2009-07-16 50 -119

Location

Off a cat track high up on Sun Peaks

Participants

Rhonda's mom
Her neighbor

Preparation

When I saw that the geohash point for the Vernon graticule was in sun peaks, I thought it was a beautiful day for a hike. Mentioned to a neighbour that I was thinking of going up to Sun Peaks this afternoon, she came knocking on my door ten minutes later and asked if I wanted company.

Expedition

We loaded up the Jeep with our packs and water and off we drove. Well we also took off the door tops to more fully enjoy the open Jeep experience. Did I mention it was an absolutely beautiful day. When we arrived at the hill we started up right away and came across an electric fence. Neighbor was hesitant to cross this barrier but I figured that this was more to keep the cows off the road and out of the village than to keep us from hiking, so we crossed and carried on. At first we headed up on the wrong trail, but only for twenty feet and decided this wasn't how it looked on the map, so we crossed the fence again. Then had another look and decided that we did indeed need to be on the other side of the fence so, back we went, and started climbing up again only a little to the south of the original spot. And Up and up and up we went. Then back and forth along the cat tracks. Unfortunately neighbor, had an old quad injury that started to make a lot of complaints, so she headed back down and I continued. Up and Up and Up. The flowers on the mountain were in full bloom and put on a very good show. When I determined that I was on the correct switch back that led to the hashpoint I headed across the mountain. It was fairly easy going for the first 100 meters, if you count crossing creeks climbing over and under fallen trees easy. But then with the Gps losing its signal periodically and the terrain getting iffy I decided to call it close enough, even if I can't count it as reaching the point. I was within 38 meters, and decided to err on the side of safety. Besides I had someone waiting at the base of the mountain and I didn't want a search party sent up on my behalf.

Afterward

On the way home, very close to home the Jeep started to make funny noises. Decided to pull into a parking lot and abandon Jeep. Phoned for someone to rescue us. I had put the camera on the dash of the Jeep, and pulling on to the side road it went flying onto the road. Oops. Several vehicles avoided running over it while we scrambled to pick up the camera. The next time I turned it on though the screen wasn't working. Oh well the card still had the pictures, and if I want to use it I will just have to guess what I am framing in the picture. After dinner Rhonda's dad went down the hill with me and the Jeep started fine and wasn't making funny noises, but off to the shop it still must go as the check engine light is still on.