The Afternoon
Lunch usually takes 30 minutes. Not much time to scour a couple of acres for possible routes down. Again, Jacquie and I split up. We make sure to always stay within yelling/hearing distance. The frigging cliffs are everywhere. I’ll make my way down one hundred feet thinking that its a good route, then blammo, a straight down 250 foot cliff. Time after time this happens. I’m getting exhausted. As we finish searching all of the plateaus we decide to go back to the stream and see how bad it is if we actually follow it down.

We decide the stream is too steep and rocky just below where the rest of the group is eating lunch. We take a plateau around to the right of it and make our way back to the stream a hundred feet down or so. It looks better. The path is still not great but it’s passable. I venture farther down while Jacquie stays up top. A few tricky parts but not too bad. I’m now only 75 feet above the lake level. It’s the closest I’ve been. The stream turns into a mini waterfall and falls 20 feet straight down. Darn, this could be the game ender. There are handholds on the side of it that are actually decent. It is right on the line between safe and not safe. Without a pack I can do it easily, but I’m also one of the more monkey-like people. We have to plan for the weakest link. I don’t think it will pass Matt’s inspection. I continue down anyway to verify the path. I cross the stream into thick plants and trees, after a minute of bushwhacking I burst out onto a small rock ridge that runs beside the lake. I’ve made it! Knowing that it’s possible I rush back up to find Matt or Jasmin to verify the trail. Usually they don’t have to as it’s up to “our group” but due to the waterfall and that it’s our only option I think its best to bring in the pros.

The group is finishing up lunch and I grab Matt out of a push war with Julie (it’s exactly what you think…..face each other about a foot apart. Plant your feet at shoulder width apart and try and push each other over using only your hands and not moving your feet. You can only touch your opponent’s hands). Matt runs down with me and looks over the path. It’s all good up until the waterfall. He likes the handholds but the wetness and the rock make him uneasy. He actually likes the handholds so much he climbs it a couple of times just for fun. He decides it’s too risky. We need to find another route.

Matt sees a huge tree that is lying across the stream a few feet up stream from the waterfall. It looks like it just leads into steep and dense forest. Matt decides to venture across it and check it out. He reaches the end of the massive log and looks down. He says “this looks promising” at that exact moment, the entire end of the log that he is standing on breaks off and Matt disappears into the dense foliage. I would be worried but the roaring laughter emanating from the bush tells me I shouldn’t. Matt climbs up around the other side of the log laughing. He’s found a path. It’s steep, there are a ton of branches, but it’s not rock. It’s much safer. This leads straight to the same place I discovered just below the waterfall. We’ve found our path.

Matt and I actually race back to lunch. He picks a better line and beats me by a few meters. I consider this not too bad since he climbs mountains for a living. We round up the troops and I start to lead the pack down. Matt and Jasmin stay back, giving us some room to be a group (or for them to be alone – who knows).

We lead the group across the plateau, back to the stream, across the log and into the steep trail down. The steep trail down has branches ALL of the way down it. These branches are covered in water (from earlier mists). As each person goes through the path one at a time the branches rake over you rendering you soaking wet. Laughter erupts from the group as each person emerges drenched to the bone. This part of the way down is aptly dubbed “the car wash”. (It later inspires prose and poetry in the group)

We lead the group across the rock ridge to the next challenge and hand over the leadership reigns to Ernie and Petite Vero. A sense of relief floods over me. I know get to be sweep. The lucky person at the back who makes sure everyone stays together.

The leaders of the group now face a challenge. We can either go up and over the small mound in front of us or traverse along its side to get to pipes that lead to the next lake (water pipes for mine generators miles down the mountain). They decide to traverse. We head off. The traverse is through heavy heavy heavy bush. We are bushwhacking to the extreme. You can hardly see the person in front of you the foliage is so dense. Being at the rear I get to rest quite a bit as I wait for the group to move on. As we move across the side of the mountain I start to eat copious amounts berries. Blueberries and blackberries are growing everywhere. Most of us consume a pound of berries each. Our tongues are blue. We can hear Matt behind us screaming in glee at each new blueberry patch discovered.

