Hollyburn Chalet Winter Camping

February 21, 2024July 11, 2024 / Maria / 2 Comments

This isn’t a trip that will be replicable for many people, but it was a very cool experience that I had for the first time this winter! Many people don’t know that there is a secret cabin community hiding out on the side of Hollyburn Mountain, near Cypress. There are about 100 small cabins, with some as old as 100 years, that make up the Hollyburn Cabin Community. The cabins were constructed by pioneers and ski enthusiasts and at it’s peak there were ~200 cabins on the mountain. Many have fallen into disrepair, but those that remain represent a unique piece of heritage conservation and the only remaining ski community on the north shore.

Most of these cabins are privately owned, but two of them are owned by Girl Guides and Boy Scouts of Canada (as two separate entities). The Girl Guide Cabin is known as Hollyburn Chalet or Burnabee Chalet. The chalet is very popular among units in the winter, and last year we decided it would be a great trip to take our Trex unit up to the cabin for a weekend. In order to secure a spot, I attended an orientation about the cabin in late 2022, and then returned again in late 2023 for the annual work party. Volunteers assist in the maintenance of the cabin on an annual basis and those who participate are given priority booking.

So that landed us a spot at the cabin in early January! It’s a ~20 minute walk to the cabin in summer conditions and ~45 minutes in snow with gear. The cabin is stocked with firewood every year at the work party, but we still have to bring up some compressed logs to burn overnight to conserve firewood, along with all our equipment and food. All the trex members had their backpacks with their equipment, and we took turns towing up 3 sleds of equipment. We had snowshoes for the hike in, but microspikes would have been sufficient and it was a bit of a struggle climbing up to the cabin.

The biggest challenge we faced is that it was very cold on our visit! It’s an el niño year, so it’s been uncharacteristically warm in the lower mainland and there is limited snow in the mountains. But we did get a very big snowfall in the city in early January, followed by a deep freeze right when we were going to the cabin. It was -17 degrees overnight on our first night in the cabin, so while we were excited that we didn’t have to worry about rain, we were concerned about staying warm.

It was a bit of a chaotic walk up to the cabin because it was dark and very cold standing around, but we couldn’t move very fast with our sleds, which were heavy with firewood. At first I was at the back of the group and it was quite cold because of the pace. But when I took my turn pulling the sled, I warmed up a lot from the effort! It took us ~40 minutes to get to the cabin, and while we were thrilled to arrive, it’s still very cold in the cabin.

Hollyburn Chalet actually turned 100 years old this year, so while it is a historic cabin, it does have propane lightning and 2 wood stoves (one for heat and one for cooking). The cabin has a nice kitchen and eating area on the main floor, so we didn’t have to bring any dishes or pots with us, as well as there are lots of chairs for sitting around the wood stove. It’s totally empty in the loft, which sleeps ~25 people. So it is a pretty big space, which means it takes a while to heat it.

We arrived just before 7pm and immediately got the fire going. Everyone kept their winter clothes on and we learned some choreographed dance moves to keep warm! We had hot chocolate and s’mores for mug-up and a lot of the trex were anxious to go to bed. Our starting point was -17 degrees, so even after a few hours, the cabin was still below zero and our water bottles were. We were afraid to send everyone to bed too early because most of their sleeping bags were only rated for -5 degrees, so we stayed up late playing games around the fire. We made everyone a hot water bottle for their bedrolls and when it finally hit zero degrees in the cabin (around 11:30pm), we figured we’d be warm enough in our sleeping bags to go to bed.

I slept near the fire on the first floor to keep it going all night. I was convinced that some of the trex were going to be cold, but because they were all sleeping above the stove in the loft, it did eventually warm up upstairs, though it was still quite cool in the morning (only around 10 degrees). We all slept in because of the late night and then enjoyed hash browns for breakfast!

Our morning was dedicated to the chores of running the cabin. It was still very cold, but it was a beautiful sunny day outside! Hollyburn Chalet is set up with several large pots for melting snow water on the wood stove and we melted lots of drinking water in the morning and split wood to re-stock all the wood supply. We always leave everything the way we found it or better, which includes leaving all the wood boxes and kindling boxes full, so we overstuffed them so we’d only have to fill them once. There’s a very fancy wood splitter at the cabin, so everyone had a turn splitting wood.

We spent an hour playing in the snow before lunch and tried to break up our outdoor time since it was so cold. We had a delicious tortellini soup for lunch and managed to get the indoor temperature up to 14 degrees. After lunch, we decided to go for a walk to explore the other cabins in the area. Like I said, it was a gorgeous sunny day and we hiked a few kilometres to a lookout, checking out all the unique cabins and looking for big trees.

