Our planned 3-day trip to the Tantalus Range was unfortunately canceled due to bad weather, nature had other plans for us. Not to be deterred, Alexis proposed a plan B: tackling Coquitlam Mountain the very next day via the Burke side.
Peter, who had previously been up Coquitlam twice using the Widgeon approach, was skeptical about doing it as a day hike. He thought the bushwhacking and route finding would make it impossible. But challenge accepted! Adrien and I happily joined, with Peter stepping up as our trusty guide.
The day was full of route-finding adventures and some serious bushwhacking, just enough to keep things interesting but manageable. Peter’s experience was invaluable, and with his lead, we made good progress.
A great day out proving that even when big plans fall through, good company and a solid backup plan make all the difference!
We all agreed to meet up on the trailhead at 5:30am. We were off the trail by 5:45am and walk 8km of the logging road. Snow started at 950m. We were off route all the way to Burke Mountain. When Alexis set pace, it's like chasing after a cheetah. The guy rarely takes break and always fast. I've been on several trips with him so I knew what to expect. From Burke Mountain, we descended to a valley, crossed a small creek, went back up to a ridge and dropped down to another valley to cross OR Creek. Some mild bushwhacking here and there. We forded OR creek to reach the other side of the logging road. We hiked at the end of the logging road, heading to the East. We started ascending from the old cut-block until we top out the saddle, we went West of the ridge, and then another bushwhack fest to reach another saddle . At this point, I was very confused of the orientation. I remembered going East of another ridge, after that, everything was white and greyish.
We scrambled to the summit which surrounded by clouds. We didn’t stay too long, had a short break and back-tracked our route all the way to the car.
We had a mixed bag of weather. 34.5km, 2700m cumulative elevation gain.
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