Base camp - Mt Kidd Area A site 15.
Day - Pocaterra day use area.
Date - Nov 3-4 2000
Location:
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Base camp - Mt Kidd Area A site 15. |
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Day - Pocaterra day use area. |
We had planning meeting in early October. Daniel and Ezra took on food planning. Jesse and Darren got to go shopping and packing. When we book the site they told us the hot tub was open until 7:30. Who would have thought to bring your trunks in November.
Friday night 6:00pm time to head out. Well almost. Richard called and said he would be 1/2 hour late. We finally headed out at 7:30. Richard had to go back home to pick up a needed BBQ part.
8:00pm we're at the site and its pitch dark. But we have an electrical outlet, cable TV, and 2 water taps (both shut off mind you). Bill Hurd (Group committee guy) had set us up with a large dome tent big enough for all the boys. Well we never knew they made dome tents this big. We could have parked the van in it. Needless to say it was more that a 1 man job to get it up.
The BBQ was warming up and the marinated beef was pulled out and laid atop the hot grill. The potatoes came backed from home (still warm as we wrapped them in the bathing towel).
We toured the area a bit after dinner and then hit the sack. Ed had what looked like a vacuum packed tent. I think his little one man pup was short a pole or 2, and he didn't look great the next morning.
It got quite cold that night. Kind of light snow and drizzle in the morning. Had the pop tarts for breakfast and then packed up the wet tents.
Instructions form Bob on how to find the repelling spot:
Once you turn into the Peter Lougheed Park from hwy 40, go to the bottom of the hill. Once there you will see a grassy fen on the left side. You should be able to see the repelling rock faces from here on the west side of fen. Take your bearings and head up the hill until your across from the cliffs. Pull a u turn an park in the ditch. Hike across bush to the cliffs, about 50 meters.
9:00 o'clock and we we heading for Pocaterra. We made it to the turn-off and headed down the hill. We followed Bob's instructions and sure enough we found the cliffs. The permanent anchors were no where to be found but everything else fit the description.
We went through all the equipment, Bob's , Ed's, Karl's and the wards. We were setting up a dual system One safety and one for the climber. We connected 2 trees via some webbing and water knots for the climbers anchor, and another larger tree further back for the safety line. The belayer at the bottom managed the safety rope we dropped to the bottom of the cliff. Daniel was the 1st scout to go down. It was scary on the first few steps over the edge, but as he got the tension up and his legs out in front of him he made it down fearlessly.
We were wondering which was the best way up and found a steep trail just a bit south of where we were.
The other boys while they were waiting got the BBQ out to get things started for our hamburger lunch. They were awesome burgers. A couple of the boys were getting cold and hopped into the van to warm up. The lap top computer game helped them pass the time as well.
Once everyone had their fill we packed up. Ed went back the south route to home in the Crows Nest Pass, and we headed back to Mt Kidd. After all the hot tubs were know open. We piled out of the van and sure enough the tubs were steaming hot and bubbles just a button press away. The west side was all windows facing the Mountains, quite a spectacular view as you basked in the bubbles. It was a just the thing after being out in the cold wet morning.
After hopping between the sauna and hot tub and horsing around a bit we got changed and headed for home. We left around 4:00pm, went though the rest of the snack foods and drinks and passed out through a nice ride home, all except the driver of course.