Chilcotin Ridges

I always wanted to explore the Chilcotin Mountain ridges, so I was very excited when friends invited me on a trip. Not having done a multi-day back packing trip in a long time and with some time on my hands, I carefully compiled my gear and even made a packing list with the weight of all items. I was quite pleased with the result and my pack weighing about 36 lbs (16 kg). Turns out my plans were a little too skimpy on the food side (good the friends had some extra chocolate bars). And after the trip I quickly replaced my lightweight 20 year old 3/4 thermarest - after suffering a serious case of sleeping mat envy: everyone else had new cushy full-sized mats that were 4 times as thick as mine but weight the same.

The area is remote and trails are not always marked or easy to find. But these trails get you to high ridges with most amazing views. We had to switch to Plan B as our car got stuck in the mud en route to Leckie Lake trailhead. So we hiked in along Gun Creek and up the ridge to Mt Sheba. Our second camp was on a windy lake just below Mt Sheba summit. Next day we continued to Deer pass and dropped down to Hummingbird Lake. On the way back we met a friend from paddling days in a group of mountain bikers. Small world!

Alaska by Cruise Ship

We knew we would be out of our usual 'habitat' when Pete’s parents invited us on a family Alaska Cruise.
But it was an adventure nevertheless!

It was cool to see some of the places we had visited in sea kayaks and on river trips from a different perspective (namely from the top deck of a huge ship), the Zandamm. We cruised to Juneau, Skagway, Tracey Arm and Ketchikan. I was amazed by the number of whales everywhere in the open waters. After leaving Ketchikan I counted over 80 of them in an hour. The highlight was watching bubble-net feeding Humpback whales near Juneau and the trip into the narrow fjord Tracey Arm. We also retraced the route or the gold prospectors across White Pass 1896–1899 (an alternative route to the Chilkoot Pass), where the tree line is at 800 meters. We drove on to the small town of Carcross (short for caribou crossing), Yukon and played on the sand dunes there, not exactly what you would expect on an Alaska Cruise. Turns out the real challenge of the cruise was not too eat too much of the delicious food!