Dinner was macaroni and chili, followed by some more games. Our unit is really into games (which I love), our favourite is Godfather, which involves everyone picking a character and trying to win others to your team by guessing their character. But on this trip we also tried 4 on a couch, which is a game I used to play in high school where you swap identities with each other and try and get your whole team sitting on the designated couch. We also played a game I know as Monikers, which is a mix of catchphrase and charades. We didn’t play the board game and just made up our own words and put them in a big bowl, but I’m not sure what name the game actually goes by. It was a big hit!

The highlight of day 2 was our mug-up, for which we decided to lug up chocolate and fruit for fondue! We had a big pot of chocolate and cream, and then strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, rice crispies, and apple slices for dipping. It was definitely a hit! We managed to get the indoor temperature up to 20 degrees by the second night and we were finally able to take off our jackets. So it was much warmer going to bed, but cooled off in the night because I slept so well and forgot to stoke the fire as much. I woke up at 4am and had to pretty much re-make it in the middle of the night, but overall it was a lot warmer inside and we were able to keep the cabin comfortable.

Our last morning was dedicated to clean up. We got some photos outside the cabin and had a quick 15 minute walk to return to the parking lot. We opted to take the snowshoes down in the sled rather than wear them (they are quite bulky), and since it’s all downhill, we made pretty quick time back to the campsite.

So while we definitely had some adversity to overcome with the temperatures, it was a fantastic trip! I was really concerned on the first night, but our hot water bottles worked super well and no one complained about being cold overnight. It was the first time backpacking for several of the trex, and even though it’s a short distance, it’s in pretty challenging conditions (dark, cold, snowy), so I thought they all did really well! The chalet is a really lovely piece of history and I feel lucky that I had the opportunity to experience it through Girl Guides. Some units go up there every year; we’re not planning for it to be a regular thing for us, but I would definitely go back in the future and think it would be fun to go up there in the summer as well (when it’s much easier to get a booking).

Even if you’re just going for a walk, it’s pretty cool to check out the Hollyburn Cabin Community, because there’s some really interesting cabins up there and it makes for a fun day hike!

Hiking Winchester Mountain

December 20, 2023July 11, 2024 / Maria / 1 Comment

In my humble opinion, one of the most underrated National Parks in America is North Cascades National Park. This is likely because of its remote location in the north of the country, but neighbouring Mt. Baker-Snoquolmie National Forest / Mt. Baker National Recreation Area is only a ~2 hour drive from Vancouver (and is more or less an extension of the park), so I’ve made a few trips down there over the years and I’ve yet to do a hike that wasn’t jaw-droppingly beautiful. It can get fairly busy, but compared to other National rec sites, it receives relatively few visitors (and half of those visitors are likely Canadian).

For some reason, almost all the hikes I’ve done in the North Cascades have been in the Fall, though I have done Artist Point twice in the winter. I first visited in 2018, and even in the last 5 years, the area has definitely grown in popularity in the Fall. When we crossed the border on this visit, the border agent asked where we were going, and when we said “hiking near mount baker”, he said, “you and every other Canadian that’s crossed the border today”.

This was my first time going down to the US for a hike since before the pandemic and it only cemented the idea that I need to visit more. To date, I’ve done the Skyline Divide, Yellow Aster Butte, and Chain Lakes, and they’re all beautiful. I honestly can’t pick a favourite between any of them. We added Winchester Mountain to the list over the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and it was another stunning hike! I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface on the plethora of hikes in this area, so I’m determined to visit even more next year.

Like I said, it’s only about a 2 hour drive from Vancouver, unless there’s a long wait at the border, which is not uncommon. We always cross the border at Sumas and take Highway 542 towards Mount Baker Ski Area. You don’t need to do much pre-planning, except to get a $5 parking pass for the National Forest. These aren’t limited or reservation based, so just pick one up online before crossing the border to leave in your car. If you forget to get one online, you can get one from the Visitor Center, but their hours are very limited and it’s not always open.

If you’re visiting in the Fall, Yellow Aster Butte is by far the most popular hike (followed closely by the Chain Lake trail). The hillside turns bright yellow and attracts a lot of visitors, so I recommend arriving super early for this hike as parking is limited for the hordes of people that want to do the hike. I hiked the trail with Lien several years ago and parking wasn’t too much of a problem, but we had to drive past the Yellow Aster trailhead on our way to Winchester this year and it was an absolute gong show! There were hundreds of cars blocking the road and you more or less had to park half way down the mountain if you arrived mid morning (like we did).

