Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Ascending McBride: one more tromp to the top

The most recent romp in the jungle of petrographic monuments took us to McBride, just a small jump east from PG. Along the way we stopped at an old growth forest with towering cedars, spent the night at the most mosquito ridden campsite ever known, and managed to find a wonderful railside coffee shop. Well done, indeed.

These are horribly achronological, but I can assume that the order matters not.



Me, hiking up the last section ot the peak.



Both of us on top of the peak, after following the ridgeline to McBride Mt.


A local forest fire sent quite a significant amount of particulates to the atmosphere, making an opportune setting for sunset colouration.



Crystal is hiking along the ridgeline.


Crystal, standing by a rock cairn that should have fallen over many sotrms ago. Apparently the structural support is maintained by the lone upright rock? Regardless, it was extremely windy at this section of the alpine and the cairn did not sway at all.


Me, enjoying a july 15th snowball at the top of the mountain.


The view down to the McBride valley. To the lower right an oxbow lake is visible, recently flooded.

This was on the way to McBride, at the Ancient Forest. Crystal sides up to one of the trees for comparison.


Same place, different person. I (after doing away with a Triffid) pose beside another tree.

Takng a break and a refreshing wash at the falls. The sun was blocked mostly by the forest canopy but the heat was immense regardless. There was a sweet and humid smell of the summer air which combined succinctly with the sultry forest fire aroma - which I talked about for the remainder of the trip.


Another sunset picture. We set off to find a good place that was bug free and had a clear view to the west and were granted this wonderful vantage point!