Back to Home Page
Day 3: A New Sport and A Day Hike

The suns' rays hit our tent at 6:30am and began turning our tent into a human oven. As the cool morning air quickly began to warm, brigades of gnats and mosquitoes came out in full force, swarming not just the tent but anything colourful we'd left sitting around outside. Our yellow food bags seemed like one of the main attractions, which literally were black with gnats. Afraid to leave the shelter of the tent, we procrastinated emerging until 8:30, eating breakfast within its secure mesh walls. Finally, the outside world had to be faced so we made a mad dash from the tent to the rock platform above the water where we had a few of our bags and succumbed to dousing ourselves in DEET.
Morning at our Mist Lake Camp
Morning Exploration

We explored our heather-covered island barefoot, and journeyed here and there via the dinghy. The day was promising to be hot once again, even up at 1,670 meters (5,500 feet).

Paddling in Paradise
A New Sport is Discovered
I gave it a few tries myself
Leave it to Andre to discover this thrilling new sport!
This patch of snow is actually the one below the pyramid-shaped rock in the "Paddling in Paradise" photo above. The dinghy didn't make for the fastest slide - it was actually super-slow (soft snow, soft boat, no wax...). Fun, none-the-less. You'd run up the snow slope to the top (Andre's about 1/2 way down in the above shot) in bare feet, jump in the boat and sail into the lake. On my second round my feet got so cold running up the snow that a sharp ache
radiated through my calves and knees. To "warm" them up, as soon as I plunged into the lake I hopped out of the boat into the 1 meter deep water, slicing open the bottom of my foot from big toe to center arch on a sharp rock. That put a quick end to this new sport.
An Afternoon of Hiking

Having explored the area immediately surrounding the trail side of Mist Lake, we decided to set out on a day hike for further exploration. Andre even deflated the boat and packed it along, should we make it to any of the larger lakes on the Meager Creek end of the plateau.

Departing at 12:30, we followed the cairns as they marked the trail across the rocky areas before leading us into the heather fields and forest. Granite boulders and "mini-mounts", narrow, twisting valleys, the ever-present ponds and lakes and dozens of creeks and waterfalls running in all directions create a natural maze. The faint, though well-marked, path guided us carefully through this maze, though we had a strong temptation to break off the trail and explore. Next time...
Overlooking a section of trail as it winds through sub-alpine forest
Gradually leaving the land of lakes below as we ascended a small pass, views of the Meager Creek valley unfolded before us. Setting down our packs at a nice viewpoint, we looked around a bit, took a few photos and relaxed in the shade, spying out the extinct volcanic peaks of the "Meager Group" in the distance with Andre's high-powered (and heavy) telescope.
A view from the pass to the north side of the Hundred Lakes Plateau, the Meager Creek Valley (note all the clear cuts), and Pylon Peak - one of the peaks of the Meager Group that can be considered one large volcano. Mount Meager is the northern-most member of the Cascade volcanic belt, of which Mount Rainier, Mount Baker and Mount Garibaldi are all a part.
As I relaxed in the shade, taking in the superb views, I became increasingly aware of an intense and constant searing pain in the ball of the foot I'd slashed. The pain became so bad I worried about being able to walk back to Mist Lake; I feared that in favoring the injury I might sprain my ankle, going from bad to worse. We'd wanted to explore the larger lakes around the pass, but there was no way I would be able to. So, we made our way back and I was forced to swallow the pain until it became numb.

We returned to Mist Lake at 6:30, but had to inflate the boat to paddle the short distance to our island camp. Before dinner we paddled over to the main Mist Lake camp to check out the tents we'd spotted with the telescope on our return hike from the pass.

We met five very friendly people and a dog named "Tuanne" and chatted with them for a good half hour, then made our way back to prepare dinner and enjoy a little campfire.
Day 4: The Great Battle at Horsefly Narrows and Camp Relocation

