Two Weeks, Two Trips

First Trip by Rick A.: Feb 8 to 10, 2013

Rick left on a solo ski around the Bowron Lake Chain, 10am Friday February 8th, 2013 with the hopes of completing the full circuit in his allotted 7 days. He opted to travel counterclockwise starting on Bowron and ending with Kibbee. The weather that week hadn’t been very cold with the temps ranging between –10 C and 6 C during overnight and day recordings.

Rick headed out with snowshoes and skis, the latter being refitted downhill skis with sturdy Australian made Teflon bindings that fit any kind of boot. This was Rick’s second time on the Bowron with this very neat ski configuration. He reappeared on our doorstep two days later (Feb. 10) at 2pm. This is the report he left with me.

Bowron River had some snow bridges over it, but none looked very stable. He stayed to the far right following along the toe of Sugar Loaf Mt. to avoid a river crossing. As it was he had to cross it once or twice and got a bit wet. There was open water on the far side of the Bowron River were it joins with Swan Lake and if he were headed for the River Cabin he would have had to find good ice further along Swan, cross over and double back. As it was, he was headed for Pat Point. The overflow was worse on Swan Lake and his skis kept cutting thro into about 7 inches of water and slush, so he changed over to snowshoes and made Pat Point for the night.

Feb. 9th, Saturday morning saw him out before sunrise with the hopes of finding a firmer crust before the sun appeared, but it was still too warm and his skis cut thro the top crust as soon as he hit the lake. He headed towards the middle of the lake in search of better conditions but only found the same. Giving up about half way down Spectacle Lake he turned and headed back. The conditions were so wet that he was worried about what he might find at Lanezi / Cariboo River. At Pat Point he recorded the daytime temp of 5.9 C and nighttime temp at –6 C.

Feb. 10th, he left Pat Point at 9am and arrived in the parking lot of BRM at 2pm. Regardless of the conditions he had a great time. There was no indication of anyone else having been out there, except the tracks of 3 or 4 wolves that were following a moose, and a cougar that had passed by in the night. It was a clear night last night and he had no problem on skis the whole way back.

Second Trip By Tom M., Shannon M. and Jaclyn B. Feb. 18 to 23, 2013

On Monday February 18, 2013 this trio headed out on the West Side to enjoy their week off from studies. Their end destination was the Moxley Creek cabin on Isaac Lake. They planned for a 7-day trip though they had food for 10… just in case! This is a summary of their trip.

Day 1 - Leaving around 10:30am, they snow-shoed over the well-beaten portage to Kibbee Lake before switching to skis. With no issues on the ice they settled into the Kibbee Cabin for the night.

Day 2 (Feb. 19) found the skiing good though wet with the sticky snow continually balling up on their skis. They spent the 2nd night in the Indianpoint Cabin.

On day 3 (Feb. 20) they encountered a heavy overflow of water causing slushy ice near the end of Indianpoint Lake. This far easterly section of Indianpoint Lake is traditionally a ‘danger spot’ as there are several warm up-wellings of water, which can interfere with good ice formation. They explored a bit before heading back to the Indianpoint Lake cabin.

Day 4 (Feb. 21) saw them off to Isaac Lake again. After the portage they traveled along the lake, but Tom said this area worried him the most as they kept falling thro the top crust of snow and they couldn’t really determine what lay beneath... plus it was very, very wet, “lots of overflow on Isaac Lake, very slushy for the first 3-4 kms.” Over most of this wet snow they were forced to use their snowshoes. When I asked them to guess the percentage of snowshoe use to ski use, they figured 60% snowshoes to 40% skis overall for the whole trip. They again turned back to spend the night at Indianpoint.

On the 5th morning (Feb. 22), an overnight windstorm laid the foundation for a nice wind-swept, hard-packed ski back to Kibbee, but little, sheltered Kibbee Lake did not get touched by the wind and again the wet snow kept sticking to their skis. It continued to snow for most of the night.

On their 6th and last day (Feb. 23), Kibbee Lake was wearing a new coat of soft, powdery snow providing a great ski back. But alas Tom, the heaviest of the trio broke thro some soft ice in the Kibbee Slough to receive his last bit of Bowron wetness. They said that the outer edges of the lakes seemed to be the heaviest with water overflow and presented the least favorable conditions.