This was a very exciting trip to plan as it was going to be my first overnight hike. Back in Summer 2018. Cody and I would take off with a couple of his friends to the end of Buttle Lake to take on Tom Taylor, located in the Strathcona Park outside of Campbell River. It was comforting to know one of his friend's had done this hike prior a few years back. The route was a bit tricky to find once we passed Bedwell Lake. Packing for this trip from what I remember was a literal first based experience. I didn't even know how to adjust my backpack I had. It was my first time using the 36 L Osprey pack, Cody had bought for me for my birthday a few months before.
Looking back, we looked ridculous. I guess that's why they say "you learn as you go." Our packs were not right for this trip for two nights. Cody was packing my day pack and I had a pack that I really didn't know how to pack. It was so uncomfortable during the first couple of hours, to the point our friend Regan helped me pack it better for the remainder of the climb.
After a bit of bush whacking and trail searching we got to a stunning viewpoint of Little Jim, Bedwell lake and others. This view captures Big Interior quite well as your looking straight towards it. We saw a black bear just below and that was super exciting for us.
We decided to camp at one of the lakes higher up and it was a beautiful meadow. We were the only ones up there for the first night. It was a beautiful sunset, we had made our dinner and enjoyed a beer. Cody and I at this time didn’t even have a lightweight tent, we had 19 shopping bags attached to our packs lol. I may be exaggerting but we laugh back at it now.
We woke up to a beautiful clear day, and started making our way to the fake summit, as class 4 or 5 is required to reach the real one. It was a lovely scramble through granite, some of the time we had to watch out for the rock cairns. Once we finally reached the summit, we could see the real one far into the distance. The glacier was spectacular.
This was our second day, once finding our way down. Which lead to literally throwing our poles down for some parts, as it was quite steep. We headed back to our camp. Here we thought we would take a chilly plunge and hang out for the rest of the night. The weather had other plans, we spent most of the night in our tents. Not the greatest decision as we all had ate sausages and uncle bens rice. I think you catch my drift lol. We heard the rain pour and laughed about our bodily functions reacting to that food.
The next morning, we waited for the rain to die down. I can’t tell you how awful that was when you needed to pee and come back into a tent while it was pissing down rain. Once we got up and packed our wet gear, we headed back to Big Bedwell Lake. The sun finally came out and was giving us time to dry off finally. The thick of the brush was getting us soaked.
This was one of the hikes that inspired me to carry Graeson somewhere cool, I had seen a mom by herself pack all her gear and child. I told her “Wow that’s goals.” Ever since I’ve always wanted to overnight like that and I’m glad I finally did.
I don’t have approximate times as this was back in 2018 of early September. I just know from the trailhead of Bedwell to the lake where we camped probably took 4-5 hours. From the lake to the fake summit maybe over 2 hours. The time to get back was less than 4 hours if I am remembering correctly. What I remember and what sticks out was seeing Mt. Septimus in the early AM, eating breakfast and the sun was just peaking over it. At that moment I knew I needed more overnight hikes in my life.
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