Monashee Provincial Park Trip Report
We had told the 17 student hikers that the trip would not be easy. They found out that was the truth! Day 1 included backpacking (full packs) 6.5km into beautiful Spectrum Lake. All hikers made it without complaining. The first task was to set up our backcountry tents. Getting our supper prepared, eating, writing in our journals by the campfire, letting the pitch black darkness settle over us amongst some personal stories, humorous tales and a few scary bits and pieces set the tone for a quiet night once we hit the nylon tents about 9:30pm. Day 2 on this trip might be one of the hardest of any single day. Mr. Wakefield and Mr. Kirk traded being in the front and back of the group. We hiked up from Spectrum Lake about 7.5km to Little Peters Lake, which was our lunch destination (check out the pics on this web site). The elevation gain and steepness was serious and difficult in nature. The OE kids did great! From there we continued another 1.5 km to Big Peters Lake. We are not sure if our grade nines saw how beautiful this sub alpine lake was as they might have been too exhausted. Keeping our eye on the time, we started back for Spectrum about 1:30pm. We kept to our motto of “Safety First” as there were several tricky areas to hike down. There were no injuries to speak of; what we did have were 17 very tired teenagers! Again the campfire was a hit after supper. Before 9:00 students were pleading to go to bed (really!). Friday morning the students were up before 7:00am. They had to pack, get their tent put away, all before they were allowed to eat breakfast. We started our backpacking departure at 8:30 and made it to the trailhead with a waiting yellow SD 23 bus by 10:15! Mr. W and Mr. K were very proud of every one of the students! |
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