2010-04-02-Stein_Valley

Not too surprisingly, the weather forecast for Easter weekend was pretty wet. So we did what we usually did when we want to go camping on a wet Vancouver weekend: we headed towards the nearest destination with the driest forecast. And not surprisingly, this destionation was the Lytton end of the Stein Valley. Lying in the rainshadow of Whistler, the Lytton area is a bit of a desert, and this isn't the first time we've headed that way for some less wet camping.

2010-04-02

Unlike last year's Brenda extravagansa, there were only five of us this time: Greg, Taryn, Dima, Debra, and me. We didn't get quite as early a start in the morning as the previous year, and boy was the Tim Horton's by Castle Fun Park ever busy. We did make it to the trailhead just a bit after noon to start our hike.

Greg and Taryn on the trail

It drizzled on us for most of the hike. We stopped briefly at the Devil's Staircase campsite for a quick lunch before continuing on to Teepee Camp. If it hadn't been raining, I would have suggested staying at Devil's Staircase since there was nobody there. Just like last year, the main campsite at Teepee was fairly crowded (perhaps a group from clubtread?). We headed down the trail a little to the overflow clearing where we camped last year. But this time, there was one guy who very much didn't want anyone camping near him. And yet he thought it was a good idea for him to locate in the only other space that could accomodate more than a couple of tents. Anyway, we didn't really want to hang around Mr. Inconsiderate, so we flattened some ground cover and tucked our tents on some of the more level ground that we could find.

Taryn has one of the really small and light tarps which evoked much tarp envy when we set it up. It did provide us shelter from the drizzle as we cooked and ate. Just like the previous year, Dima was observing Passover, so we had attempted to bring mostly Passover kosher meals (although we did bring some unkosher starch items for ourselves, and Dima opted to bring motza instead of kugel this time).

Greg brought his hatchet and camping saw, so we cut and split some wood. But everything was a bit damp, so we could not light the teepee/log cabin; the fire needed the help of some firestarter and white gas.

We called it a night as the rain refused to ease up. I'm the sort of camper who is to lazy to deal with wetness and would avoid getting out of the tent at night if it happens to be damp out. I think I managed to hide in the tent for about 12 hours that night. On the plus side, by the time I got out, the rain had stopped, and there was a beautiful dusting of snow on the mountains which surrounded us.

2010-04-03

Snow sprinkled hills above us	Looking up the Stein River	More snow	Looking down the Stein River
Deb on a rock	River

We were quite lazy this time, and didn't even leave the campsite on the second day. We did spend quite some time sawing and splitting wood, and managed to keep a fire going for much of the afternoon and evening. We had so much fire on the trip that laundry did not completely remove campfire smell from my rain jacket.

Campfire

Taryn did bring and hide chocolate eggs for our second annual Teepee Camp Easter Egg Hunt. Interestingly enough, the girls found mostly pink eggs while the boys found mostly blue ones.

2010-04-04

Sunrise	Even more snow	Oddly shaped cones	Tree seed
Close up	Looking down the valley	Lunch at Devil's Staircase Camp

The lunch stop at Devil's Staircase Camp on the hike out was much more pleasant without the rain and even some sun. Just like the year before, we ate at Home Restaurant in Hope before returning home.