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Skyline II Hike
to Mowich Camp
On the Canada Day long weekend 6 of us were going to go backpacking in Manning Park in south-western British Columbia. We were going to hike the Skyline II trail to Mowich Camp and do a bit of exploring in the mountains around the campsite as well. The hike is a 12½ kilometre climb up into the mountains and is rated as difficult. Canada Day morning at 8:00 we met to distribute food and gear among the backpacks. Our group consisted of Larry, Matt, Jason, Keith, Gordon and myself, Gary. It took about half an hour to get everything ready and by 8:30 am we were on our way. Six of us were wedged into Larry’s pickup, with our packs in the back of the truck, for the hour and a half trip from Chilliwack to Manning Park. The morning was mostly overcast, but the sun was poking through and the day looked like it would become beautiful and sunny.  During our drive up to Manning Park I told everyone that we had a 100 percent chance of seeing deer during our three days in the park and a 50/50 chance of seeing a bear. We talked about what to do if we saw a bear, besides taking pictures of it. We were barely into the park, still 25 kilometres from the start of our hike, when we actually drove past a deer. The 100 percent held true, although I was still sure we would see one while on our hike. Before beginning our hike we checked in with the ranger at the visitor’s centre at Manning to make sure the Skyline II trail was open. It was, and was reported to have been cleared of fallen trees. We drove to our starting point, Strawberry Flats, and very quickly had everything out of the truck and on to our backs. It is really amazing that a 20 kilogram backpack doesn’t feel to bad the first few minutes after you put it on. We began our hike about 10:30 am with a nice stroll along level valley bottom to the first trail junction, a little less than half a kilometre from the trail head. There the trail split in two with one part going towards Three Falls and the other being our Skyline II trail. We turned on to the Skyline II trail, now heading south towards the mountain ridge we were about to climb. The day was sunny and warm, perfect for hiking. Within a few hundred metres our nice, level Skyline II trail began to climb up the side of the mountain. The trail rose steadily through forested slopes. At the 3.7 kilometre point we came to a meadow which allowed us to see some of the surrounding mountains. Red, Lone Goat and Snow Camp Mountains rose to form the highest points of the horizon. Just after the 4 kilometre mark we came to a lovely clearing with a nice pond where we decided to pause and have lunch. Well, most of us paused. Keith decided to continue walking on his own, so left the rest of us to have lunch as he continued up the path. We were not to see him again until Mowich Camp, 8½ kilometres away.  We ate a leisurely
lunch surrounding by tall trees and towering mountains. The pond
was to be our last water source until we arrived at Mowich Camp, still
a few hours away, so after eating lunch in the idyllic surroundings of
the pond we filled our water bottles. This was all the water we
were to have for the duration of the hike to Mowich Camp.After our lunch stop we were back onto the trail and continued our upward climb. I was walking pretty slowly because my left knee had begun to hurt a bit. A fifteen year old injury was beginning to act up, but as long as I kept a fairly slow pace I didn’t feel it, so I walked slowly. Another change was happening as well, our beautiful, sunny day was disappearing as clouds began to fill the sky. At about the 5.5 kilometre mark the trail levelled out and at 5.9 kilometres we came to another trail junction. We were right at the edge of a huge cliff that fell away to the valley floor to the south of us. Skyline I trail went to the east and  Skyline II trail
went to the west. However that was not important at that
moment. What was important was the incredible vista spread out
before us. At the bottom of the cliff, probably 600 metres (2,000
feet) below, lay Thunder Lake, nestled in the steep sided valley which
dropped away from our vantage point high above. Rocky, cliffy
slopes rose up on both sides of the lake. To the south-east was
Mount Frosty, at 2.400 metres (about 8,000 feet) the highest point in
Manning Park. To the south-west rose the jagged spires of the
triple summits of Mount Hozameen, just across the border in the USA,
and just over 2,400 metres (8,000 feet) high. After gazing at the
panorama of rugged rock and ice that covered our view to the south we
turned and resumed out hike. Next on the agenda was Despair Pass. Despair Pass was
about 1.5 kilometres of walking through dense forest. First we
descended steep switchbacks, then walked along the saddle between two
mountains, then climbed the steep trail on the western side, up the
flank of Snow Camp Mountain. By this time my left knee was
becoming very sore and my pace was getting extremely slow going both
climbing and descending. Only on the brief flat parts of the
trail I could still walk fairly quickly. Despair Pass was
gruelling, especially the steep climb at the western end. My pace
was becoming very slow and the other hikers, with the exception of Matt
who stayed with me, were pulling away quickly. Not only was my
knee sore, I realized I was not in as good a condition as I had thought
I was in. I was getting tired and we still had 5 kilometres to
go. Near the last piece of Despair Pass, about 400 metres from
the top, Jason came bounding down the trail and offered to take my
pack. I hated to do it, I had to swallow my pride, but I accepted
his offer and let him take my pack the last 400 metres to the top of
the pass.After Despair pass the trail followed along the side of the mountain ridge from Snow Camp Mountain and then on to Lone Goat Mountain, the skyline from which the trail derived it’s name.. We were mainly on open slopes, above the tree line, with only a few occasional patches of small trees. The trail was always climbing or falling, always very tough on my knee. I was slowly making my way along the trail; slowed by being tired and by pain in my knee. If I walked with slow, measured steps the knee didn’t hurt, but it was very slow going.  The down side of
the day was my aching knee and dog tiredness. The up side was the
spectacular scenery. The spectacular spires of Mount Hozameen
soared to the south-west, getting ever closer as we walked west.