This was the main downside of going to Winchester Mountain. The trailhead to Winchester is located several kilometres uphill past Yellow Aster Butte, but it requires 4WD to get to the top, so it considerably thins out the crowds. Some people will hike all the way up from the Yellow Aster parking lot (which in my opinion is still worth it), but it was nice to be able to drive right to the trailhead in Brandon’s 4Runner. In my opinion, Winchester is a more scenic and easier hike than Yellow Aster Butte. The key reason for this is because you do a lot of the elevation gain in the car, so by the time you reach the trailhead, you’re already in the sub-alpine and the entire hike has incredible views of the backcountry.

Parking is at Twin Lakes, which is aptly named for the pair of lakes at the base of Winchester Mountain. There are actually several rec sites that are first come-first serve at the lakes (and are gorgeous), so we’re keen to come back some time in the summer to stay overnight. Fortunately we didn’t have trouble finding parking at Winchester and even on Thanksgiving weekend, there were lots of empty campsites.

The entire hike up to Winchester Lookout is less than 6km round trip, but it is steep and covers ~400m in elevation gain from top to bottom. It’s a steady climb, but it’s one of the most colourful fall hikes I’ve ever done on the west coast! I personally liked it better than Yellow Aster Butte, but I did have better weather than when I did Yellow Aster. On this day, it was beautiful, warm, and sunny, with blue skies all day. I thought we were done for summer weather since it was October, but I was glad I packed a pair of shorts just in case. This is very subjective though because I did Yellow Aster and Chain Lakes at the exact same time of year and needed my parka on both of those occasions (though I also did the Skyline Divide in shorts in late October).

It took us under 2 hours to hike to the top and we stopped a lot to take photos and videos. Lien had a rough start to the hike – he unwisely had a dairy-heavy breakfast at the cafe we stopped at, and his lactose intolerance punished him for it. He disappeared up the trail while the rest of us were still packing our bags and we couldn’t find him (which is very out of character for Lien). We were surprised he’d gone so far ahead without us, but he eventually stumbled out of the bushes looking for my trowel and I force-fed him some pepto-bismal and he eventually recovered, lol.

There’s an old fire lookout at the top of the trail, which I’ve seen featured on instagram several times. There’s one bed inside that you can claim if you’re lucky – I’m not sure how popular that option is though because no one was using it on this beautiful sunny day. Like all the hikes in this area, there are gorgeous views of Mount Baker and this particular lookout points north towards Canadian Border Peak. There’s another trail that leaves from the base called High Pass trail and goes up towards Larabee Peak that I’d definitely be keen to visit on another occasion.

We hung out at the top for an hour or so before heading back down. It’s all downhill on the way back, so it makes for a pretty quick day hike. The pay-off for the level of effort expended is very high, but most of the hike is exposed, so if you have a fear of heights, this might not be the best choice. If you don’t have 4WD, the distance from the lower lot is ~3.5km each way, so I still think it’s worth it to climb up, and odds are you might be able to hitch a ride with some other hikers. We would definitely have picked some people up if we didn’t already have 5 adults and an anxious dog in the car.

We finished the hike with a swim in Twin Lakes at the end. Actually, I should say, me and Lien finished the hike this way. Everyone else chickened out because the water was quite cold, but I’ll swim in pretty much anything, and Lien was keen for a bath. But in conclusion, it’s an absolutely fantastic hike and I’d love to spend some more time in this area in the next few years. If you’ve spent a lot of time near Mount Baker, please let me know your favourite hikes!

Tetrahedron Park Backpacking Trip Part II

December 13, 2023July 11, 2024 / Maria / 3 Comments

The first half of our trip centered around Mount Steele (featured in Part I), so the second half of the trip was about McNair Lake. Like I said in my last post – there are 4 cabins in the park. Edwards Cabin is the most central and could be used as a home base for day hiking. Bachelor Cabin is located the closest to the parking lot and is really popular among both families and partiers because of the short hike for hauling in children or booze, depending on your desires, I guess. These two crowds probably don’t mesh very well, so my opinion is to leave this cabin for the families!

I think Mount Steele is the most popular hut because of it’s location for skiing, and I’d heard McNair Cabin is one of the least frequented in the park. It’s certainly the hardest to get to. You’d think that Mount Steele would be the most challenging because of the hike up the mountain, but it’s a longer hike to McNair Lake and while the terrain is flatter – it’s more technical. In the shoulder season, it can get very muddy on the trail to McNair and there are several detours around boggy areas.

It was another gorgeous day when we departed Mount Steele and we hiked our way back towards Edwards Cabin. Just before you get to the cabin, there’s a branch towards McNair Lake. We weren’t ready for lunch yet, so we skipped Edwards and immediately carried on towards McNair. It’s a nice forested trail at the beginning, but it does deteriorate as you continue on. It’s not really in bad condition, but there’s a collapsed bridge and a detour before Chapman Lake that were pretty muddy.

