Results 1 to 16 of 16

Thread: Williamson Lake Area, Southwest BC

  1. #1

    Williamson Lake Area, Southwest BC

    This past weekend, I was looking for someplace nearby to head out for a couple of nights. I planned to leave Sunday around noon, and camp Sunday and Monday nights, returning home on Tuesday.

    My first choice, a couple hours north, was Ashlu Mountain, which looked like a nice scramble, with good camping an hour or so up from the car. It was also quite a long drive up logging road. The night before, a friend pointed out to me that the road was blocked by a slide 16km (10 miles) before the 4WD parking area. That wasn't going to work for me!

    So I made a last minute change to head east instead, for Williamson Lake, and Welch and Foley Peaks.

    I drove up and found a gate closed on the way to the trailhead, which added 3.4km (2.1 miles) and 1900 feet to the hike in. I hit the trail (road) at around 4:15.





    Along the road, a view to Welch Peak.



    At the top of the road, I stashed a beer and a Diet Coke in the creek, and then headed across the bottom of a cutblock to enter a stand of trees, where the trail switchbacked steeply upwards. I'm looking a little sweaty here - the temperature was about 28C (82F), with no wind.





    Looking up toward my destination.





    The trail crosses a long slope, and joins a steep creekbed for the final push to the lake.





    I arrived at about 8:00, and set up my bivy for the night. I had lugged up two more cans of beer, and placed them in some nearby snow. Once everything was set for the night, I had a refreshing can of honey lager. Aaaahhh.

    Next morning, I got up and filtered some water from the lake's outlet. I looked up as I was doing so, to find a marmot about 4 feet away from me, watching me curiously.





    A little later, I was off doing what bears do in the woods (so they say), and when I returned my Camelbak was half empty - stupid marmot had chewed a hole in it while I was gone! Fortunately, I also had a Nalgene bottle with me.

    View to the south from near my campsite. Smoke from a fire along the Chilliwack Lake Road. Tallest peak, just left of centre, is Slesse Mountain (site of a 1956 plane crash that killed 62 - the mountain is now a designated memorial). At the far left edge, the Illusion Group is visible. From this angle, a tiny edge of Mt. Baker is peeking out from behind the Border Peaks. (Trust me.)





    A shot of my campsite:





    I had a slow start in the morning, and decided to head for the closer of the two nearby peaks - Foley - which was about a 4-5 hour ascent, gaining 2200-odd feet on the way.

    Starting up the slopes:







    Looking down from the col between Welch and Foley Peaks. Incredibly loose scree!!! The feel of this stuff was kind of sickening.





    Reaching Welch/Foley col. The pinnacle is Foley - my destination. Sadly, I didn't make it...

    In this photo, the snow slope looks moderately steep. I didn't have my ice axe with me, just a set of trekking poles. (I haven't used my ice axe since moving last summer, and couldn't find it anywhere at short notice. Should have borrowed a friend's, but not much notice for that, either.) I did manage this slope, but the next one, about 10 minutes farther on, stopped me cold. Alone, without an ice axe, I wasn't about to try it. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of that one.





    Just past this snow slope, there was a little more rock scrambling, and I finally stopped at a rocky, heathery knoll, where I lay and relaxed for a while, resting and enjoying the view.

    Looking North





    Looking east at Foley. The scramble route goes around below the right side of the peak, and joins the east ridge for a somewhat exposed solid class 3 scramble to the top (lower angle then the visible skylines.)





    Looking west at Welch Peak. There is a route up left of the sub-summit on the right, which then follows the knife-edge ridge to the main summit, but it is very exposed class 3-4, on poor slopy rock. The standard route comes from the left along the skyline. Still solid class 3, but on better rock.





    After a while resting on the knoll, it was a careful trek down past the col, then quick postholing and boot skiing down the snow slopes to the lake. 2.5 hours up, less than 50 minutes back down.

    Back at camp, I enjoyed my second snow-chilled beer. Then I filtered some more water, while wearing my net to keep the (many) mosquitoes at bay.





    Made a little dinner. (Head net off so I could eat. Then it went back on.)





    Next morning, I arose and packed up. Another flawless day, and it was warming up fast! By the time I left, the temp was back up in the high 20s (around 80F) and it got warmer as I descended.

    Another shot of my marmot buddy exploring camp.





    Looking back up whence I'd climbed the day before, then I started down around 9:20 AM.





