Another Lizzie Workhike

To me this trip definitely wasn’t another Lizzie Workhike, but in fact my very first VOC experience. The trip was a wonderful start of a year that I hope will be filled with as many VOC adventures as possible.

Firstly I would like to say thanks,
To Lucy Buchanan-Parker for organizing this trip and introducing me to the fantastic songbook.
To George Hill, for awesome measuring and song leading skills.
To Roland Burton, for wonderful storytelling, driving and guiding to the hot springs.
To Matthew Palmer, for teaching me that every day is shorts day.
To everyone else, for making this trip great.

This is the story of how it happened:
At 9 am on the rather sunny morning of October 22nd, our group of 12 was gathered at the Lizzie Creek trailhead. Some of us spent the foregoing night in the steamy water of Skookumchuck hot springs, munching on grapes under the starry October night, accompanied by Roland´s excellent story telling. Some other spent the night camping by the trail head, having deep discussions about ethnicity, and George came in from Kelowna, spending the evening in the car, probably thinking about how to measure a log and a porch, in the most efficient way.
Despite the different experiences of the previous night, our group got along well right away, and the process of distributing plywood, snow shoes, fire extinguishers, hammers and trail markers went along smoothly.

The group of 12, ready for hiking.

The group of 12, ready for hiking.

The endless logging road from the trailhead to Lizzie Lake was a rather pleasant hike. The sun came through from time to time and the clouds seemed to rise as the day went by, revealing a distinct snowline not too high above us. We took a break at the creek crossing, and while George performed measurements of the log in a highly efficient way, the rest of us had some lunch. Strengthened by the energy intake the endless logging road didn´t seem so endless and up at the lake we were rewarded with sunshine and a mirror like surface.

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Log measurements. Photo: Alberto Contreras Sanz

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Resting by the lake.

During the day, the main topic of conversation was whether the rather heavy snowshoes we carried was going to be useful or not. As a fresh VOC-member, both snowshoes and “type two fun” were foreign concepts to me, so I was pretty excited about either outcome. After hiking up the switchbacks from the lake, facing the boulder field that make up the last obstacle before reaching the cabin, it stood clear that the snowshoes wasn’t going to be used.  Hiking up about 1000 meters of elevation with three pair of unused snow shoes strapped to my backpack must be considered my first “type two fun” experience at VOC. Exciting!

Boulder filed encounter. Matthew in the foreground.

Boulder field encounter. Matthew in the foreground.

Shortly after arriving at the cabin, a few hours before dark, George started to measure the porch in a highly impressive and efficient way. After some sawing and hammering and cursing at nails that didn´t stuck into the plywood our group got the work done. The result was a truly masterful, perhaps a bit slippery, piece of reinforced porch.

George making porch measurements. Photo: Alberto

Porch measurements. Photo: Alberto

Side by side with the porch project the cracks in the cabin walls were stuffed with oakum and I´m pretty sure the huts average temperature will rice a couple of degrees as a result of this effort.
The remaining part of Saturday was spent in the cabin singing songs and making up two word stories. The songbook is really a wonderful piece of art and the snowy valley surrounding us was filled up with a dozen voices, singing mostly Beatles songs, that night.
On Sunday, the cabin was cleaned and a bunch of garbage and scrap metal was hauled out. There was some time over for a short snowshoe hike as well. Light snow was falling and entering the terrain above the cabin really felt like entering winter.

Alberto entering winter.

Alberto entering winter.

After the snowshoeing and the cleaning we went back towards the trailhead and the awaiting cars. On the way back the endless logging road actually felt endless. Inspired by the songbook, and motivated to let the bears know I was around, I started thinking. I like to end this report with the result of that thinking. Hopefully the valley surrounding Lizzie Creek will echo of the following song sometime in the future.

Endless road.
Melody: Let it be (Beatles)

Verse:
We´re hiking down the logging road
From Lizzie Lake, A long descent
The road goes on forever
No it never seems to end

It´s slightly downhill all the way
It´s never steep It´s never flat
The road goes on forever
No it never seems to end

Refrain:
Logging road from Lizzie Lake
take me down for god´s sake
The road goes on forever
No it never seems to end

Bonus verse:
Feet are aching, knees are sore
We cannot take it anymore
The road goes on forever
No it never seems to end

 

 

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4 Responses to Another Lizzie Workhike

  1. Alberto Contreras Sanz says:

    Great report Anton! You should nominate the amended Let it Be for the next songbook :)

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