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ANSCHLAGBRETT
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02.09.2019
At the crack of dawn, 4:33am to be exact, we rose to take on the day. In awe, I watched the sun kiss Little Diamond head with an orange tone. Soon the sky was tinted with the same hues and slowly the orange faded to a light blue, and rays shot out from behind Mamquam mountain. The sun filled the sky, and at 8:10 am we finally went out into the world. Our pace was brisk, familiar with the route to Mamquam Lake.
In marmot valley the temperature change struck us hard. We went from cold shadows, to the cold breeze of the river, only to be slapped by the heat as we entered the sun. There was only one marmot in marmot valley today-- it seemed the trail runners scared the creatures off. It would be a while yet before I would unfurl my umbrella. The moment the red radius reached its maximum value the blissful shade took over my skin; a barrier from the sun.
Yesterday the barren lands around Opal were gloomy and foreign. Now that the sky was clear, the alien lands looked less dead. It was a gorgeous panoramic scenery of rock lining the bases of rocky slopes.
Our route to Mamquam lake dips through two valleys, it is here we encountered the first horse flies-- the first of many. I tried outrunning them and they were persistent in their pursuit, but my umbrella served as a decent shield. If anything, these valley’s were the difficult component of the trip. Not only was the trek long but the dips added to the effort. Within the second valley a bridge crosses over two connecting streams. The neat thing about the streams is that there was a glacial river crashing through, and a stream from some ponds came down to join it. Since the glacial-fed river was larger, the stream merely blended into it and did not cause any noticeable changes in colour.
Once out of the valley, I found myself at the Rampart Ponds campground. The ponds themselves were not particularly beautiful, but they added to the calm aesthetic of the area. There are only 10 tent pads by the ponds, and the bear cache system looks more like lockers than lines that one can string up.
From Rampart Ponds to Mamquam Lake is only 1.5 km one way, which on the surface does not sound like a bad trek. The trail rises up slightly onto the crest of a ridge before plummeting down in a series of turns to the lake below. This made the return route harder than the trip there because one needed to regain all that elevation that was lost. Although the view from the crest was amazing, the quantity of horse flies increased leading us to making a haste escape into the woodlands below.
Even within the forest the amount of shade offered was minimal, so I kept my umbrella up and continued to hide from the horse flies. We collected a few blueberries to keep our spirits up, but as we rounded the corner a massive black head lifted up from the bushes. His brown muzzle pointed at us, I could tell that we were under observation. We were quick to fold our umbrellas in order to not startle him, and as we passed he did not return to grazing. Thankfully as we went further away he rose from his spot and lumbered off further away from the trail. He was significantly larger than the other black bears I have seen, and his behaviour of not settling back down unsettled me.
Once a safe distance away, we unfurled our umbrellas again and leapt down to the lake shore. I presume the spot where the trail ends is also where the campground was once located. Now I cannot help but wonder why it was removed since this lake was far more stunning than the ponds a little over a kilometer behind us.
This lake resides at the base of Pyramid Mountain, and appeared to be quite shallow from where we were sitting. The rocks were all quite low to the ground, so finding a comfortable perch was a tad bit of a struggle. Thankfully I did not end up lurking on this rock for very long since my hiking buddy commented how nice it would be to walk in the water to cool off our feet before heading back.
I slipped off my shoes and splashed into the shallow waters letting the cold slowly numb my feet. One could wade out pretty far before the water suddenly plunged into darkened depths, so we shuffled about on the rocks to find good areas with sand to stand on. Naturally we brought our umbrellas in, and naturally the horse flies came with us. It was super peaceful by the lake since no one else was here, moreover, we could faintly hear the glacier on Mamquam mountain cracking in the distance. After a solid 30 minutes, we both acknowledged that heading back for sunset was important.
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