Day 4

11 am left Cliff Bay. Started Mt Adams trail hike 12:45 pm. Arrived at glacier ~2:30 pm and stayed about 3 hours. Arrived at Sloko Island around 9:00 pm.

Took a lazy morning to enjoy Cliff Bay before starting our day. Matt took a couple hours to hike behind the short cliff at waters edge to get to the high cliffs behind. Immediately behind short cliff is an open pine forest and old fire kill. Lots of bear sign, digging for ant grubs and scratching tree trunks. Follow the slope down to thick alders and bush wack for a dozen meters opens to warm spring waters with grass, frogs/toads and cliffs rising to the sky. Bugs are busy enough to keep a body moving but the spot is beautiful enough to stay there for half an hour exploring anyway.

The paddle from the bay down to Sloko Inlet had amazing colours thoughout. Just around the corner from the bay you can see quite deeply down into the clear water mixed with rock outcrops, the colours changing from greens to blues depending on the depth of the water. By the time we reached the end of the inlet the water had turned to an ocean green.

Mt Adams Trail hike

There is a is a sign at the beginning of the Mt Adams trail head to mark where to start hiking.

First half of hike is steep, rocky, log falls, but beautiful. Lake view from at top that opens up with a little more wind and less bugs, so you can stop a moment and appreciate the view. Then hiked down to a river, where there were fewer bugs so we took a short rest. The river was fast running, clear and beautiful with views of a canyon. Then we headed around the canyon which involved a steep climb both up and down. The climb is short but there were lots of bugs in this portion. Trail lands on alluvial deposit where it opens up and the bugs dwindle out. From here you can see the glacier off in the distance.

Side Note: From here we could see it would be a challenge to hike up the alluvial deposit from the day before's lunch camp (before Cliff Bay, behind the gravel berm). The river would need to be crossed at least twice, and there's a pond/slow river portion in a canyon that might need to be swum through; about 20 feet. It would be worth it though; added to the bucket list.

Walked up the alluvial plane towards the glacier. There are short rock piles along the way marking the easier path. There was one river crossing, easy, as there were big stepping stones that could be used to cross. Later in year may be harder. Easy walking throughout but parts are rocky. Suspect that in the rain the trail would be much harder as big smooth rock surfaces and roots would be slippery.

The walk to the glacier didn't take long. It was worth the hike as the glacier and icebergs were spectacular. Lots of cool sounds of calving and ice moving, but we didn't get to see the actual happenings. The lake is big enough to spend an hour or two exploring; maybe a pack raft next time!

We chilled quickly when the wind picked up. Thankfully that didn't happen until we were preparing to leave. The hike back was beautiful with a light breeze at our back and lots of sun.

Return to Sloko Island

Easy paddle back at first, until after we started the crossing to Sloko Island, then whitecaps.

Last kilometer into Sloko Island camp was tricky; beginning white caps and heading into a quarter cross wind. We needed to change tack 3 times before getting into the bay. Took on a little bit of water but we were in no danger. Challenging, but met it handily. A couple of years ago we would not have fared so well. We should have been using the spray skirt though.

There were two other canoes at destination camp site and it turnout that Kim know some of the paddlers from yoga. They gave us coconut macaroons on arrival, a very welcome and delicious treat after the hard paddle! Sharing travel notes and maps we learned that Memory Maps software has more accurate topographic information that what Matt downloaded from federal government's CanVec map data. (Something to investigate since I'm pretty sure Memory Maps just use government map sources, not doing their own cartography.)

Mosquitos pretty heavy here. We retired to the tent quickly.