Blue Spruce hike - May 1

It's the start of the Hiking Season.  There was no break in the Caledonia Rambler's schedule, last weekend it was a snowshoe trip, then it changes over to hiking.   I love that!

We hiked to Blue Spruce Campsite rather then do the long greenway trip from UNBC to Otway.  Still, we hiked about 10 km return.  There was too much snow on the route that we were planning to do.  There was still snow on the section that we did, but it was a little less tricky.  It still was hard work trudging through the snow as it was melting later on during the day.  I sinked into it more then once.  We've snowshoed in the Winter in this area...a lot of snow has already melted.

You can view the trip report that I wrote up on behalf of the leader of the hike at http://caledoniaramblers.ca/.

There was a good turnout for today's hike, over 30 people signed in!  There has been great interest for last while, even the snowshoe trip had lots of attendees.  I think that it is awesome that so many people want to come out and enjoy nature.  I admit that it being a very warm day, at least 11 c, may have enticed more people to join us.

Lunch break in a nice warm dry spot.

There wasn't snow on all of the trail

Got never used Scarpas for cheap!

 I got some boots for cheap. My old Merrells are wearing out.  I have an unused pair, but the toe needs reinforcement as the toe will split apart from body of boot, I know because of the identical pair I own, did the same thing.  I talked about the boot problems today and someone on the hike mentioned that they had a pair similar sized to mine..so I checked them out.  They were $400 Scarpas, made in Italy.  I am skeptical about hiking with them on mountains as I bought a pair years ago that were too short and caused blisters.  But at the very least these will become glorified Winter boots.  I am hoping for more!  Great deal though!

Next week I get to lead a hike to Fraser Mountain, which is West of here.  I've had someone check the conditions and it looks ok.  Snow is melting on top.  It probably will be wet and snowy in parts, but should be dry on top.  Let's hope for some nice weather again for my hike!