Awe inspiring glacier covered peaks rose up to form the southern
horizon. Just as spectacular were the wild flowers which filled
the mountainsides and were a carpet through which we walked. They
were red and blue and yellow and orange and every colour in
between. They blanketed the ground and danced in the breeze as we
passed. Yes, I was hurting, and tired, but the mountains and
flowers and everything else were incredible.By now Matt and I were alone. The others had long since pulled away from us. We passed the ten kilometre mark and soon came to one final uphill grind. We stopped at the top to rest, in my case, collapse onto the ground. After a few minutes rest we rose to begin our final two kilometres downhill into camp. The downhill meant that I didn’t have to worry too much about stamina, but my knee would keep me moving slowly.  We started down the
trail but within sixty seconds my knee began to give out
entirely. I could hardly put any weight on it, tough to do when
you are carrying a 20 kilogram pack. Suddenly I found myself
almost unable to move. Two kilometres, downhill, to go, and I
couldn’t move. I looked up at Matt, now about 50 metres ahead of
me and disappearing in a slight bend in the trail. As Matt
disappeared from sight, Jason and Larry came into sight, running up the
trail towards me. One of them had a pack in his hand. They
were the best thing I had seen all day, better even than the
spectacular scenery which surrounded us. These two, wonderful,
friends divided my gear between my pack and the one they had carried up
the trail and carried all my gear the final two kilometres into
camp. With the loss of 20 kilograms of weight I was able to walk
again, albeit with a limp, but walk fairly quickly. As long as I
kept my knee fairly stiff I could manage. At about the 12 kilometre mark we descended back to the tree line and into open forest for the last few minutes of the hike. It was about 3:15 pm when we arrived at Mowich Camp, not quite 5 hours after beginning the hike. Without the help of Jason and Larry, it would have been a very different scenario. I was so thankful to these two men who came to my rescue. Mowich Camp is nestled in a little valley at an elevation of 1,600 metres (5,250 feet). A large meadow lies to the north with a small stream winding through it. The only view is of the meadow stretching several hundred metres to the north and the forested ridges around the camp. There is a permanent wooden lean-to at the campsite, providing shelter for those who don’t have tents, an outhouse and a steel bear cache where you store your food. Yes, there are bears around. Larry, Jason and Gord had seen a bear during the hike. It had been quite a ways below the trail, feeding in an open meadow. Keith, who had left us when we ate lunch had arrived at Mowich first, but had not seen the bear. My prediction of a 50 percent chance of seeing a bear had come to pass a bit strangely. Only 50 percent of us had seen the bear! By the time I arrived at Mowich Camp one tent was up and the second was just being pitched. The large tent was pitched right in front of the lean-to, with the fire pit about two and a half metres in front of it, and the second tent was pitched about ten metres away. Normally I like to put up a nylon tarp near the fire in case it rains, but in the meadow there was no way to do that. There were trees at the side of the camping area, but not near the fire pit. About 5:00 pm a young couple arrived and set up their tent a little above us in the meadow. They seemed to be nice, friendly people.  We made a small
fire to barbeque hamburgers for dinner. We also had an oriental
salad which I was sure everyone was going to enjoy. I was right,
it was a hit. We began to barbeque hamburgers over th fire and as we
were doing so I realized that we had a huge amount of salad left
over. I took the bag of salad up to the young couple and asked if
they would like some. They couldn’t believe that we had salad
with us and eagerly accepted the bag. After helping themselves
they returned the salad to us, still enough to feed all of us for
