Created 11-Sep-18
Modified 20-Dec-23
2018-09-01 | Consummation Peak | need the rest man….
Consummation Peak overlooking lakes including Linda, Vera, Monica. So you can infer what you like from that naming convention. Lol. Better than naming things after dead politicians.
Sauce. Somehow that became the theme for the day. Apparently it started while Peter and David were on their multi-day Icefields scrambling adventure, innocently enough, as these things tend to be. At first break David brought out a squeeze bottle of sweet chili sauce, much to everyone’s delight. So sauce on a wrap or samosa, then the next thing is Peter chasing roasted almonds with it, David juicing his apple with it. As Peter rightly said part way between damaging his core muscles from laughing “Sauce. Not even once.” I think we came out on the upside of the caloric equation but my god we laughed about it. Good times.
The hike starts with 9 km of the restricted ‘buses only’ road into O’Hara. At the bus loading zone we were advised about the return shuttle times and warned that we weren’t guaranteed a return seat. ($10 if available). We weren’t going right into the core, turning off a couple km short, so we were already prepared for the hike out again. Not relishing the idea, but prepared for it.
Once leaving the road we were instantly immersed in a moist green mushroom and moss lined trail to Linda Lake. Going around the north shore we left the lake and climbed slightly the gap between Cathedral lakes and Vera Lake, then seriously up toward Consummation peak. The potential for larch here in another few weeks was apparent. Golden larches is my usual impetus for a foray into this area but today they were mocking me with their greenness. The brisk wind had us leaving the domed summit for another sauce break on the ledges out of the wind. Next was a loss of elevation then traverse to the Monica lake amphitheatre which was very scenic. We circumnavigated the lake all in separate directions (leaving a group we met later to admit they were curious if we had some kind of disagreement) and in retrospect, in grizzly country, maybe not the smartest course of action even though we had good sightlines. A second sauce break near the lake and then back to complete the circuit of Linda lake before traversing to the Morning Glory lakes for a third sauce break. Here we calculated the sodium and sugar levels and figured maybe this shouldn’t become a habit. Lol. The hike back to the road was pleasant, the road started out slow at first but we crushed the last six km in style and were at the car sooner than expected. Great day in the mountains, blessed to have these opportunities.
© Clayton Ditzler