Executive Summary Brew Hut is in excellent shape. Woodshed is full, solar lighting is fine, Coleman stove is fine. We consumed no firewood. Josi performed perhaps the first triple ascent of Brew Mountain. The top of Brew is a really good place to look out on the Alcoholic Traverse.
Long Version Josi went to Brew about four years ago but unfortunately the weather was opaque and she didn’t see anything, so when the good weather rolled in, she was keen. I had a few short chores to perform, and I thought that swimming in the lake would work. We went up mid-week so there was nobody else up there besides Josi, son Dave, and me.
So we left Vancouver not too early and the Jeep made it to the trail head as usual. There were no signs of recent logging activity or road improvement or un-improvement. We got to the lake and decided that we had been spoiled by our hot springs adventure, and now required warmer water before we would go in.
Brew Lake is actually tilted. I don’t know why the water doesn’t all run out.
At the hut we messed with the solar lighting and drained the donation box. Fixing the Coleman stove required dumping the methanol which somebody had tried to burn and putting in the proper white gas and testing it. So, what to do with the rest of the day? Dave fell asleep and Josi and I scampered up Brew. After taking pictures Josi said that she wanted to sleep on top and I could come along if I wanted to. So we went back to the hut, woke up Dave and we wandered off to cook our mac-n-cheese, then hauled our overnight stuff plus a tarp and a couple extra foamies up through the intense scratchy shrubbery to the top of Mt Brew. Dave correctly decided that there would be bugs and he was staying in the hut.
Meanwhile, on the summit As the sun set Josi took a lot of pictures, then when the full moon came out she took more pictures, and maybe a few more during the night, and a bunch more the next morning. The full moon was a bit annoying, and there was a shrubbery poking me in the ribs, and Josi was sucking heat out of the side that the shrubbery wasn’t on, but I was mostly too hot so that was OK. Eventually the sunset got done, and about an hour later the bugs all quit for the night, and the wind picked up and it cooled down some. Various adventures during the night included tucking in the tarp so it wouldn’t flap, taking more pictures, getting up to pee. Around 8am I wandered down to see if Dave was still sleeping (he was), hauled water, made coffee, etc. Josi came down around 9am and announced that she was going back up to recover the jacket which she had forgotten. That’s why she did the triple ascent.
Conclusions, etc Very beautiful area with easy access, but we all know that. A bug net is a Good Thing if you plan to sleep out. Josi will be returning to Germany in another ten or so days, but she hopes to come back in a couple of years and when she does, she wants to do the Alcoholic Traverse.
Photos: By Josi