong and the breeze is nice on this hot day. Just so we don't turn around right away, drove 5Km to Stein Valley Heritage Park. But the last turn goes on a very narrow gravel road, where we turned around. On the way back, I asked permission to step out of the car, so I was able to take these photos. The Stein Valley area is quite scenic. But it's really too hot here.

Lytton Visitor Center is small, by a swimming pool. The boy who was at the counter is very nice. At the confluence of Thompson River and Fraser, also Hwy-12 and Hwy-1. Fraser River Catwalk is just north of the small downtown.

We stopped by Hells Gate, just as they were closing the lift down to the water level. There's also a trail to go down, which we didn't take. Instead, we walked ~1 mile to the historical Alexandra Suspension Bridge. The original bridge (1863-1894) was 10' lower, destroyed in a flood. Now no longer accessible by vehicle, remains majestic for all those who walk on it. It's very stable and wide. From here, you can also see the red-orange new Alexandra Bridge ~1 mile downstream (much higher), which you wouldn't even notice when driving on it.

At Hope, Hwy-1 joins Hwy-5 and we turned west, still following Fraser River downstream. Visited Bridal Veil near Chilliwack. About 1KM RT, 500' gain. Easy trail. Lots of people even at this hour (past 7pm). The water is thin but wide, splashing. However, to see it close, you'd need to scramble. Lush forest, mosquitoes are out.

Got home just past 9pm. A lot of driving. Good scenery.

7/4, Tuesday, I took a bus back to Portland, a bit too exhausted to go see the fireworks in the waterfront.