Deeks Lake Hike

I’ve just enabled Adsense which, from my quickly no-reading of the whole thing seems likely to give me a few pennies for the people that read this blog. Seeing as I know of absolutely no one that reads this blog, we’ll see how it goes. Which brings me on to blogging, I’m trying to get into the habit of blogging, or recording, each of my hikes this summer. The trouble I’ve had in the past wasn’t a lack of material, rather, it was the time it took and the convenience of a computer. I suppose if I had an iPad or iPhone with the blogger app I might be more will since I could do it anywhere. But then, what’s the point? I’m not one to brag about what I do, tell the world, or even one person what I do unless they ask. Blogs it would seem have the nature to gain attention for oneself, promote oneself, or tell about oneself, nothing I’m all that enthusiastic about doing. Then one might ask, what about as a journal? Sure it’s a writing space that allows a record of an event, that also happens to be public — but why? I remember the hikes I’ve done last fall because I wrote a note on my calender that I did it. I could probably describe it to you now as well. And by the time I forget it won’t even matter. Infact, it means little to anyone where I went last fall or what I did.

Regardless, I’m going to try and write a weekly article about the hike I went on and include some photos. If not for myself, for my family and friends in the hope that this will inspire them to get off their fat asses (not you mom and dad, you’re already skinny). So let us begin with the first hike of the season.

Good friday, April 22, got Kyle, Scott, and I out hiking. Originally I had planned to go alone and venture into the wild unknown with a pair of snowshoes strapped to my back so that once I reached the snow line, if I did, I could make a peak. I was very excited because I had mom’s car which meant I could get anywhere! Enough with staring at the five North Shore mountains of which two I had mounted already, I could go Northwards!

The night before, we were at all you can eat sushi, and as I always do, I told Scott and Kyle my plan. Kyle was instantly in and we got Scott along too. I hadn’t read much about Deeks lake online; only that the hike was more of a backcountry route that fewer people were likely to know about. So I said, to hell with a first season leg strech, let’s trek this and see where it goes.

The trail head I read about starts just after Lions Bay on Hwy 99 to Whistler. We had to do a U-turn and park at a bend in the hwy near a memorial before walking back to Deeks Creek. I wasn’t sure if we were going to find it, but as I took photos of a small waterfall Kyle dove into the bush and emerged triumphant.

The trail was nearing the state of a deer path but fortunately we had orange tickers to guide us and the friendly steps of a lone hiker who we guessed had been through there within the last week. We named him Jeromy, and followed his steps into the bush. Along the way we got lost a few times but eventually made it to and old logging road. There we found the spent cartridges of a shotgun shooting a TV and a well pipe that made really weird echo’s when we dropped in some rocks. The logging road led us into Cypress park and eventually to the snowline. I was excited by the snow, but Scott was getting abit tired… So we told him it’s probably not much further.

The snow covered trail soon crossed an avalanche chute. Not knowing this, I told the guys that I wanted to the climb the thing. which would be damably fun. If Scott could groan he probably would have but he was too tired. As much fun as I was having, we probably got up about 100m before Kyle and Scott had enough so we decided it would be easier going in the trees. It was, and we came to a cabin in the woods. It was a nice place that looked like a weekend out in the summer even though we saw footprints in the snow. Eventually, we re-joined the Deeks lake trail and continued on for a brief time before it suddenly stopped and snowshoe tracks led up a steep hill. After much debate, we followed the snowshoe tracks up the side and quickly lost them. I was getting tired now, it’s not as easy as it would seem to make a path through the snow when it’s sinking up to one’s knees. Surprisingly, it wasn’t all that cold.

Just when I was about to give up, Kyle said, “Let’s get to that ridge up there and then we’ll see.” Those could be dying words as I don’t know how many times I’ve gone hiking and “seen a ridge ahead.” But we put aside our weariness and slogged on. So much of everything physical is even more mental, and having that courage to push yourself just a little further and exhausted that much more of your non-existent energy is all the difference.

At the ridge, We saw the lake through the trees and hurried too it. Scott would be sore for a week, but hey, we all made it. It was a beautiful view to see a pristine snow covered landscape with mountains and not a single human presence. There was not a sound in the air but our own breathing (see photos)

We had our lunches, and lay in the sun for a long long time. Scott’s mom packed us three chocolate Easter eggs and two oreo’s each. For that alone, Kyle and I decided it would be in our best interest to make Scott come along for all the other hikes this summer.

After and hour and a half in the sun, we ran down the mountain. It was quite a lot of fun running down in the snow and sliding on my heels. Scott tried a Matrix/Superman move off a tree thanks to Kyle and I’s advice which resulted in the tree breaking in half as he attempted to swing around it and a slide down 10m much to our amusement. I suspect if Scott’s mom knew what happened on this hike, she would never allow him to come again, nevermind share oreo’s.

What I expected to do alone for the morning that turned into a morning and lunch with my friends became an 8 and a half hour hike. But it was worth it. It was the best one I’ve done and teased me at the idea of doing more in the snow. One thing about Vancouver is that no matter how far up a mountain you are, you can almost always see the beaches. We decided, that to be a Vancouver day, we had to visit the beach as well. So on our way home, we stopped at Kits beach to step in the ocean and lie on the sand (See photos). Kyle had also bet me that it wasn’t a kilometer up, even though it took over 4 hours to summit. For the record, the lake’s at 1097m and the trail head starts at 61m. You owe me dinner Kyle! And so ends a great adventure with some of the best friends I have. We dove into the unknown and through fatigue and miss-step came triumphantly to the edges of the frozen lake and a beautiful day in the sun and snow.

Thanks again to Scotts mom for the great food, my mom and dad for the vehicle, and Kyle and Scott for coming along. In Photos: Deeks Lake, Kyle lying in the Sun, The 3 of us, Scott on the beach, Kyle on the beach.