We went to Brandywine ! wohooo. We thought, oh well its shoulder season we are going to make it up there and it will all be smooth. We started at around 7am for the pickups and made it up North in 3 cars. I was in Lianne’s car and we were already struck by the winds passing on the Sea to Sky while the windy road was unfolding in front of us – a crisp and clear sky and ocean views to our left. Up a tiny bit of the logging road Margot tells us she did not get gas, so we rather relocate into the other cars to prevent further disasters later on… since Coco and Peter came down from Whistler there is heaps of space in their four-wheel drive Jeep that will later be a almost a life saver. Lianne the wreckless little gal is going for it with her not four wheel drive car and going upwards on the snowy and icy logging ends up being too much of an adventure so we have to back up, stop and start walking towards the trailhead. Peter, Coco and the others drive on – Peter turns back and picks us off but even in the four wheel drive another hill starts out to be more of hazard then a safe drive up. Once we start hiking up the trail is immediately like a winter wonder land – Lianne points the Black Tusk out to us and another peak which name I forgot again. It’s great to have an experienced VOC person like her with us who is very connected to the area and such. The occasional snow that comes from the trees looks somewhat like this to the left. I took that picture analogue, 35mm in case someone is curious. Zoe from Australia, Derek from Ontario and me from Berlin, Germany – us three I hear with the most oooh woow I have never seen something this beautiful. We were impressed to say the least. Snow shoes and gaiters were a good thing to bring and with much of a big deal we make it up to the meadows. The group has separated a bit at this point. Peter has the idea to shoot some promotional material for his Kombucha company. He offers us to try some and some of us take some videos and pictures with him. We go exploring the meadows that are an immense white, icy and beautiful sight. Here are some little details I pictured that give an idea of what kind of a treat we were into that day. We start sliding on the ice and even though I am still thinking wow people are wreckless it all turns out to just be a lot of fun.
It soon becomes way too cold because of a wind that goes through the meadows especially some of us – like me – were struggling to at all use our hands for anything (after I took so many pictures and adjusted my analogue camera – nooo wonder). Heading downhill we separated into faster and slower hikers again and back at the trailhead part of the group was ready to go to their cars and because Margot’s car was all the way in the beginning of the logging road, Peter and Coco decided (with our consent) to help Margot Zoe and Derek first to get their car. Once Lianne and Louise who were in the back made it to the trailhead the shimmering red over the mountains was fading and we had to put on our headlamps soon because going down the icy logging road was not always very easy. Suddenly a dark figure came running towards us and Martina had just before said “this is adventure” and Lianne and I freaked out a bit because why the hell would there be a person running towards us in the middle of nowhere on a Sunday night on this logging road? In the end it was Peter who decided to drive us back to our car and had made it back with Coco to help us out – how nice of them. Overcrowding their car we made it back to ours – slowly, very slowly because the car was for sure not happy with the load and the road conditions. Back in Vancouver half of the group made it to the Naam to have dinner and the rest of us had either other commitments (Kevin, you crazy German made it to your Professors Dinner Party Head lamp on and Gaiters on. Good job !) or just wanted to get home. What a beautiful Sunday, thank you Lianne, thank you VOC, thank you everyone !
