Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in Manning Park
 

Our family loves Manning Park.  In the winter we ski there and in the summer we go there to hike.  At the end of June we had a three day hike on the Canadian end of the Pacific Crest Trail.

In the United States, an extraordinary trail traverses the crest of the mountains from Mexico to Canada.  It is called the Pacific Crest Trail.  At the northern end of the trail, where it enters Canada, a 14 kilometre extension leads from the end of the US trail to the main road within Manning Provincial Park.  We hiked that 14 kilometre section of trail, making a round trip of 28 kilometres.  

We began our three day hike under solidly overcast skies late on Friday morning.  The first two kilometres of the trail are fairly level and run through a beautiful spruce forest alongside the Similkameen River which is often in sight through the forest.  After two kilometres, the trail joins an abandoned forestry access road that winds its way up Windy Joe Mountain.  For just over three kilometres we followed this narrow road up and up through thick forest as we quickly gained altitude.  A couple of times the sun peeked through the clouds, but didn't stay around for long.  

About noon we reached the 5 kilometre mark of the trail and stopped for lunch.  Although the day was very cool, probably less than eight degrees Celsius, we had been hiking only in t-shirts.  Despite the coolness, the climb up Windy Joe Mountain had us sweating profusely, so when we stopped to eat, we quicky began to cool.  We ate a very fast lunch and just as we were about to set out again it began to drizzle.  We put on our heavy packs and then donned plastic rain ponchos to protect us and our packs.  



  We began walking and within a couple of minutes came to a trail junction.  The Pacific Crest Trail, and the Mount Frosty Trail, left the Windy Joe trail and set off to the south through a magnificent conifer forest.  We left the old forestry road and began to walk along a narrow path through the tall trees.  We were traversing a steep mountainside so the slope fell off steeply to one side and rose steeply on the other.  The huge trees overhead gave us protection from the drizzle, so it was almost as if it were not raining at all.  We walked about a kilometre and then came to another fork in the trail.  The right fork ascended Mount Frosty and the left fork, which we followed, was the Pacific Crest Trail.

A few more minutes hiking took us to the Pacific Crest campsite, located on a little ridge in an open forest.  No one else was around, so we had the spot all to ourselves.  It was a beautiful, even with the low overcast obscuring the mountain tops around us.  The light drizzle which began just after we ate lunch had stopped, so we quickly put up our tent and used two small nylon flies to make a small cooking shelter off to one side of the tent.  It didn't take long and we had a nice campsite.

Although the rain stopped falling the sun did not come out.  It was very cool.  Soon after making our camp we decided to sit inside the tent.  I rested while Sandra, David and Christy play cards.  Our bodies heated the air in the tent and kept us warmer than had we been outside.  About an hour and a half after arriving at Pacific Crest camp another couple walked in to join us.  They set up their tent on a small patch of level ground a little to the east of us.  It was nice of them not to set up right beside us.

About 4:30 pm everyone decided they were hungry and wanted an early dinner.  I think boredom from sitting inside the tent was really the cause of the hunger.  Regardless, I climbed out of the tent and sitting under our dining shelter, made by two nylon tarps, I began to get things ready for dinner.  There wasn't really too much to do.  We were going to have oriental chicken noodle soup followed by chicken burgers and then cookies for desert.  Not a difficult meal!  I began preparing our meal about 5:00 pm and we were beginning our soup about twenty minutes later.

Last year we discovered that chicken burgers taste just as good fried as they do barbequed.  When you are out camping it is a lot easier to fry things in a pan than to get a fire going, take a grill along and barbeque meat.  However, being limited to a small single burner stove meant that I had to first cook the soup, serve it, then begin cooking the chicken burgers.  It caused a short pause between soup and burgers, but only by a few minutes.  

After dinner we lit a small fire in order to burn our garbage.  We didn't want any bears in our campsite.  We also took all our food, put it in one pack and hoisted the pack 5 metres into the air suspended on a rope between two trees.  The pack was 5 metres above the ground and at least two metres from any tree.  Again, no easy meals for bears.

  After dinner a steady rain began to fall, so we retired early to the tent.  Sandra, Christy and David played cards for a while, but I decided to use the time to have a nice long sleep so climbed into my sleeping bag.  I don't know when they quit playing cards, but I was asleep before 9:00 pm.

I was up the next morning about 7:00 am to an interesting morning.  It was raining lightly, but as I stuck my head out of the tent I saw that there were lots of blue holes in the cloudy sky.  I quickly decided that I needed a cup of coffee.  That meant our food pack had to be dropped to the ground, the small one burner stove lit and water put on to boil.  A few moments of work and I had the pack down on the ground, untied and under the tarp which served as our kitchen.  Coffee was made and soon I was sitting, enjoying the morning as I sipped my hot drink.  

It was another hour and a half before there was any movement in the tent.  One by one David, Sandra and then Christy emerged into the new day.  As Christy started her therapy I started preparing a breakfast of hash brown potatoes, toast and eggs.  We ate all we could and managed to do away with the entire pan of potatoes!

