I spent 4 days backpacking in the Athelney Pass area on the divide
between the upper Lillooet and Upper Bridge rivers. Despite the fact
that the access route is described in some guidebooks the few following
points should be considered:
From the perspective of people mainly used to hike on "parks grade
trails" reaching Athelney Pass will be challenging as the trail is more
of a flagged route rather than a well established trail. For people
used to off-trail backpacking, this should be more of the same as what
they may be used to. Note that not the entire route is flagged though,
so just keep you eyes open.
Part of the route travels through forest (typical), and wide river bed
filled with glacier outwash, which is fairly untypical for the area. I
have yet to find another area just like this in all the accessible
terrain around Whistler / Pemberton. Higher up on the ridge system, the
travel is good and the views are breathtaking.
Another important consideration, is the area is a wildlife corridor
between the Bridge and Lillooet river system. In 4 days, traveling every
day, we saw many Grizzly footprint from single to sow and cubs and run
into 2 grizzlies. The first one , just walked by our camp ( maybe 40m
away) as I was starting breakfast. It barely looked at me, and appeared
to be avoiding our campspot by climbing over a small moraine and
disappearing out of sight. It never appeared stressed, or in the rush
though. This medium size bear was most likely the one that was sighted
up valley at the pass proper by another group. Description and behavior
were similar with the "bonus" of having the bear digging out a marmot
20m at most from people's tent. It took the bear close to 1hr to do the
job and have a meal, all the while remaining unconcerned by people
around who first attempted to scare it away by yelling etc... I do not
know more about the details, but they could watch the scene from their
tent (likely a bit nervous...). At no point was the bear ever interested
in the people and the tents, however it was not scared of them either...
Finally, on the last day, as we were hiking out on the river flats, we
came across a big male grizzly walking up river, the wind was such it
could not smell us, and we were lucky to spot it ~ 100m ahead, so we
had time to b-line away from the riverbed, undetected (so we think),
leaving plenty of space for the bear to continue not being bothered.
Most of the route goes along these river flats, with occasional section
in the bush to avoid the creek. This will also be the route of choice
for bears and others "locals", so keep your eyes open.
Make sure you remain aware of your surrounding if you set destination to
this place in the coming weeks. The forecast remains solid and this is a
great place to enjoy some wilderness.
Cheers,
Laurent Mingo,
ACMG BPG.
_______________________________________________
These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The
ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in
continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable
nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information
provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions
Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.
Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.
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