I haven’t spent nearly enough time in the mountains this summer. My lack of mountain adventures can be blamed equally on an unusually snowy winter, late summer, and the demands of triathlon training.

A visit from Bryn was enough to cause me to forget my cycling habit and head to the backcountry for a weekend. Bryn and I have completed a few big hikes together including the Howe Sound Crest Trail, and a hut-to-hut in Finse, Norway.

This year we brought boyfriends and headed out to Powell River to tackle a section of the Sunshine Coast Trail. The trail itself is 180 km long, starting in Desolation Sound and ending at Saltery Bay. After much debate and research, we decided to hike from Inland Lake to Lewis Lake, which includes the picturesque Tin Hat Mountain.

Day 1 began early. Not even bright and early since we were up before the sun. We had stayed in Sechelt for the night and took the first ferry (6:30 AM) to Powell River. We re-coffeed and re-packed in town and started our hike around 10 AM. Here we are at our first kilometre marker:

We made excellent progress that first morning and in just over 3 hours we had made it to Confederation Lake, which was our intended first campsite. There was a brand new hut here and it was a beautiful camping spot. We took a dip in the lake but decided to continue on. On day 2 we were tackling Tin Hat Mountain, which is a 1100 m climb. The more distance we got done on Day 1 the better.

The trail continued through the woods and in a few more hours we made it to Fiddlehead Landing. The hut and campsite here are located on Powell Lake. My feet were very sore from the 17 km day, so another swim was delightful. The site was not as nice as Confederation Lake; it was located on a slope and there were very few locations flat enough for a tent. We moved some stuff around and ended up setting up under the hut. Bryn and Jared had carefully planned and portioned our gourmet backcountry meals. First up was duck ramen:

From Fiddlehead we also had a great view of what we aptly named “Boob Mountain”:

Day 2 started out somewhat tragic. A mouse had found our dark chocolate almonds! We hung our food inside the hut overnight but I missed the almonds in my backpack. Lesson learned.

We knew Day 2 would be tough. The hike was only 8 km but included almost 1100 m of climbing. The trail was entirely through the forest, which was nice for temperature but meant there were no views until the very top. In general the SCT was extremely well marked. Actually, almost hilariously well marked; you could see about 5 trail markers from any location on the trail. However, portions were overgrown and I found myself frustrated by the bushwacking.

The last few kilometers were very steep, but we were making good time regardless. (Hiking with endurance athletes is preetttyy ideal). The last water before the summit (our planned campsite) was 2 km from the top so we needed to carry lots of water, which made for heavy packs and tough work. The trail definitely wasn’t easy, but wasn’t technical. We made it to the summit around 3:30 PM and the 360 degree views made up for not having any along the way.

The views were spectacular. In one direction you could see all the way to Vancouver Island. In another you could see the Knuckleheads, Powell Lake and Goat Island, and in another you could see deep into Powell River lake country.

We had the mountain to ourselves for dinner, and feasted on pasta, wine (!), and homemade butter tarts! Jared gets credit for all of the above.

After dinner we hiked up another 10 minutes to the true summit of Tin Hat for sunset.

By the time we returned there were many more groups that had arrived. I was a bit surprised since we had encountered only a few people on the trail.

In the morning we discovered that the mosquitos also like the view from Tin Hat! I guess we had been lucky in the evening that there was a nice breeze to keep them away. We arranged to have a ride pick us up at Spring Lake at 2 PM and we began our descent.

After descending for about 2 hours we realized we had not yet seen a kilometre marker. Around this time I decided to use my Garmin to track our progress and we discovered some of the “kilometres” between markers were as long as 1.8 km. We powered through Day 3 since we were worried about being late for our ride due to the unplanned extra distance. We arrived at 2 PM on the dot and our ride (Anders’ family friends) had chilled beers waiting for us!

We spent the night with Anders’ family friends at their resort, Oceanside Resort, in Powell River. We were treated to a feast of fresh caught salmon among other things. It was enough food to make a dent in my caloric deficit, which is impressive. Continuing tradition, we enjoyed some Tin Hat IPA’s from Townsite Brewing while playing Wizard with our wonderful hosts.

Here are a few more pictures from our trip: