Bear Mountain Hike

What happened today really was a series of unfortunate events.  Everything started out fine, well a little behind schedule, but it didn't end up mattering.  I changed our hike at the last minute to this challenging and long one.  We were going to hike Chadsey Lake but decided to do Bear Mountain instead.

Lesson number one, Natasha is usually right.

Things were okay, for the first 500 meters until we made our first wrong turn, walked 10 minutes to a dead end (but did see a cool mine), then turned around and came back out and up the alternate (but vastly steeper) path.

You look tired Tashy.

Lesson number two, if it's hard today, you are going the right way.

Snowball!

We walked for a long time through some shrub, over dead-growth and down paths that weren't really, all the while following the pink tape indicative of the correct route.

Jump!

Eventually (read 1.5 hours) we hit the snow line, something we hadn't anticipated.  We were determined to get to at least the 5 km viewpoint and pressed on, through deeper and deeper snow until we finally had to give up, knee deep was my limit.

We had some fun running down the snowy hills, as Natasha put it while she ran full tilt by me "it won't hurt when I fall!"

Before we were out of the snow however, we encountered our biggest problem yet.  The dog ran away.  He. Ran. Away.  Maybe you don't understand, I thought I was going to be arriving home to Shane without our dog.  I wasn't panicked, I was far to agitated for that.  We ate a FULL bag of chocolate easter eggs while we were calling his name for FORTY-FIVE minutes.  45 agonizing minutes he was gone.  Then, amazingly, he found us back, happy as a clam, scaring us half to death as he raced between us from behind.  I couldn't be mad, I couldn't be glad, I was shocked, terrified and relieved.  So unfortunately for him, he sealed his fate, he is NEVER hiking with me again.

Lesson number three, these evil eyes can not be trusted.

On our way back down the mountain we noticed a few things we hadn't seen coming up, a beautiful waterfall, a really cool teal coloured car from the 50's upside down, a picket fence from the 60's lining a small section of the trail, a less steep and much softer forest floor that Natasha even commented on.  Suddenly, about an hour earlier than estimated, we were at the bottom.  We looked around, we weren't where we thought we should be.  And then I noticed it, the path we had just come out of was not the path we had hiked up.  There were two paths, one hidden by the other, one steep, rocky with a stream of water running down it (the first place our shoes got wet) and the other covered with a soft carpet of leaves.  Jesus.

Gross Tash, why are your shoes muddy?

 Lesson number four, explore all options.

We were glad to be home.