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Rocky Mountain Ramblers Association

Trip Report
Trip Date:
12-Jul-2018
Activity:
Off-Trail hike
Trip name:
Picklejar C traverse + two hills
Coordinator:
Douglas
Report:

On a sunny morning, 6 of us headed up Lantern Creek towards Picklejar Lakes. We soon reached the pass on the new trail up the final stretch, (a real improvement over the old one!). Then it was down to the largest lake and across its outlet.




Starting down through the rock fall towards Picklejar Lake




Rosanne carefully crossing the "bridge" at the west end of Picklejar Lake

We had trouble finding the start of the Connector due to the many paths through the woods and so bushwhacked a fair distance before finding the trail, joining the Picklejar Creek trail and heading up to the pass. Then it was the through the steep climb of about 200m vertical to the top of the East Hill, where we had a long break in the sun with a welcome cooling breeze and the second half of our lunches.



Up towards the pass




Relaxing at our high point on the East hill

The descent from the East Hill started, up to the West Hill and then keeping along the long ridge was delightful with views, a cooling breeze and flowers.



Descending from the east hill with a view towards Mist Mountain




Start of the ridge walk from the west hill




Keeping to the ridge top with a view towards Lineham Ridge




Descending the end of the ridge

. Normally, we drop down part way along the ridge to intersect with the main Picklejar Creek trail, but this time we chose to continue with the superb views and perfect weather conditions to the very end of the ridge. There we saw a possible new route that dropped down to some open areas that could lead to near the start of the Picklejar Creek trail.



Possible new descent route in open areas from the very end of the ridge

We agreed to try this exploratory route (with admittedly some trepidation by some participants). However, what looks like some short bushwhacking from up top can actually be very messy - this is not a good route!

The trip was 16.5 km and took us 8 hours with some very slow areas during the bushwhacking. However, the views, the weather and the participants made it a very enjoyable day (after we got through the final bushwhack).

Participants were: Philip,Gary,Jim,Krystyna,Rosanne,Douglas C/S/P