Hike & Bike Adventures with Nate the Great. Summer 2022
- Greg Luesink
- Aug 15, 2022
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 11, 2024
TLDR A lot of my summer was spent rambling around with my friend Nate. Sprinkled between other climbing trips, alpine trips, and bikepacking trips, Nate and I went on some memorable expeditions. Most fun of all were our hike-a-bike outings.
Written Nov 2024
Click on the Map photos to open Strava activities!
After training all winter to run our Vedder-Cultus Ultramarathon together in April, we both stopped running for a while. With the snowline shrinking, and the days getting longer, we turned our attention to hiking and biking.
If you couldn't tell already, both of us shared a taste for mild suffering. Over the summer, we explored quite a few new areas by foot and by bike.
Unlike previous years, Nate had starting working construction, so he didn't have quite as much free time, nor as much energy. Meanwhile, I was working at Mt Waddington's Outdoors, with only Mondays and other odd days off. But, we made it work, and here are the tales of our summer shenanigans.
Adventure 1 - Mt. Amadis, probably the worst summit.
July 3, 2022
One day, Nate and I decided to make our way up Mt Amadis along international ridge. It was wet, cold, and a slog. As I battled at the overgrown stinging nettled with my hiking pole, I ended up losing the tip on one. It felt like quite a routefinding adventure as there isn't really a trail down Watt Creek Ridge. Tired and soaked to the bone, we arrived at Stillwood camp, where we asked my sister Mallory to borrow her car and shuttle ourselves back to Edmeston road. Thanks sis! Overall, I'll admit, our perception of Amadis was a little tainted by the miserable conditions.
Adventure 2 - Mt Waddington's Cheam Bike Shuttle
July 18, 2022
Nate and I jumped on an opportunity to get shuttled up the Mt Cheam FSR with our bikes by the Mt Waddingtons Outdoors Mountain Van. The engine overheated on the way up, so we walked our bikes up to stash them. We moseyed up into the clouds, toting ice axes and spikes with a plan to attempt Lady Peak and then Cheam Peak. Fairly quickly, we realized that the fog was too dense and deemed it unwise to continue. I was in crampons while Nate was in microspikes, and my amygdala was reminding me of MacFarlane in 2021. Rather than risk sliding on the snow, we carefully backtracked and boogied up to Cheam.
To our great delight, we were blessed with a chance clearing of the clouds just as we summited Cheam! Blue sky exploded through the clouds, and we whooped and hollered. Sadly, the Mt Waddingtons crew came up behind us just too late for the clear sky.
With extra time on our hands, Nate and I decided to descend Cheam's West Ridge and tag Mt Archibald. This proved to be more of a slog than we bargained for. I ran out of food, bonked harder than I ever had, and Nate had to nurse me back to health so we could make it back to the bikes. We didn't get any views from Archibald, but we got a "peak" at Lady on our way back. From there, we rattled, bounced, and rolled our way down the FSR, back onto the pavement, and all the way home.
Adventure 3 - Biking and Hiking to visit Old Baldy at Church
July 27, 2022
Nate and I started pedalling our bikes from Sardis, through Cultus, and up Liumchen FSR. We eventually just walked our bikes because it was too steep and loose. Stashing them in some bushes, we continued sans bicycles.
We encountered a rather predictable problem of drinking most of our water on the sweltering 3 hour hike-a-bike up. So, we diverted to Liumchen Lake to refill our water supply. Our intentions had been to press on to Liumchen Summit, but the heat on top of our waning energy prompted us to settle for Church Mountain.
I had recently drowned my phone in the Chilliwack River whilst packrafting. Thus, I purchased a newer model, boasting an incredible 30x digital zoom. It was pretty fun testing it out on this trip! Church Mountain was a bit of bushwhack, with no trail through the alpine meadows and trees. Just to make sure we hit the "right summit," we went to both cathedral towers. Soon, we were back at the bikes, ready to begin out descent on the chucky gravel road. Two things happened on the bike descent. 1) I rode next to two deer before they leapt into the forest. 2) I nearly wiped out in loose gravel on my bike, but acrobatically jumped off Al and landed on two feet.
Overall, Old Baldy is still one of my favourite viewpoints of the valley. As with many viewpoints, they usually aren't from an impressive summit, but rather, are surrounded my many!
Adventure 4 - McGuire on Lethargic Legs
August 15, 2022
It had been a little while since we'd gotten out. As Nate had a rush of work, I'd been on some alpine adventures, which you can read about in other posts (Slesse, Cheam Range Traverse). As we both had an open day, Nate and I grabbed our trusty steeds, and mounted up for another Man Powered Ascent. I realize now that there was already a cool tag-phrase going around called "Human Powered Adventure," but when I came up with "MPA" name in 2021 I wasn't aware of it. Oh well, at least we're both dudes so it's accurate! Borden FSR was pretty chunky and had it's steep moments, so we hiked our bikes up quite a ways to the collapsed bridge, where we stashed our bikes.
I'd summited McGuire in 2021, but it was shrouded in clouds, so it was quite nice to enjoy clear, blue skies. The views were similar to Old Baldy, being only one bump over from it. Both Nate and myself were pretty lethargic that day, so we took our time and sat on the summit for a while, basking in the panoramic views. Oh to be in the mountains on a day like this!
Same summits, different angle. And it never gets old! Spectacular views at every turn.
All in all, McGuire was a great outing with Nate. Another adventure together in the books! On the bike down Borden FSR I got some gnarly blisters on my palms from all the jostling. Just in time for a 2 week bikepacking trip...
Epilogue
It would be impossible to recap all of the conversations and experiences that Nate and I have shared over the years. This post is but a small sample of the highlights of good times we shared in the summer of 2022. I relish every opportunity I have to hang out with Nate the Great. Although life changes, our friendship never will suffer from it. It only grows deeper and stronger the longer we are around.
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