Eventually our hunger caught up with us, but it’s pretty swampy and we didn’t see many places to stop. We decided to aim for Chapman Lake for lunch and we did find a small dry spot right at the head of the lake to take a break, but overall there’s not many good places to stop at the lake either. We didn’t see anyone on the trail except for one father and son who were leaving the cabin. Apparently on this particular weekend McNair Cabin had been the party cabin and they told us they had a great time participating in “beer olympics” with a bunch of partiers the previous night. They were crowned champions at the end of the night as the only ones not blackout drunk.

The partiers must have gotten up early though, because we didn’t see them. There are some large meadows just before the cabin and a short climb to get up to the top of the hill. The Cabin is still a few hundred metres from the lake, so you can’t see it, but there is a really beautiful view looking down to the meadows. The father-son duo told us they had seen a bunch of elk down there the previous day, so we kept our eyes peeled for them. We saw lots of evidence of where they had been bedded down, but unfortunately we didn’t see them.

We were the only people at the Cabin when we arrived and it ended up staying that way all night. We loved meeting new people at Steele, but it was nice to have the cabin to ourselves at McNair. I don’t know how McNair got its reputation as the least popular cabin though, because we absolutely loved it! Don’t skip it if you’re visiting the park, it’s definitely worth the muddy trek out there! Someone has strung lights around the edge of the cabin that can be plugged into a power bank, so it has a really great atmosphere!

We made a trek down to check out the lake as the clouds moved in for the evening. It’s a pretty small lake and if you’re feeling adventurous, there is another day hike that can be done up to Panther Peak. Definitely do your research for this one though as there’s no marked trail and it wasn’t even shown on my GPS. Instead, we hung out at the cabin and ate supper and had a cribbage tournament. Girls vs. Boys and me and Adriana absolutely smoked the boys!

The hut is very similar to Mount Steele, but McNair has a little balcony on the front of the cabin, which is a nice spot to hang out. I didn’t sleep well though because I woke up in the middle of the night and was absolutely convinced I had forgotten my rain pants at Mount Steele when I’d been repacking my bag in the morning. I only recently bought rain pants after a very wet episode at Lake O’Hara and I was feeling dejected thinking that I wouldn’t have them for the following day.

Fortunately, I lost sleep over nothing and found them in the bottom of my bag the following morning. It wasn’t raining when we woke up, but it started while we were having breakfast. I wouldn’t say it was heavy rain, but it rained consistently throughout the entire day. We had a nice breakfast before packing up for the hike back to the car. We made for a colourful crew with our rain jackets and pack covers!

As muddy as the trail had been the previous day, it was much worse in the rain. In the very first meadow I went calf deep in the mud and got my shoe wet and Brandon took a tumble backwards into the mud. It continued to rain on us all morning and it was a slow hike back to Edwards. Adriana was very worried about crossing the broken bridge and she did take a little tumble off it right at the start, but was otherwise okay. Eventually we made it back to Edwards for lunch and were thrilled to find 3 other guys there who were getting ready to leave, but had a fire going.

I was pleased with my new rain pants, which were only $15 from value village, but kept me quite dry on the trail. We stripped off all our wet layers and enjoyed our lunch warming up by the remnants of the fire. Brandon literally had steam pouring off him as we dried out our gear as much as possible.

Given the rain, it would have been an easy choice for me to skip Bachelor Cabin on the way back. It’s a slight detour (~2km) to get there and we skipped in on the way in to secure spots at Mount Steele. But I’m glad Eddie was there because he was determined to check out Bachelor Cabin to come back in the future with his family. So he convinced us to detour and now I can say I’ve been to all 4 cabins! Bachelor Cabin is located in the woods, but not far from Bachelor Lake. We didn’t stop for too long and it was only a short hike back to the car after that.

It was pouring by the time we finally got to the car, which made for an interesting dynamic of 4 people trying to change into dry clothes! We had a ferry booking for 8pm, which was the only sailing with reservations left, but we were hoping to get on one of the earlier sailings. We checked the ferry status as soon as we got service, but even though it was only 3pm, the ferry was already ticketing for 8pm, so we just kept our reservation. Instead, we got to enjoy some time in Gibsons and had a delicious meal at Lunitas Mexican Eatery, followed by ice cream!

So overall, I think it was a very successful trip and had a great time backpacking with some different friends than I usually go with. My love for the Sunshine Coast stays alive and well and I hope to be back one day on skis!