So, after thinking i wasn’t able to do 1 back country hike… I was now on number 3. This is the most beautiful back country hike out of the 3. Egypt Lake. I was hiking with a lovely couple, Clare and George and not forgetting K2 the beautiful and lovely husky. We did the hike in 3 days, hiked approximately 60 km, followed wolf tracks, camped, stayed in a cabin and collected 15 cameras along they way.
As always, i was feeling a tad nervous about this back country hike. Like the last one the 4 day hike was chopped to 3 days (always a little worrying), but after some well needed encouragement from Clare i was raring to go. On the upside, on the fist night we were staying at the Egypt Lake cabin, which was approximately 15km from the start. Hiking up to the cabin wasn’t quite as bad as expected, although the trail was a little icy and there was still a lot of snow on the ground. There was some quite tedious uphill sections which are most definitely not my strong point. And we even missed a camera along the way which Clare and George offered to back for while me and K2 waited with the bags!
But then we reached the top of the pass, and boy was all that work worth it. The view in every direction was spectacular.
Once we reached this point we collected a camera and took a well deserve rest stop and a bite to eat before facing the next stage of the hike…
Once we had some food in us we started off again to make our way to the cabin. I was elated when we got there! Was so nice to have a cabin to sleep in only if it is only for 2 night.
The cabin was basic, with wooden shelf like beds raised off the floor (to keep you away from the mice!), there were 2 ‘bedrooms’ and a common area with tables, benches and a wood burner. We were sharing with cabin with another 5 people which was lovely, we had the fire going so was all nice and cosy. Once we had eaten, it was off to bed ready for another jam packed day.
On the second day we were hiking over Whistling Pass. This is the hardest pass i have ever hike, i thought i was actually going to pass out. It was a good job i had help from K2 or else i don’t think i would have made it up.
After the ‘big climb’ to Whistling Pass, it was lovely and flat for a while. Again the views were pretty spectacular. Not as clear as the day before as it was drizzling, but amazing all the same.
Then it was all downhill. Which you would think would like like heaven after that tedious uphill… You think wrong. It was relentless downhill for a long time on scree. Not the best when you have tired legs in the first place. But after a while it started to flatten out. We were hiking around 25km today to our campsite which was a few km’s past Shadow Lake.
We had a few stops along the way, was a very long day. But to make the hike more exciting… It seemed like we may have been following wolf tracks…
We followed these tracks all the way to the campsite, which was a little unnerving! After retrieving the majority of the cameras on route we arrived at Shadow Lake, and what i beautiful lake it was.
By the time we reached camp we set up and it was beginning to get dark. We prepared our food on the porch of one of the cabins near by, ate then off to bed.
I woke up the next day, tired and sore and wondering how on earth i was going to finish this hike. We had another god know how many km’s to hike to get back to the car. This last part of the hike was the worst. I was feeling it and the trail had become a big wide open fire trail so there wasn’t really much to see.
After what seemed like an eternity, we reached the parking lot. Another back country hike over. We checked to make sure we had all the kit, packed our stuff in the car and were ready for home.
I was so happy and exhausted…. but i wasn’t the only one….
My Placement Year - 30 weeks of wildlife, travelling, data analysis and everything in-between 