Kids and Youth Hut Trip
Over the July 21st weekend four families headed up to the Hišimy̓awiƛ hut and 5040 Peak. We had members from age 5 to … more mature ages.
On the trip were Neil with sons Elliott and Kieran, the Hornby island contingent: Meredith and Andrew with sons Olin and Killian, then Ian and Jules with kids Beckett and Opal, and Saltspring contingent Sonia and Sofia. We were lucky to have hut steward and veteran kids and youth club member Nadja Steiner join us as well. My understanding is this was 5 year old Sofia’s sixth trip to the hut, which is pretty impressive.
Day 1 started by finding our way past the Highway 4 “SLAT” (single lane alternative traffic) in place to manage rockfall risk due to the earlier wildfire. Fortunately Islanders are no strangers to this system and we all made it through.
We rendezvoused at the Marion Main turnoff and set up vehicle sharing. The FSR is in rough shape at the 3km and 8km marks although our Subies managed after some careful driving. We shouldered our packs, of varying weights, and our group set off up the trail to the hut.

Navigating the first of the rock climbing sections.

A brief pause for some restorative nutrition helps little legs up the 700m vertical gain.

We paused for a needed swim break in the newly ice free Cobalt Lake. After that, we tried out Martin’s new trail to the hut and arrived after about 5 hours to our mountain sanctuary.

The McEvoy-Mark clan relaxing on the deck, before the mozzies got too bad.

We spent the rest of the day running around outside, playing games like Catan, Uno, and Crazy Eights, and doing a delicate kitchen dance as each family cooked up a tasty meal. Meals included space food lasagna, beans and rice, and vegetarian noodles.

The weather Saturday was more mountainous, with heavy fog and overcast in the morning, but we donned rain gear and emergency ponchos, and headed hopefully up to the summit. Our confidence was rewarded with a timely break in the clouds as we all reached the summit, enabling sporadic views of Triple Peak and Nahmint. I was going to boldly claim an (ACC unofficial) record of “lowest average age of party on 5040 Peak” but Sonia explained that in 2022 “we had ages 4,5,5,6 up there with 5 adults.”

Some of us then traversed across to the little bump south of 5040, and practiced our glissading skills, before returning for dinner and dessert.

After a morning of cleaning and packing, we headed back down to the cars to catch various ferries. A less eventful drive back down the FSR and some fond farewells concluded the trip. It was great so see the club’s younger members do so well with this hike, and of course great to have such a wonderful location as our destination.