We continue to bushwhack for at least an hour until we hear screams of delight from the front of the pack “the pipes the pipes!”. We emerge from the bush at the edge of the lake to see three large green pipes emerge from deep within the lake and follow a creek bed down to the next lake. We grab a water break and put on rain gear. It’s starting to rain (just our luck). During this time Matt and Jasmin catch up and decide to take charge. It’s getting late. We only have a few hours of light left and we are no where near our trailhead. We all follow the pipes down the creek bed…. As we round a corner we start to hear falling water. The pipes end at the top of a 30 foot water fall. They are spitting water out at hundreds of gallons an hour. The pipes are just using basic siphoning principles to suck the water out of the lake above them. We’re stuck. It’s raining, the rocks are slippery and there seems to be no other way down. Matt and Jasmin split up and search for a way down. We sit in the rain and try to keep warm. It takes half of an hour but Matt finally finds a line down, but it starts just below the waterfall. We need to get past it somehow. Matt and Jasmin decide that climbing down the side of the waterfall is our only option. They tell us to leave our packs at the top if we are nervous. They remove their own packs and position themselves at the trickiest spots to help guide us down. We go one at a time. With careful coaching and instruction all of us make it down without a single slip. Matt runs up (I don’t think he can walk, just run) and grabs the few packs left up by nervous nellies. He runs back to the front of the pack and leads us down into another bushwhacking adventure.

After another stream, steep muddy slopes, and more berries we finally make it to Tennet lake. The same lake we camped at on the first night. We emerge from the lush alpine forest onto a burned out chopped down plateau. The mining company had done a little work here, hence the destruction. It actually made me quite sad. This is the first area we’ve seen evidence of man’s hand for days and it is as clumsy as a drunken surgeon’s. Matt and Jasmin are nervous. There are only minutes left of light and we are on the opposite side of the lake than the trail that leads down to the pick-up point. Everyone dons their headlamps and we start to make our way left along the shore of the lake. The going is slow as it’s mostly mid sized rocks that roll under your weight. We’ve been going for 11 hours straight. As the light fades one by one the headlamps start to turn on. I was at the front of the group a person or two behind Matt. Looking back you could see lights bobbing up and down in the dark. Somehow I was designated the entertainer for the remainder of the days hike. So I start to sing songs everyone would know….U2, Soul Asylum, you know, the songs everyone can sing at the top of their lungs. So here we are, 12 strangers picking our way around a lake on precarious rocks belting out “One” by U2. By far the strangest experience yet.

As we get closer and closer to the other side of the lake tiredness begins to rear its ugly head. People begin missing steps and staggering. I on the other hand decide subconsciously that staggering is for wimps. My brain decides to skip the staggering step and move straight to the fall flat on your face step. While singing I make an ambitious step for a rock a little bit below me. As my body leans forward it becomes obvious that my leg has gone on strike and will not be responding as quickly to my brain as it had been for the previous 12 hours. I end up falling my six feet plus another to onto my side. I am laughing hysterically. My arm took the brunt of the fall and all I would have would be a bruised ego and arm. Someone helps me up….we keep moving and singing.

We arrive at the top of the trail. What lies between us and our pickup point is our entire first days hike. Luckily for us it’s down and not up this time. Matt and Jasmin get us in a circle for a group meeting. The question is “should we camp or go for it?”. The feeling in most of the group is GO FOR IT! There are a few though who speak honestly about their physical limitations and they think they won’t be able to make it. So going with the lowest common denominator we have to set up camp. The worst part of this is that we need to be picked up at 7am…..and the pickup location is a two hours hike away. Rise and shine time is set for 3:45am. EGHAD! Call in the choppers! I can’t get up that early. I’d rather die than see that time of day.

We set up camp and make supper in the pitch black. It’s roughly 10:30 before we start to make our ways to our tents……I finally get in my sleeping bag by 11. It’s going to be a short night.

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