Adam actually arranged an amusing activity – Everyone else missed out
“I’d walk through a burning building if there was a golden larch on the other side,” Adam Hicks remarked as he stepped out of his car into a smoky dawn at the Lighting Lakes parking lot.
Such was the attitude in Manning Park last Saturday, with wildfires smouldering just a few kilometres away, when an intrepid group of IOF members set off to summit Frosty Mountain and see its famed larch trees turned yellow in the autumn cool. Having awoken at 5:30AM for the opportunity, nothing was going to stop them.
Following the obligatory trailhead photo, the 12 hikers stumbled up the trail, a single-track goat path switch-backing its way uphill in a relentless grind. Max Miner set the pace, with Jess Schaub a step behind and perhaps a step slow from the 12 pounds of granola bars she carried in her pack. The narrow, overgrown path afforded few opportunities for bladder relief and many, such as Patrick Pata, were forced to soldier on and suffer kidney damage. The track flattened, weaved, and grew steep once again, but the group persevered, eventually bursting through the trees onto the open shoulder of Frosty Mountain.
Here, the larch trees (Larix lyallii) were in peak form. The IOF hikers were treated to an amazing display of colour from the 2,000 year old conifers, the climb clearly worth every step.
At this point, though Anna McLaskey was hopeful for a break in the yellow woods, the group pressed on in search of an elusive plateau which, like a master’s thesis defense, remained consistently just out of reach. As the hikers climbed higher, they were eventually hemmed in between the yellow trees and blue skies with no plateau in sight and nowhere to go but the rocky ridge. In this liminal space they finally took their lunch and enjoyed the spectacular views. Some continued up to the ridge, some relaxed on the alpine rocks, eventually all began the long and dusty journey back down. Veronica Relano and Elsa took the lead, but the dusty trail slowed all progress with its slippery purchase. Only Andreas Novalny, with his army-surplus boots practically gluing him to the trail, avoiding skidding down that dangerous path.
The trip down was long: by the time Iria Garcia-Lorenzo counted the 21,000th rock she stepped on, the conversation in the group had turned metaphysical. If Dana Price regretted getting caught up in a discussion of free will in a deterministic universe, she could take solace knowing she never had a choice. 8 hours, 22 km, and 1,300 meters later, the hikers were back where they started. 11/12 IOF members would recommend (Sarah Hyntka was still up there when we took the poll but I think she made it down).