Just came back from VOC’s Brew Hut. Here’s what we did. We were Carla, me, Carla’s brother Scott, and Scott’s two kids, Ben(12) and Ella(10). We picked them up at the Horseshoe Bay ferry around noon and then faffed for an hour at Shannon Falls, before getting on the trail finally around 3:30pm. The road to the trailhead has some washouts so our 4wd-hc Jeep was appreciated. It was raining slightly, and the weather forecast was for snow at higher elevation.
-
We got to the hut around 6:30pm and got the wood heater going because we were wet and it was snowing, with maybe a centimetre of snow on the ground. The hut is in excellent shape and the solar lighting is working OK. We brought down $390 from the cash box, and notes in the logbook show that people are using the hut and are pretty happy with it.
-
Next morning it was still snowing. We wanted to climb Mt Brew because it was handy, but we weren’t very keen about the wet brush with fresh snow on it. We set off with the kids in the lead and managed to get through some intense brush including something which we called the “adult separator” as it seemed too bushy for adults to get through. Anyway, we did get to the top, congratulated ourselves, saw nothing but clouds, and soon were back at the hut and getting dry again. Around 4:00pm an immense sucker hole came through with blue sky and nice little clouds, so we set off for Mt Hope. About ten minutes later it started to snow again, first nice little flakes, but soon a total blizzard. Again we persisted in spite of the weather and got to our chosen destination. By the time we were back at the hut it had stopped snowing, but more snow fell that night, and it was not until today the we could see Mt Garibaldi to the East and Mt Fee to the West. On the hike down to the Jeep, the scenery was spectacular with the sunshine and the dusting of fresh snow on all the mountains.
-
We got back to Horseshoe Bay at 3 pm and put Scott, Ben and Ella on the ferry for home.