The VOC’s Brian Waddington hut is located on shore of Long Lake north of Pemberton. To get there, you drive along a rough logging road, then hike up on a well-maintained trail and finally cross Phelix Creek where it flows out of the east side of the lake. Unfortunately the wooden bridge across the creek had collapsed under the snow last winter, and only a jumble of logs remained in the river, making the crossing hard. A VOC trip, organized by Christian Veenstra, was set up to replace the old log bridge by a much more durable cable bridge. There were enough other odd jobs around the hut, the trail and logging road to warrant 13 of us heading up there on Saturday, October 22nd. We arrived at the head of the dirt road around 10am, armed with mattocks, shovels, saws, pruning shears, loads of cable, a heavy drill, the “death machine”, two new fire extinguishers for the hut, and more.
The Veenstramobile was the first to get there. Line, Bethan and I set out along the logging road to look for bad waterbars and start clearing some of the slide alder that was encroaching on the road. We were soon joined by Christian H. en Matt, who combined their engineering skills and mattocks to flatten out some steep waterbars. Meanwhile Christian V. had started on the cable bridge, together with Toby, Isabel and Max. Roland did some work in the hut (testing appliances, measuring window trims and mounting the fire extinguishers) while the crew with the Death Machine was spreading destruction below us on the road. After a lot of dirt moving and alder killing, the road crew hiked up and reached Long Lake in the late afternoon. It was seriously cold there, with a few inches of snow and ice on parts of the lake.
At the site of the bridge we found Toby and Isabel trying to drill a hole in granite by hand, without much success: the two battery packs of the power drill had only been good for one 3/4 inch hole each. The main cable to walk over was all done, but a second cable was needed as a handrail (unless you’re a serious slackline enthusiast). We rounded up a large group of people taking turns with the hand drill and hammer, but even so it took us several hours to drill a deep enough hole. By then it was completely dark, and we were working by the light of our head torches. There was more excitement, when it turned out that my excessive hammering had damaged the bolt’s threading, and I had to run to the hut and back (in the dark through the snow) to fetch a file.
Tired and sore we made our way to the hut, where food and warmth were waiting. The evening was spent making music, with Martin on the guitar, Christian on the ukelele and many of us singing along with the VOC songbook. Sunday morning we woke up at 6 to climb Shadowfax, one of the many peaks around the hut with LOTR-themed names. 11 of us went up, first through the bushes, then through the snow and over boulder fields. Parts of the route were more of a scramble, and since most of us had no helmets we had to be very careful with rock fall. We didn’t go fast, but everyone reached the top safely and we had some snacks while enjoying the stunning views. The weather was very clear, and we could see all the way to the distinct shape of the Black Tusk. We headed back to the hut the same way we came, there we packed up and headed down to the cars, mounting some trail markers and clearing deadfall along the way.
During the drive back, Christian H’s car narrowly avoided death when a herd of horses crossed the highway right in front of them. They suffered a hoofprint-shaped dent in the car door, but no more. A truck coming the other way was worse off. In Pemberton we feasted on overprized pizza at The Pony, before the long drive back to Vancouver.