To the Summit of Baldy Mountain

July 27th (Monday) 

We awoke inside of a cloud.  

Not only was our view gone, but also our visibility on the ridge was very limited.  

At around 10:00 the cloud began to brighten, and by 11:00 it was rapidly breaking up.  We started to get pieces of our view back, a glimpse of the mountaintop, the lake far below, Ocean Falls, and other mountain peaks.  Bit by bit it broke up and shifted, and within the next half hour it was almost completely clear.  We packed up our lunch and safety equipment, and began our hike up to the top.  Today we would reach the summit!

We headed up and the going was easy, there was no thick growth to make our way through, only steep rocks and mossy meadows.  

Each bit of climb in elevation opened up a whole new part of our ever increasing view and we took many breaks just to look out and take it all in.  

At one point we came to a particularly perfect little snowmelt stream that was running down through a perfect strip of grass, moss, and flowers.  

The stream ran from little pool to little pool, and each time it was being filtered by the moss, so we stopped to fill up our water bottle and to have a long drink while taking in the surrounding scenery. 

The higher we got the worse the black flies got and except for the few moments of breeze, we wore our bug hats constantly.  As we got closer to the top the steep gradient levelled out some and we came up to patches of snow.  

We ate some and threw a few snowballs and continued on.  

Surrounding the area of the top there were many large, crystal clear pools still being directly fed by a melting patch of snow.  

Some of the pools even had an iceberg in them.  

At around 13:00 we made it up to the summit, where we found the cairn at the top.  Under some of the rocks we found the old coffee container in which Doug had left a write-in-the-rain notebook, and on the first page we saw what he had written back in September of 2001.  

We wrote on the next page and explained why we were in Ocean Falls, and what our trip up the mountain was like.  It is interesting to wonder who will find that notebook next and when that will be. 

We spent a while exploring around the top area of Baldy Mountain.  One thing that we found that we thought was very odd was one large piece of wood.  It was about a foot in diameter, about two and a half feet long, cut at both ends, and a perfect round of wood.  

It was lying all by itself very close to the top.  Down lower on the shoulder of the mountain we found some broken glass that looked like window glass, but apart from those two things, as well as one old broken bottle near the top, we saw no sign of people.

As we explored the top area of the mountain we startled a ptarmigan.  It was only a few feet away from us when it flew.  

It only flew a short distance and landed on top of a rock where it froze and watched us for quite some time.  

The view out from the eastern side of Baldy was spectacular.  The ridgeline that we had wondered if we might be able to walk, that went out from Baldy and curved around in a “C” shape, was cut off from the mountain by a steep cliff.  

From our lunch spot, looking east, we could see the point on Dean Channel that marks the entrance to Eucott Bay; the anchorage with the hot spring where we had spent one month anchored last year.  

We could see the water where we had boated and the turn off to head towards Bella Coola, which we had explored in Kiki.  The mountain ranges rolled back as far as we could see, snow-capped peaks and jagged rock, on and on and on into the distance. 

While we sat and ate our lunch the black flies swarmed us in a number far beyond that of down at our campsite.  Each bite of kipper on a cracker was carefully prepared and then as quick as possible we would lift up our bug netting just enough to put our hand up to our mouths.  

After our lunch we went back up to the top where we attempted to contact Ocean Falls and Martin Valley on the VHF.  

We managed to make contact with Ken and we told him that we were on the top.  He was going to let others in town know so that those who knew we were heading up would know that we made it all the way.  

We headed back down towards our camp far below.  

The sky was clouding up, but we had listened to the forecast and they were still not calling for any rain.  

Tomorrow we would head home.