Sunday, November 18, 2007

Hot Springs

With nothing to do on a Friday night, Mike, Jon and I decided to go and try to find the natural hotsprings which were located near the northern end of Harrison Lake. I had done some preliminary research on the BC 4x4 forums and hotsprings websites and figured it would probably take 3 hours to get there. We threw some gear in my 4runner and left Coquitlam at 9pm.

It took a little longer to get to the 21 Mile Bay campground than I anticipated, probably due to my headlights being inadequate and the fact that every little bump or pothole is magnified at night. We ended up at the 21 Mile Bay (I camped here in the summer) turn off somewhere around 11:30, but decided to push on and try to make it to the hotsprings. I really need to get some off road driving lights, or at least focus the headlights so that they show more than 50 meters in front of me.

We got to the 4x4 part of the road which reduced the speed of our progress a lot as there were a few creeks to drive through and the road required low 4 to get through much of it. That part eventually ended and we soon came across what appeared to be the turn off for the hotsprings. The road started going up and then 100m in there was a large freshly dug cross ditch. After getting out and looking it over, it was no problem to drive through. Then 100m later, there was another cross ditch, this one worse than the first, yet still no problem to go through. Around a bend and continually climbing we encountered another cross ditch, this one worse than the last, and with a stream flowing through it. Still no problem to go through. My confidence in the 4runner is increasing with each ditch, yet my confidence in us on the right road is decreasing. The road starts to narrow and there begins to be bushes growing in the center. Guys this can't be the right road. We look at the map, and everything looks as it should be where we turn off. But the road is too rough - there is supposed to be a forestry campground at the end, and I think it should be more accessible than this. So we decide to turn around and drive to what will be an obvious point on the map (an intersection of logging roads) to determine if we are where we think we are. Turning around proves interesting, as on one side of the road the mountain goes up, and on the other side, the mountain goes down - and quite steeply at that. But no worries, with Mike and Jon outside I made a 25 or so point turn and turned around.

Back on the main road we figure the intersection should be about 10 minutes away. 45 minutes later we're still driving, contemplating on just setting up the tent somewhere on the side of the road. As we're discussing this, the road widens and we drive through a logging camp at 2:30am. Now we know where we are. We turned off way too soon. Shortly after the logging camp the road widens into a virtual highway and we're travelling at 60km/h. We make it to the intersection, realize we passed the turn off, but fortunately saw it on the way, turned around, drove back 5 minutes and then started up the road to the hotsprings. Set up camp at 3am and went for a short soak before going to sleep.

The next morning after breakfast we soaked for a few hours. Surrounded by a rocky fern covered cliff on one side, a rushing river on the other, in the middle of nowhere soaking in a hot pool of probably 35°C in the middle of rainy November, what could be more relaxing? We had the pools to ourselves, as there were only two other vehicles at the campground.

Around noon we figured we should be going so that we could make it back by 5 to Coquitlam. We decided to drive north through Pemberton and Whistler and take the Sea-to-Sky highway since the road was supposed to be better (= less concentration required which is good after a short not so great sleep) although take a half hour longer. The road was a highway compared to what we drove in on. We stopped for a short look at Skookumchuck hotsprings (St. Agnes Well), decided that where we had soaked was much better and continued on. Coming into Whistler around 4 it started to snow and we were hungry since we had no lunch so we stopped at the Old Spaghetti Factory for lupper. The snow was covering the road by this time and it was dark and my headlights are horrible, so it made for slow progress out of Whistler. Eventually the snow stopped and the road was clear so we made it back to Coquitlam by 7pm. Overall an excellent trip.

1 Comments:

At 5:16 AM, Blogger Mindy said...

You guys are crazy!!!!!!!

 

Post a Comment

<< Home