another meal.We ate hamburgers until everyone was full, then finished dinner with chocolate chip cookies and coffee. The young couple joined us around the fire and drank coffee with us. Listening to them, and their polite language, I began to realize they were probably Christians. It turned out they were, and what’s more, their uncle was a pastor and a good friend of Matt’s. As we sat around the campfire talking we had a visitor approach. A beautiful deer wandered into the campsite and took a look at us, only spooked when we took notice of her. We followed her into the meadow trying to take some pictures of her, but it was late and there was not a lot of light. Afterwards we returned to the campfire and spent a wonderful evening talking. All of us were tired after the hike in to Mowich Camp and were in bed before 10:00 pm. During the night it rained, sometimes softly, sometimes hard. We awoke to a completely overcast, drizzly morning. The drizzle held off while I made cheese omelette and toast for everyone, but began to fall as we finished eating and got into making coffee. We moved under the lean-to and pondered our options. There was no way to string a tarp up near the fire, and because of the placement of the tent we couldn’t move the fire closer to the lean-to unless we totally rearranged our campsite. Looking to the western side of our meadow, about 40 metres from the lean-to and just past the second tent, the trees began. There were two spots where it would be easy to string up nylon tarps for roof and windbreak. We decided to put up the tarps in the trees then move the campfire from the fire pit to a patch of dirt just in front of the tarps. The “moving the campfire” operation didn’t take long. Within a few minutes we had the tarps up, one as a roof and another as a wall to block the wind. As soon as that was done we used shovels to carry the burning coals and logs to their new spot in front of the tarp. Last to come were the pieces of log cut to use as stools. When all was done we had a nice, warm, cozy shelter. The rain continued to fall but we stayed warm and dry. We saw a couple more deer during the morning as they wandered through our campsite. Morning gave way to lunch time and the rain continued to fall. Occasionally it let up and occasionally we saw a patch of blue in the sky above us. We ate lunch and continued to sit around the fire talking. We had planned a hike for the day, but the weather kept us in camp. About 3:00 in the afternoon the drizzle let up and there were some bright spots in the sky. Four of the six of us decided to go for a hike. I stayed so that I could rest my knee. I was not at all confident of my ability to walk back out to the truck. Keith also stayed to read and take a nap. Four hikers set out to climb up Hozameen Ridge. With the low cloud and fog they didn’t see a lot, but at least got some exercise. While they were gone Keith and I took a nap. Our hikers returned to Mowich Camp a bit before 4:30 pm a lot wetter than they had been when they left. They hung clothing around the campfire, and put shoes around the base of the fire, trying to dry everything. We settled back into more conversation, covering all sorts of topics. About 6:00 pm I began to prepare our spaghetti dinner. It was ready by 6:30 when we began to eat. There was far to much spaghetti so no one went hungry. We finished off with more chocolate chip cookies and coffee. I had brought a kilogram of cookies, a bulk pack, and it was becoming obvious that we had more than double what we needed.  During the evening
we began discussing our trek back to the truck the next morning.
It was obvious that I could not carry much weight and still be able to
walk. It meant that the others were going to have to take most of
the things I was carrying in my pack. This sounds easy, but is a
pretty big sacrifice to make. The five other men were each going to
have to take about 6 pounds of my load, and carry that plus all of
their own gear. That would leave me with ten or twelve pounds
which I thought I could carry without further injury to my knee.
