Some days when the weather is hot and the fishing is slow you can do other things around here like hike up into the kazillions of mountain peaks and alpine valleys. Today I asked my brother-in-law and kamikazi mountain guide Harold to take me for a stroll up the Zopkios Ridge northwest of the Coquihalla Highway. Our path starts at the rest stop just uphill from the snowsheds and quickly changes 3,000 feet in elevation to get to the first peak which is Zopkios Peak.
Our goal was to hike as far along the ridge as my weak knees and not so acclimatized leg muscles would allow us. It took us about two hours at 1/2 Harolds regular pace (something about gravity works twice as hard on me as it does on him) to make the top of the first ridge at Zopkios Peak.
Once we made it to the ridge it was comments like, "common you slacker, pull up yer britches and stop crying like a baby!" from Harold that inspired me to soldier on.
Harold laid out the peaks which we hoped to conquer one after the other, while he was confident, I was hoping I had packed enough Gator Aid!
The granite faces were quite spactular and when you were standing on the top edge looking down it was a way's down!
In some locations, the granite looked like it had been chiseled out in a quarry to make giant pillars or even stairs!
After about 9 km of hiking it was obvious that the high altitude, low oxygen levels (and my constant whining) was wearing Harold out, so we just stopped and took in the views.
With my vast knowledge of Mountainology I explained many of the mountain wonders to Harold.
For some reason, Harold could only take so much education in one day and decided to abandon me and find another way down the mountain.
At the end of a long day we stopped literally at one of Harold's favorite watering holes. After 18 km and 6,000 feet of total elevation change it was a nice way to cool down! Thanks Harold for being such a great mountain guide........foot note: if you stay submerged too long in this water in can result in severe shrinkage of certain parts of your anatomy!
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