Wilderness:

Raising the Bar

Fiddlehead Farm To Tin Hat Summit

Early July 1999

I start out this hike with a pack weighing about 55 lbs.

After an overnighter at Fiddlehead in the guesthouse, I am ready for the gruel it is reported to be. Last evening a family returned from a hike up Tin Hat. They turned around without making it to the summit, for lack of time-food-daylight. Their pre-teen child put in a good hike. Which is to say, not everyone who sets out for the Tin Hat summit returns as planned, but most return rewarded well for their efforts.

From the dining room at Fiddlehead, where I savoured a cup of coffee until 8:53, the trail starts out past the gardens, the volleyball court, and Andrew & Lisa's and Timo's residences. The trail continues up past the Retreat Centre, and into the green moss and fern covered woods.

At the 82-km marker at 9:09 the woods are quiet with birds chirping and water gurgling. At 9:27 Reuben's Crossing provides a bridge over a stream. Ten minutes later the trail forks off to the left marked "Blister Bypass". An older trail, well overgrown, continues straight ahead.

It's warmed up nicely already, so off come the long windpants, on goes the bug spray to ward off the ticks (Lime disease infected ticks are in these woods). The 83-km marker at 9:46 confirms my progress with a short descending section just ahead. Over a rise the trail descends to the "Shake Bole Dam." On the other side a marker gives trail building credits to: "Lynn Jacobs, Ron Henderson, Lorne Silvester, Roland Huetzelmann, Aluster Kraft" and ends with "dead on site Ed two days." You must have to have been there.

At 9:55 the trail forks: to the left is a "well marker route to Tin Hat", to the right a "well marked trail to Tin Hat". Again: left is a route, the right a trail. In other words going left will mean you will not get lost, but you will bushwack a bit. The trail goes right.

At 10:00 a five-foot bridge crosses a stream, berry brambles reach into the trail, and then the switchbacks start up. The .5-km marker arrives five minutes later, just ahead of two benches and a twenty-foot bridge marked "Cedar Xing."

Four minutes later another trail crosses at 90 degrees (straight down to the left and straight up), which bypasses the switchbacks and is plugged with logs up above. At 10:14 and 10:15 two small bridges carry the trail over small streams.

At 10:17 the trail reaches a bit of a plateau, and then descends through the .5-km marker (10:20) to "Oscar's Xing 47", a twenty-foot bridge (10:21). Eight minutes later switchbacks join in giving their assent to the trail's upward motion through the 84-km marker(10:39). At 10:41 an opening in the canopy reveals a single engine beaver flying past and a woodpecker knocking for bugs. Odd how these two show up together more than once. Two blasts, 30 seconds apart, shake the earth at 10:48.

After a slight descent at 10:53, the trail moves onto a more open hillside with filtered views of the neighbouring mountains and the lakes below. Steep switchbacks carry the trail up like an elevator. At 11:06 the trail takes a left at a "T". Twenty minutes later the trail takes a break in the ascent to move down next to a stream on the left and then crosses on a 2 foot board step-over. The 85-km marker at 11:28 glides by on a short descent under a conifer tree. Two minutes later the trail starts the ascent again.

At 11:47 another guest from Fiddlehead Farm, carrying only a light daypack, overtakes me, working aggressively to cover theses 3.5-km in 56 minutes. The distance that has taken me 3.5 hours with my pack, and my more steady and sure approach, okay, my slow pace.

At 11:58 the .5 marker provides me with a small excuse for a thirty second break from the climb. Four minutes later the trail descends for five minutes and then begins to climb up the switchbacks. It's still traversing and climbing as the 86-km marker (12:23) goes by, offering filtered views to Haslam Lake and the mountains on each side.

I take a break of ten minutes. At 13:02 "Haslam Vista" provides views of the Smith Range, Texada and Vancouver Islands, Haslam Lake, Mt. Mahoney. At 13:17, 13:20, and 13:34 the trail crosses streams, which could be good sources of water to filter. I take an eleven minute break to filter some water.

As the trail follows a stream on the left at 13:36, the 87-km marker, beside an old burned out stump, confirms my progress. A minute later this stream and another stream flank the trail, before the trail crosses the one on the right to continue the climb.

At 14:02 the trail comes to a lookout with stumps set-up as chairs for the travellers. I take a five minute break. At 14:10 the first patch of snow and the .5-km marker arrive together. More snow follows soon thereafter. At 14:19 the 88-km sign marks the junction with the old access road to Tin Hat, left over from when the summit served as a fire lookout tower. At 14:34 the trail ascends to a small plateau, from which ahead the last chunk of rock protrudes skyward, the summit. The summit is roughly 2-km further.

On this plateau the route to Lewis Lake departs down the ridge to the north-north-east.

At 14:41 and 14:47 views open up, first to the Powell Lake side and then to the canoe lakes' side of Tin Hat. There is more snow. At 15:01 the trail reaches the end of the plateau and the beginning of the last ascent up the rocks. The trail, while crossing the last small "meadow" seems to disappear. It proceeds right past the last flag, through a pine tree-bush that has bent down across what looks like a creekbed. After passing that pine the trail is once again visible, if steep and occasionally partially blocked by other winter-snow-bent pines across it.

Flies are everywhere, the going is slow. I take a five minute break for a candy bar. I have not yet stopped to eat, though I have had granola bars and trail mix and juice along the way. I am tired, hungry, exhausted. Onward push, pull, heave, onward.

At 15:16 I pass a good trickle of water to which I return later for water. It flows out of a small plateau roughly 150 feet down from the summit, which is still filled with melting snow.

At 15:24 I reach the summit.

Water. Lunch. Tea. Water filtered and boiled for the descent. Rest. Photos. Awesome.

And then I find the other snow bank, the beautiful red flowers and the small water source on the Powell Lake side of the summit. More photos and preparation to descend.