#1 For the Day - Top of De Pencier Bluffs
Mystery Lake on the way to De Pencier Bluffs
#1 De Pencier Bluffs
Wendy at the top of Mount Seymour - awesome views! #2 for the day.
Indian Arm water below. Neil/Ean/David are out there somewhere?
Top of Mount Seymour (4755 Feet)
The next day - Mt.Fromme - it's Wet!
Top of Mt. Fromme - wet!
The alarm on Saturday morning went off very early but not for me - Neil was heading out on a bagging expedition with Ean and David. The plan for them was to be on the trail by 6am and done by 6pm. The weather report Friday evening said heavy showers in the early morning clearing off later in the morning. I called Wendy and we made arrangements to start in the fairer weather so we didn't start up the trail until 10:30ish. The plan was to climb Seymour and De Pencier Bluffs, 2 Peaks in the Bagger Challenge. We originally thought we would waterbag them but due to time constraints changed our mind at the last minute. The sun came out and we had very nice views from the top of Seymour Mountain (4755 Feet). I remember the trail up Seymour from last year-very rocky. Conditions yesterday were perfect and the rocks were dry. There is a few technical sections/drop offs but overall very straight forward on a well travelled trail. The De Pencier Bluffs provided a great view of Vancouver as well. The trail had low brush and a few piles of fresh Bear scat! We were up and down in good time and went for coffee. Emails and text messages from the guys - all is well. I drove home with anticipation of Neil being home by 7pm as his 5:58am text message indicated. David had been sending home SPOT messages to Julia and Neil was good with emails/texts to let us know of their progress. It was obvious they decided to take on a little more than they originally planned. "Running a bit behind schedule" one message said. The skies darkened with the early sunset and the storm clouds that were rolling in. The skies opened up and it was torrential rain for the rest of the night into early morning. I kept a watchful eye on my BB for any emails/texts. Julia and I were sharing messages. I searched the Internet to learn more about the trails they were on and started to worry with the terrible conditions and darkness they were in. They were in some tough terrain which would now be very dangerous and slippery. A few more SPOT messages. It was after 9pm (remember they started at 6am) with only the food and water they could carry. Finally a message from Neil they were at the point where they had ditched their bikes in the woods. I was relieved they were off the mountain but now they had to bike out in the pouring rain at 10pm - cold, very cold for 13km's in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve with the light from their headlamps. Neil showered up at Ean and Sibylle's had some warm soup before driving back to Maple Ridge. He was home at 1:30am. Once home he tells me the story about how he twisted his ankle on the way out. Nasty sprain - purple and swollen. I had a feeling something was up - spouse intuition! Neil declined bagging today but I convinced Wendy to come up Fromme for a quick trip to make it 3 bags this weekend. She turned it into a long run (she has already bagged Fromme this year.) Thanks Wendy!
For full gritty details of the guys expedition enjoy the posts on Club Fat Ass.
http://www.clubfatass.com/tags/contests-and-challenges/bagger-challenge-2010
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