After a summer full of hiking in the Rockies with Outward Bound, I was excited to go on a hiking trip closer to home that wasn’t “work”. Not only was I excited about this trip because it wasn’t “work”, but I was particularly excited to go on my first hiking trip with Chloe.

The trip started on a Friday evening and while driving down the Ashnola FSR, the check engine light in my Subaru Outback came on. The engine had been occasionally misfiring causing jerking and pulling while accelerating. I was doing my best to play it cool, but in my head, I was a little concerned about the possibility of the car breaking down and blowing the trip. Thankfully, the car pulled through and we made it to our spot for the night, a cozy little pull over spot on the side of the Ashnola River. We had a nice little dinner that Chloe had premade, enjoyed the evening, and got to bed early with anticipation of the day to come.

We woke ourselves up in the morning with a quick skinny dip in the cold mountain river, and quickly hopped in the car and drove to the shuttle parking lot for Cathedral Lakes Lodge. For those going to Cathedral lakes you have the option between hiking up which from what I have heard is a steep, tree’d-in push up a lot of elevation, or paying a bit of money to catch a shuttle up to Cathedral Lakes Lodge which sits in the subalpine next to Quiniscoe Lake. To me the choice is a no-brainer, catch the shuttle and maximize your time in the high-reward terrain.

Upon arriving at the Lodge we didn’t waste any time to get on the trail and blast on to our campsite at Lake of The Woods. We found a spot that had a view of the lake and nearby Pyramid Mountain. It also had a cool little bench and table set up that somebody had made with some fallen logs. We quickly set up our camp, ditched any unnecessary gear and got moving down the trail. From Lake of The Woods we ascended through the forest admiring the larch trees until the trees started breaking and we were greeted with a stunning view of Lady Slipper Lake. We then Descended down to the lake and walked on a less travelled path along the lakes north end. When we reached the lakes western tip, we took a little moment to take in the beautiful alpine lake and surrounding flora.

After a nice little break, we began ascending the bowl which consisted of some scree and talus and required a little bit of extra attention to travel on. I really enjoy getting into some terrain that makes you think about your steps. The scree and Talus broke as we sat just below the remnants of a glacier and the Cathedral Rim Trail which travels along the ridges that connects several peaks. From there the view was spectacular in all directions, we were still hugged by the upper walls of the bowl, while having a little glacier on one side of us, and a view looking down on Lady Slipper Lake below. This turned out to be a pretty nice place for a lunch break.

After Lunch we climbed up to the Cathedral Rim Trail bypassing Pyramid Mountain and heading to the peak of Quiniscoe Mountain. Along the Rim Trail you get amazing views in all directions, looking North you can see the lakes within Cathedral Lakes Park and beyond into the Interior of BC, and looking South you can see down into the American Cascades. After taking a moment to enjoy the peak of Quiniscoe Mountain, we backtracked a bit to descend to Glacier Lake. At this point we were doing our best to keep a good pace to get back to camp at a decent time. The descent down to Glacier Lake was a fun, rocky section of trail. Once we were walking past the lake, we started feeling the foreshadowing of what was to come in the form of little rain drops coming from the sky.

Upon getting back to camp, the first thing on my mind was getting a tarp set up over the little log table we had at our camp site. I was excited about this because it was the first time using a new tarp, and I have grown to really enjoy the craft of setting up a tarp shelter. The excitement to get the tarp up right away proved to be good, because not long after getting the tarp up it began to pour. We then spent the rest of the evening enjoying food, tea, and good conversation while listening to the pitter patter of rain from under the dry comfort of our tarp shelter.

In the morning we enjoyed a bit of a slow start relaxing in the tent. To my ego’s pleasure, we overheard a group complimenting the tarp set up as they hiked by not knowing we were there listening. After getting up and eating breakfast the slow morning transitioned into a fast-paced hike to Goat Lake. We had a limited time frame to be able to get to the lake and back to camp, pack up, and hike back to the shuttle point at Quiniscoe lake. This turned out to be a blast, Chloe and I’s pace down the trail was well matched as we took turns leading and got to the lake with enough time to hang out and enjoy it. While the lake was breathtakingly beautiful, I was slightly disappointed that we didn’t see any goats there. After hanging around for a bit enjoying the place and looking for goats, we motored back to our camp, packed things up, and got back to Quiniscoe Lake with some time to walk around before hoping on the shuttle down.

On the shuttle up, we had been in a modern Chevy Tahoe, which was quite comfortable and nice. In contrast, the way back down was in the canopy covered back of an old school Mercedes Unimog. While in theory the Unimog was very cool, the jerky, bumpy ride very quickly lost its novelty. Upon arriving at the bottom, we were greeted by my best friend Aiden, who worked on shiftwork at the lodge, but I wasn’t expecting to be there. This was a great surprise as I hadn’t seen him in a while, and it was the first time I got to introduce him to Chloe.

So, the trip came to a pleasant end. We packed our bags into the car, drove into the nearby town Keremeos, picked up some samosas from a local food stand. The car in its precarious state of operation, thankfully made it all the way to Chloe’s house where I dropped her off, back to my house, and later to the mechanic. While this was the end of one trip, I knew this was only the start of many adventures with Chloe to come.

A Weekend Trip at Cathedral Lakes Provincial Park

What's fun about carrying all my stuff up this hill?