2009-09-12 49 -122

Sat 12 Sep 2009 in 49,-122: 49.2911593, -122.4800235 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

About 50m off the east shore of Alouette Lake, near a day use area in Golden Ears Park.

Participants

• Rhonda
• Xore

Plans

Going to try to get on the road up the east shore, then swim (or walk depending on depth) to the hash point.

Expedition

We left Vancouver later than intended, but had no problems finding the correct route to the east shore of the lake... until we encountered a closed gate with a "no trespassing" sign. On the paved side of the gate were several pickup trucks unloading dirt bikes.

With a sigh and a look at the <4km distance remaining on the GPS, we retraced our route back to Dewdney Trunk Road and then turned up the main Golden Ears Park access road which led to the west shore of the lake.

We parked in the first day use area, with the GPS pointing directly into the lake and less than 1km remaining. On the beach, looking out over the water with small waves splashing our toes, we had 715m to go. There were tents on the beach on the east shore; probably a boat accessible beach. We could hear dirt bike engines echoing across the lake valley, and knew that if we had ignored the no trespassing sign we could have walked up that road to the east shore beaches.

There were numerous motor boats farther north in the lake, but we were standing at the southern tip near the BC Hydro dam.

We hid behind a bush and got changed into our bathing suits. It was time for a swim.

Rhonda was excessively slow getting into the chilly lake, and apologized as she inched deeper, while Xore teased her from outside the shadow cast by the mountain behind them. Eventually they were both swimming, and Rhonda led the way along the side of the marked off "no boats allowed" swimming area. Rhonda's GPS complained of poor reception every time it spent more than a few seconds underwater, but regained its fix as soon as it was lifted out.

At the corner buoy, we paused to check our progress. 650m to go (wow, that was over 50m?!), and what lay ahead was... four seadoos, roaring around, their bows high in the air so they wouldn't be able to see two small heads bobbing along at water level, assuming their drivers were looking.

We treaded water and floated beside the buoy, waiting to see if they would move farther north and leave the area clear for us to swim out.