This trip report concerns two trips; neither is important enough to qualify for a trip report but maybe they work if combined. Sometimes you go on a trip and it doesn’t work out quite as planned and you end up saying to yourself “I should try that one again when conditions improve”. The first trip was to Eagle Bluff, somewhere on the side of Black Mountain. Josi didn’t fly here from Germany just to “do” Eagle Bluff, but it was definitely on her to-do list. Carla claimed to know the way so I foolishly left my GPS behind. We got lost and did a great circle route and ended up, not at Eagle Bluff, but back where we started. So we decided we should do it again some time, bring the GPS, and if we had somebody who knew the way, that would be nice. For details, see
https://www.ubc-voc.com/2018/03/20/eagle-expedition-mar-18
The opportunity to “get it done” presented itself on Tuesday June 5th, in the form of a trip performed by the Golden Age Hikers (GAHers). Golden Age is of course an euphemism for being old. One of the side effects of getting old is that you die, and it is known that men die sooner than women, but it is probably a coincidence that of the 17 people on the trip, only two were men. These are an interesting group, and a bit fussy. Their Exec recently decided that members were to walk single file, and were not to stop without permission, and to stay between the “front person” and the “back person”. I got in a bit of trouble by walking beside the line of GAHers. Anyway, we completed the exercise, found Eagle Bluff; there were no eagles, only a crow. The view was pretty good, if you are into views. My GPS now knows the way.
The second trip was a retry of a mixed-mode snowy trip to Mt Confidential. Details may be found at https://www.ubc-voc.com/2017/12/17/mt-confidential We decided to return after the snow had departed, and see if we could find the mysterious snowmobilers cabin and take a picture of it. Finding crew can be a challenge. I advertised on the VOC Message Board. I even pestered somebody who had just joined but she was busy. Fortunately Carla is usually keen unless it’s a hotspring trip. We followed our GPS track from the previous trip and parked a couple of kilometers further up the road, stopped by snow at 1076 meters elevation. We were somewhat handicapped as we didn’t know where the mysterious cabin was, and we had forgotten the camera, so right away we knew we were doomed.
Carla continues: “We drove up some logging road and parked. It was a fairly cool day, spitting a bit, some hail, and so I was putting my boots on in the front seat. Noticed that the Jeep’s hood was steaming. We popped the hood and noticed a lot of moisture in one area and a crack in the radiator manifold with water sizzling on the radiator. Had to let the engine cool off so went on our hike to nowhere. We saw a huge pile of bear poop, probably from a flying bear because it left no prints in the snow. We went up and down forks all along the road but no huts were found. So the hut remains elusive.
Back at the car we put some orange duct tape on the leak, topped up the radiator with our drinking water and headed back to the highway. This part went OK because it was all downhill so the engine didn’t have to work hard. We cranked the heat way up when we hit the highway and opened all the windows. Roland keeps a lot of plastic bags in the Jeep for grocery shopping. (They cost five cents each so he brings his own.) They started flying all around the cab. Closed the windows a bit and things died down. The Jeep was coping OK – engine temp. was normal, so Roland relaxed and started to eat a sandwich. He just finished and was holding the empty plastic bag when a very strong gust of wind snatched the bag out of Roland’s hand and out his window.”
In the city, after a nap, we found our Gorilla Glue epoxy, sandpaper, and some of that mesh stuff that you put on skins to stop them from sticking to each other, and glued this over the hole in the radiator manifold, and it appears to be a lovely patch. Kevin sent us a bad GPS track giving some hints where the hut might be. We weren’t even close. Stay tuned for Confidential, third try, in another month or so.
Come on, guys, do I have to reply to my own trip reports?
Kevin sent me a bad GPX file which suggested that we were on the wrong mountain, but Edward sent me a good GPX file that said that we were on the right mountain but Kevin was on the wrong mountain. I am going to try this trip in a month after the snow goes away, now that we know where the mysterious hut is, and where the mysterious mountain is. My radiator patch is working well.
There’s certainly some good things you can say about the “new” (like 5 years old or something) way of putting trip reports on the publicly viewable portion of the webpage, but back in the good old days when they just went on the message board there was way more banter after each trip was posted. There were also more trip reports posted.
Sometimes I wonder if the everyone that posts real trip reports looks at mine with disdain because mine are diluting the interesting stuff with useless filler. Then I read Roland’s and they make me happy, both because they just do and because most of them are, at least in the traditional sense, less worth of writing a trip report than some of mine but at the same time are highly rad.
I guess the answer to the question is “yes, you do have to reply to your own trip reports.” Please don’t conclude anything negative based on that, though, as all the people like to read them.