After cleaning up the breakfast dishes, and lifting our food back up into the air, we set off on a nice little 14 kilometre hike to the US border.  The day was still a mix of cloud, sun and showers, but the showers were so light and so infrequent that we didn't bother putting on the rain ponchos which we had in our day pack.  We descended gently from the ridge where we had passed the night, walking along a narrow trail cut into the mountainside.  Sometimes we were in pine or spruce forest, sometimes on rough mountain side.  

We stayed dry as we walked until we were about 4 kilometres from our camp.  Then, as we descended the sides of the infrequently used trail closed in with tall grass and flowers which were soaking wet after the night's heavy rain.  Soon our pants, from the knees down, and our boots, were soaking wet.  Although we were warm walking, we knew the wet legs and feet would cool us down rapidly once we stopped.  The temperature was only about 6 degrees Celsius.  

We descended the trail through beautiful countryside, finally arriving at the US border where a border monument marked the location of the border and a plaque marked the end of the US Pacific Crest Trail which stretches from Mexico to Canada.  We spent only a few moments looking at the signs then turned and walked half a kilometre back to a campsite where we sat and ate lunch.  As we had thought, our wet clothes cooled us rapidly as we sat and ate.

  Although the day was a mix of cloud and sun, with big blue patches among the clouds, it remained cool and showery.  Finishing lunch we packed up our day pack and headed back up the trail for our camp.  A light drizzle began to fall when we were a quarter of the way up the trail so we donned our rain ponchos.  Then, when the sun shone down on us, we got so hot we had to take them off again.  The process was repeated couple of times as we hiked.  It was mid-afternoon when we reached our camp.  We were not too tired, but we were wet.  Upon arrival we found that three more people had joined us at the campsite and were setting up their tents.  While they set up tents, we made a fire so we could dry out our damp clothes.

The other campers were people who backpacked a lot, but were still very surprised when we quickly got a fire started using only dry materials found around the bases of large trees.  Soon we had a wonderful, hot fire around which we stood and dried our wet pants and boots.  It was wonderful to be warm!

Late afternoon another couple arrived at the campsite, but had to pitch their tent a little ways away from the rest of us because there wasn't much room left.  We invited them to come and share our fire with us, but by the time they pitched their tent it was dinner time and they, and us, began to prepare a meal and light our stoves.

We ate a nice pasta and tuna dinner and were in the tent about 9:00 pm.  I don't know when the others went to sleep, but I was in my sleeping bag an asleep very quickly.

Once again we had constant, heavy rain during the night.  Unlike the previous morning, this morning was wet and dreary.  It was drizzling and there was a solid overcast.  I was once again out of the tent at about 7:00 am and soon had a cup of coffee in hand.  Again, it was a long wait for the rest of the family to emerge from the tent.  I actually made another cup of coffee and drank it while waiting.  Once everyone was up, and Christy's therapy done, we ate a hearty pancake breakfast.  It was still raining, and today was the day to break camp, so we selected a slightly different strategy.  We would descend the mountain in two groups - Sandra and David first, then Christy and I an hour later.  This was to give Sandra a head start just in case she had trouble with her knees while descending.  Sandra is strong, and a great hiker going up hill, but her knees cause her great pain when walking down a steep grade, with or without a pack.

  We began to break up camp, and packed up everything except the tent and tarps, still hoping the rain would stop, the sun would shine and we would be able to take it down dry.  Once everything but the tent and tarp were packed we ate lunch and then Sandra and David left.  Christy and I waited a while longer, but realizing the sun wasn't going to shine, took down the tent and tarp.  By the time we were finished packing our packs an hour had elapsed since David and Sandra left.  After a final check of the campsite we turned towards the trail and began our descent.

The first couple of kilometres of the trail were through forest on the narrow winding Pacific Crest Trail as it meandered through forest.  This trail is more or less level, sometimes rising a bit, sometimes falling.  Eventually we joined the old forestry access road of the Windy Joe trail and began our descent.  This is where we thought Sandra might have trouble with her knees.  Each kilometre we walked we expected to see Sandra hobbling down the trail, but each turn and each new piece of trail was empty, except near the valley where we began to encounter a few day hikers.  The morning drizzle had stopped in the afternoon so although it was overcast, the day was now dry.  As we descended into the valley a few blue patches of sky broke the solid overcast. Finally the sun poked through the clouds and with it came a brief shower which forced us into our rain ponchos.  The shower was short lived and soon the ponchos were off and once again the day was dry.

When we reached the valley bottom the trail left the old forestry access road and once again became a narrower path through the trees.  Along these final couple of kilometres we had a strange experience.  We met a fellow riding a horse.  Just before we met him the we had another brief shower and so put our rain ponchos back over us.  When the horse saw us, with our ponchos, he was terrified by the huge covered humps on our backs and almost threw the rider.  Christy and I had to step well off of the trail before the horse would pass.

Another fifteen minutes and we were done.  Sandra and David left and hour before us and arrived an hour before us.  Sandra's knees had been fine, for which we are very thankful.

Our hike on the Manning Park portion of the Pacific Crest Trail was cool and damp, but we had a great time, as we always do, in the wonderful mountains of super, natural, BC.

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