After a repeat of the previous morning with the sun on the tent and insects, I ran for the boat and frantically paddled myself out into the lake, out of reach of the tiny pests. The handle of one of the plastic oars had already snapped in half so rowing the craft was no longer possible. Back at shore, a feeble attempt to get out of the boat broke the remaining paddle handle in half as well, soaked the dry towel I'd been sitting on, and sunk my sore foot - all just to fall back into the boat!
Having commandeered the vessel in a panic to escape the bugs, I took this photo of Andre dressed in all his long clothing in the morning sun.
How to paddle a dinghy with two broken oars...
The Battle at Horsefly Narrows
Around mid-day we found ourselves paddling through a small narrows between our island and the opposite shore. As we squeezed our way through we suddenly found ourselves under attack from gigantic horseflies. These insanely fast and tricky (they approach you from behind) beasts were no match for us, as we turned our innocent paddles into weapons of death. Myself, I became a fully functional weapon of mass destruction, outnumbering the kills of my tender husband.
The killer poses with her weapon of death
Camp Relocation

Having discovered the official Mist Lake Camp to be virtually uninhabited by insects, we opted for a change of house. We packed up our camp as quick as we could, stuffed everything loose into the boat and relocated to a small, tennis-court sized lake below the main camp area which we called "Lake Mini-Mist".
Packing up "Gnat Camp"
Hello Camp Mini-Mist!!
Satisfied with our new location and ultra-warm personal swimming pool, we enjoyed a 20-minute swim in the warm water of the rock-surrounded small lake taking complete with sweeping views of tall mountains and expansive glaciers.
At 6:00 PM we were still desiring more adventure and exploration and headed off with the boat across the full length of Mist Lake. A quick portage across the heather took us to another large lake just below Mist Lake. One half surrounded by trees, the other half by flat meadows of heather, it looked like we'd stepped into a completely different world.
Andre portages the boat to the unnamed lake below Mist Lake
A close-up of how to portage a pool dinghy in the mountains!
Evening at Camp Mini-Mist
Our trip captured in one photo: the mountains, lakes, tent, boat and us!
Arriving back at camp famished, we celebrated our last evening with a grand feast: appetizers of crackers and curry paste, a heaping pot of couscous with sun-dried tomatoes, pesto, fresh garlic, balsamic vinegar and olive oil and chocolate for desert. The folks from the group we'd met the previous day came over and together we enjoyed a swim after dinner. Then, early to bed as tomorrow was the long hike out.
Day 5: Mist Lake to Elaho Trail Head

Our last morning began at 5:30 am as we were hiking the full distance back to the car this day. We packed up, did some early morning stretching and just as we were getting to leave one of the women from the group at Camp Mist emerged from her hammock-tent in a tree to see us off.
Early morning departure
At 9:00 am we stopped for breakfast at one of the fine viewpoints along the steep descent to Marlow Creek. Just above the Grizzly Fir, one of Andre's boot laces hooked onto a root and sent him pitching forwards. Without a chance to get his arms out in front of himself, he came crashing down onto the huge bear spray canister strapped to his shoulder belt in front of his chest (see above photo), breaking his rib. Shortly after we arrived at Last Chance Camp where we took another short rest. There was nothing we could do about the rib except push on, leaving cool and bug-free Marlow Creek for the hot, humid and fly-infested bush of the Elaho Valley.
The heat and flies became more and more intense as the day wore on. Just before Canyon Camp as we crossed Canyon Creek, I jumped off the log crossing onto a small gravel bar in the creek, dropped my pack, tore off my clothes and sunk myself in the icy creek. What a relief! But, it was short lived. As soon as we arrived at Canyon Camp the flies were worse than ever. Neither the DEET or citronella oil had any effect on them.

Crossing the small footbridge over Lost Creek
As long as we kept hiking we had some relief, but any attempt to rest for even a minute resulted in our sunburned skin being devoured.

Later in the afternoon I became exhausted with lack of rest and possibly heat / sun stroke. The flies were a little better near Cesna Creek, so I curled up onto the shady ground while Andre sat over me, fanning away any opportunistic insect.
About a half hour before we arrived back at the truck, Andre convinced me to hand my pack over to him. He strapped it to the outside of his, and with his broken rip hauled both back to the vehicle. Luckily all the food had been consumed, so the load was substantially lighter than on the way in.

Even though both the hike in and out was tiresome and we'd been plagued by blood-thirsty insects, to be a part of this spectacular mountain wilderness had been worth every drop of sweat and every sting and bite. We feel so fortunate to have places like this in our back yard and applaud and support organizations such as Western Canada Wilderness Committee, the Sierra Club and Greenpeace in their difficult efforts to protect and preserve the little that's left.