One other sacrifice would also have to be made. Any remaining
food would have to be left behind. To lighten the load we would only
carry out the food we needed for lunch. We talked through the
evening and about10:30 began to drift to our sleeping bags. Sunday morning we were up earlier than the day before, not as tired as we had been after the hike in on Friday. The sky was much brighter and there were many small blue patches, the promise of a sunny day to come. It was clearing and we  knew the sky would
soon be blue. We were going to have a nice day to hike back out
to the truck which was parked at Strawberry Flats. Well, as nice
a hike as can be had when five members were each going to be carrying a
lot of extra weight and one was trying to walk with a bad knee.I had planned a pancake breakfast, but no one wanted pancakes so we had oatmeal, toast and cheese. It was certainly an easy breakfast for me to cook. Coffee, of course, came before and after breakfast. When we had finished eating we began to go through the remaining food, narrowing down what we needed to take for lunch and what could be left behind. Actually, nothing was going to be left behind, it was going to be burned. In an area full of bears you can’t leave food lying around. If bears begin to think that a campsite means food, then there will always be bears in the camp. We burned all of the excess food, not an easy thing to do. The dollar amount was not very large, but it was just the idea of burning food. No one likes to see food burned. Once that was done we began to take down the tents and tarps and get ready to go. The sun was now shining and it was a beautiful day. We carried the fire, embers, wood and all, back to the regular fire pit and poured lots of water over the spot where the fire had been burning. I wanted any roots under the ground to be very wet. We did not want to be responsible for a forest fire in this lovely park. Finally we had Mowich Camp looking like it did when we had arrived. It was neat and tidy. The fire was out. Most of the weight I had been carrying in my pack had been split up between the other five packs and we were ready to go. Matt gave my pack one final look and declared it was still too heavy. Some of my clothing went into Larry’s pack. By the time we were ready to go my pack probably weighed no more than 12 pounds. If I couldn’t make it out with that little weight I really was in trouble. The one other thing I did before leaving was to take a combination of everyday medicines which when taken together become a very powerful painkiller. It was a recipe told me by an operating room nurse and I hoped it would work. I took my medicine half an hour before leaving and by the time we left my knee felt much better. Actually, I didn’t feel my knee at all. We left Mowich Camp in a big group, but the group soon separated into two smaller groups. Jason, Gord and Larry went very quickly, while Matt and Keith stayed with me and went slower. The pain medication made my knee feel fine, but I  did not want to push
it. If it locked up totally I would be in trouble. I had to
make it through Despair Pass before I could chance walking fast.
The last 5½ kilometres were all downhill, and if I had to, I
could do that with me knee joint locked solid. However I couldn’t
walk up hill that way, so had to preserve the knee until getting
through Despair Pass.Once again it was a glorious day to be hiking. It was sunny and warm. We walked up the trail for 2 kilometres to the shoulder of Lone Goat Mountain and I had no problems as long as I walked slowly. The view of the mountains was breath taking, as were the wild flowers. We were on the lookout for bear, but didn’t see any as we climbed up the trail. We continued to hike, but stopped frequently to take pictures of the mountains and flowers. As we crossed the south side of Lone Goat Mountain Matt spotted a deer in a meadow below us. It was a large buck. We watched it for a couple of minutes and realized there were two deer below us, both bucks with large sets of antlers. They were close enough to see, but too far away for our cameras to get a good picture of them. Matt had seen many deer in the wild, but somehow had never before seen a buck. Now he had seen two.  I was a very happy
hiker. With the medication I had taken my knee felt fine, but to
be safe I continued to walk slowly. The summit spires of
beautiful Mount Hozameen provided us with lots of material for pictures
as did the myriad wild flowers. Just as we finished our traverse of
Snow Camp Mountain, at the western edge of Despair Pass, we encountered
two Manning Park rangers. They were on a trail clearing
expedition and had packed a large chain saw with them. The other hikers
had told them to ask Gary for a trail report, so they asked if I was
Gary. I told them the trail was clear of dead fall so they could
leave their chainsaw where it was and have a lot easier hike to Mowich
Camp. While talking I found out that several years earlier the
two women had been lift attendants at the Manning Ski Resort.
When I described the ski hat I wear, and that I was a ski instructor,
they both remembered me and began to laugh. I do use a rather
distinctive piece of head wear when skiing.The two rangers told us that there was a bear below us in Despair Pass, but we didn’t see it as we descended the slope into the pass. We wondered if Jason, Gord and Larry and seen it, or come face to face with it. With only a light pack Despair Pass was not a problem for me. I walked slowly to save my knee, but was  hardly working. I
felt really bad for my friends who had to hike with all of their own
things plus most of mine. I had next to no weight to carry and
only had to walk slow enough to keep my knee from locking up.
They had to struggle up this slope with extra heavy packs.We walked through the dense forest of Despair Pass and climbed up the east side. At the top Skyline II trail met Skyline I trail. Matt and I stopped for a bite of lunch but Keith decided to keep going. It was now 5.9 kilometres to Strawberry Flats. The trail rose gradually for a few hundred metres then it was all downhill. After lunch and some pictures Matt and I began to walk. Now that I was sure I could make it
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out, even if my knee
locked up, I
picked up the pace. We walked very quickly down the trail, soon
passing the ponds at the 4 kilometre point where we had eaten lunch two
days earlier. 