Crystal's Epic Adventures

We have been out hiking nine of the past 11 weekends and it seems each one we do gets tougher than the one before. This was by far the steepest hike I have ever done.  We gained nearly 4,000 ft of elevation which in itself is tough, but then we did that kind of elevation gain in just a short 4.5 kms.  That is almost a 1000 feet per kilometre! This would be why it took us 11 hours to complete this hike. Not bad for an Oma and Opa!  Right from the start the route leads directly uphill (no switchbacks) and is well marked with blazes and flagging tape. The first views come a couple kilometers in of Lindeman Lake.  Once we got past all the crowds looking for those amazing Instagram worthy viewpoints, we continued on up through some more tricky route finding due to quite a bit of old blowdown.  There were also several scary snow covered areas, one in which Klaus' foot punched down through the snow up to his hip, never hitting the ground.  Looking down through the...

  I wasn't even sure I wanted to write about this hiking adventure. Not because it wasn't incredible, but because I seem to say the same thing for every hike.  "It kicked my ass", "I was hard on myself", "Gorgeous".  In the end, here I am.   This weekend Klaus suggested we give Mount Laughington out in Chilliwack a try, a destination he reached 22 years ago.  We are still trying to stay within our public health region, but this time going somewhere we know there will be very few people due to how difficult it is to get there. I have to say, as much as this hike truly did kick my ass, it was the most spectacular hike we have done in a long time.  Mount Laughington is an infrequently traveled summit located near Chilliwack in the Fraser Valley. This is one of the lower summits off Chilliwack Lake Road, but the views from the top (and for much of the hike) are exceptional, with staggering views of the entire Cheam range for much of the hike.  As I am...