Brandywine Meadows
When you just have to get outside
It was late in the summer
and we just had to get
outside and do some hiking. The original plan was to climb the
lions - a hike I have wanted to do for years, but it's steep and the
time line (given that it gets dark around 6pm) was
ambitious. We scanned my hiking books and found a good
alternative - Brandywine meadows out past Squamish. The book said
it was easy.
The Drive out was uneventful, but when we drove up the logging road we
found it was an active construction site! The heavy equipment
operators were nice enough to put down their heavy buckets and let us
drive up to the trail head. We parked (off the the road as
possible and started up the trail.
Steep! The graph in the book was deceptive (or we are getting sorely out
of shape). The trail was in somewhat poor condition - trees roots
were covering much of the trail, especially steeper sections. We
climbed and stopped to take pictures of the mushrooms which seemed to
be enjoying the season.
After
long climb, the trail quickly leveled out and
we entered meadows. I was surprised how quickly the environment
transitioned, but also glad because we could start looking for a place
to sit down and have lunch. The valley is strewn with large
boulders - probably transported by glaciers in the last ice age.
We chose a large flat one at sat down for lunch.
David wanted to be back for his gaming session at 6pm so we didn't have
a generous schedule. I wanted to walk up to the glacier, but
although it appears close, it is surprisingly far away. I had to
put up with a lovely walk in the meadows following the water up to
where it comes off the rocks.
Turning around to return, we
found a beautiful (if
blue) view of black tusk. The path we took up was a tangled mess
of tree roots - coming down was a bit more of an adventure - under our
heels they became quite slippy, and a few of us took minor falls.
John Harvey Photo > Photo Map of South West British Columbia > Brandywine Meadows
John Harvey Photo > John Harvey Photo - Hiking > Brandywine Meadows
fantastic pics, well done!!
Heather
Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 11:27:06
Last Modified Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 at 22:18:40 Edit
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