    Some flowers along the way:








    At 10:50, I reached the stashed refreshments at the end of the logging road:





    Just before noon, back to the Jeep:





    Total trip: 16km or 10 miles hiking, 5200 feet up and back down (3800 with backpack), 2 beautiful nights in a gorgeous spot (despite the logging cutblocks in the area), and 1 really sweet getaway!

  2. # ADS
    Circuit advertisement
    Join Date
    Always
    Posts
    Many
     

  3. #2
    Whuh!? Did you see jesus up there?

    Name:  IMGP4381..JPG
Views: 890
Size:  75.4 KB


    (Looks like a great trip!!)

  4. #3
    very nice Kev

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Don View Post
    Whuh!? Did you see jesus up there?


    Heh, I didn't have that much to drink! Randi think it looks like Scotty is beaming someone up! In fact, it's a smear on the lens, and shooting into the sun...

  6. #5


    ^^^ This reminds me of the last 3 weekends of my life. Skeeter net and getting water.

    Looks like a great adventure. Thanks for sharing.

  7. #6
    that is some good stuff.
    signature

  8. #7
    Fantastic trip report! I am SO going to start stashing beer for the hike back out!

  9. #8
    Fantastic camera work.


  10. #9
    Great stuff. Looks like a blast.
    Life is Good

  11. #10
    Saaaaaaweeeeeeeeeeett. What a great little jaunt. You appear to have no fear of being out there alone. I dont think I would venture that far solo.

    Thanks for sharing another fantastic trip.

  12. #11
    Thanks, everyone. It was a nice trip, and despite not reaching a peak, I did meet my goal of getting away for a couple of nights, and enjoying a nice spot.

    Quote Originally Posted by JONBOYLEMON View Post
    Saaaaaaweeeeeeeeeeett. What a great little jaunt. You appear to have no fear of being out there alone. I dont think I would venture that far solo.
    Naw, I don't have any qualms about getting out there, pretty far, on my own. I'm happy to spend days and days (and nights) miles from anybody. The thing is, I just have to be careful about doing things that put me into more objective risk - but the fact that I'm a big wimp when it comes to exposure really helps out with that factor! I am a chicken when things start getting high up and hanging out there, even with others around. When I'm on my own, it's all the worse! When I'm on a rope, with a good solid anchor, I don't mind big rappels on my own, but a sketchy downclimb or scramble - that's a whole different matter.

  13. #12
    Nice looking trip, kev. Glad you managed to avoid the fire-generated pall that seems to be covering the entire province these days. FWIW, Ashlu, and Foley still elude me, as well.

    Oh, and btw-one step closer (you'll get the reference )

  14. #13
    Nice TR, felt like I was there. Perfect inspiration for me tonight as I'm literally packing up for a week in Yosemite starting Saturday. I hope I have less skeeters. Usually by Aug in the Sierra it's not so bad. Watch for my TRs!
    It is good that warriors such as we meet in the struggle of life... or death. It shall be life. - Ten Bears, "The Outlaw Josie Wales"

  15. #14
    Just trying out the groovy embedded map using Joseph's Gmap4. Made a small KML file with the track and a couple of points/photos.

    Viewing on a mobile device? Click this link to open the map: http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php?q=https://sites.google.com/site/cirrus2000/WilliamsonLake.kml&t=t2

  16. #15
    Attaboy Kev

    If anyone wants to see the aerial, just click MyTopo ==> Satellite

  17. #16
    Nice

Similar Threads

  1. Where to Live in the Salt Lake area...
    By robjenson in forum General Discussion
    Replies: 29
    Last Post: 05-06-2010, 12:27 PM
  2. Current conditions in the Mirror Lake area?
    By Scott Card in forum Backpacking & Camping
    Replies: 22
    Last Post: 06-21-2009, 08:08 PM
  3. [Trip Report] Spirit Lake area Report
    By brookiekiller in forum Hiking, Scrambling & Peak Bagging
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 06-27-2007, 08:43 AM
  4. Salt Lake area trails
    By basilone0331 in forum Offroad 4x4, Side by Side and ATV
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 09-10-2006, 08:08 AM
  5. How to get to the Utah Lake pump house area
    By Wasatch Rebel in forum Fishing
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 08-06-2005, 05:40 AM

Visitors found this page by searching for:

williamsonlake fishing cbilliwack

williamson lake hike

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •