Hiking Plans for 2015

Overlooking Yale, BC en route to the Spirit Caves

The plan for this year is to get in several hikes in various locations. Due to my operation last year I was unable to do any hiking until a hike down to Eaton Falls near Grande Cache toward the end of the summer. Considering a year ago today I went under the knife for my surgery for a perforated bowel, I am thankful that I am at the point I can consider doing some serious hiking this year!
I am in the process of building a group of people that would be interested in doing some of this hiking as I believe there is of course safety in numbers and since our encounter with the grizzly bear a couple of years ago I am reluctant to hike alone or even as a family. This may seem a little absurd to some but it is still the state of mind we are in.

So planning for 2015 I have the following routes in mind:

• Eaton Falls in Grande Cache day hike
• Grande Mountain in Grande Cache day hike
• Mt. Hamell in Grande Cache day hike
• Stearn High Country Loop 2 day backpack
• Wells Gray Provincial Park day hikes
• Spirit Caves in the Fraser Canyon day hike
• Tikwalus Trail in the Fraser Canyon overnight backpack
• Monkman Trail to Monkman Lake in Tumbler Ridge, 7 day backpacking trip

We have begun training already, mainly indoor track work at the Eastlink Centre and I have made

At the foot of Lightning Ridge, Grande Cache

one bicycle ride into work this year already, which is about an 8km one way ride. This has started to get the leg muscles built up. I still have a good size scar down my abdomen from the operation and have been slowly building up those muscles with crunches. The shorter day hikes at the beginning of the year should help me gauge how much I can handle leading up to the final Monkman Trail expedition which we are planning for September 5.