Remember that mountain I had my eye on? well, we climbed it(!) and when I say ‘climbed’ that’s exactly what I mean. We set off around 11am and found our way across the water hitching a lift with one of the native families. There are regular water taxis to take tourists across the water between Tofino and Meares Island, but they tend to be pretty expensive, we were lucky enough to make friends with one of the lovely, native families who were out getting their daily groceries & grog from the Mainland. The native people here are so gentle and kind. We teamed up with the lovely Charles & Nora (our new buddies from Ireland) to tackle Lone Cone Mountain. The sky was clear and blue, perfect conditions for climbing the Mountain.
Lone Cone is a mountain located 4 miles north of Tofino (where we are staying) and 4 miles northwest of Mount Colnett on the western peninsula of Meares Island, British Columbia, Canada. Arriving on Meares Island was incredible, it’s so quiet with just one row of houses along the shore line. The trail we had to take was not signposted in any way, needless to say so we got lost a couple of times along the way.
Walking up in front of the row of wooden houses there were bulls lining the pathway, dogs and evidence of the recent stormy season with broken branches scattered around the place. The trail began just behind the wooden houses, we walked along for around 30minutes to another small group of houses before seeing the sign for Lone Cone.
Once entering the dense woodlands it was quite difficult to see the trail we were supposed to be following. At the base of the mountain underfoot the ground was very boggy and wet meaning we had to climb from fallen branch to stone very carefully without falling in the marshland. I loved seeing the bright yellow flowers I mentioned previously popping up all over the wet, boggy woodland, Nora told me the yellow flowers are known as Skunk Cabbages. Eventually we made it past the bogland, the huge trees towered above us. All the way up the climb was difficult underfoot, the tree roots were slippy, there were many fallen branches to limbo under and there was no real visable trail or track, the only thing to guide us were bright pink ribbons tied around trees. Luckily for us Charles was an excellent leader and really great at spotting the ribbons while we concentrated hard on what our feet were doing and gossiping.
We climbed hard for around 3hours stopping for lunch and a couple of much-needed rest stops along the way. Reaching the top and seeing snow was the greatest feeling. The temperature at the summit was a lot cooler than on the lower climb where we had been pretty warm. The elevation of Mount Lone Cone is 742m (2,434ft) Lone Cone has always been a noticeable landmark to all inhabitants with its looming presence on the north end of Meares Island. It is the tallest mountain visable from Tofino.
The views from the top were incredible, you could see for miles and marvel at the Earths curvature on the horizon. We sat at the top and congratulated ourselves after what was pretty intense climb. We could see our house from the summit, the beach where we first arrived and rows of salmon farming lines in the sea. Looking out over the Earth made the sweat, hard work and muddy climb well worth the effort.
Our descent was tough going with a few grazed shins, wet backsides and wobbly legs but great fun. We were so fortunate to just catch another local man on his way to Tofino who was willing to give as a ride across the water and even stopped to give us a tour of one of the smaller island showing us some star fishes and where there were eagles nesting. Arriving back into Tofino we rewarded our tired selves with a burger and loads of dark chocolate pretzels. Our cheeks were pink and rosy, we stayed up talking well into the wee hours with some fellow explorers swapping tales of foreign lands.
‘Be Content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.’ -Lao Tzu
Have a restful Sunday.
Christine
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