Morrison Spire is a sharp looking 1833m peak seen by anyone who has been to the Wheaton Hut. On my last trip up to Marble Meadows I watched as the sun set over Morrison Spire and felt a desire to go back and climb it. It looked so majestic off in the distance just out of reach. Mount McBride is also a very obvious goal from the Wheaton Hut since it is the 7th highest mountain on the island at 2081m. I knew that for both of these summits if you have climbed up to the hut you have already done most of the grunt work to get to them. Therefore, I asked around and did some research to discover that doing both Morrison Spire and Mount McBride is a doable day trip from the Wheaton Hut as long as you can navigate and keep a good pace.
Day 1: Dash to Philips Creek Marine Site
It was 2100 by the time we parked at the Auger Point Day Area and light was fading. We quickly scrambled down to the beach to dropped our gear and then went back for the canoe. We were in such a rush I didn't even check to see if the truck was locked. Luckily Darryl was on the ball. We strapped on our life jackets (including the dog) and all piled into the boat.
In no time at all we were speeding across the lake. The water was still a bit rough and a few times I felt my stomach leap into my throat with some of the bigger waves. We made it across the lake in the record time of just over ten minutes!
When we reached the other side I hardly recognized the place. Philips Creek had dried up to a trickle and we had to drag our canoe up onto a shoreline that stretched out much farther then I remembered. Here we noticed a few other boats scattered around the beach before we headed towards Philips Creek Marine Campsite.
As we headed towards the bush of the campsite we realized just how dark it had become so we decided to set up camp out in the open on the grass. We quickly set up our tent and organized our gear in the last bit of daylight. After things were set to go for the next day we went and sat out in the grassy flats overlooking the lake to the north and sipped a few beers that we packed over. After chatting for a few minutes a couple walked by, Madi and Jaren, and we loured them over with beer. They told us that they planned on hiking all the way from the marine site up to Marble Meadows and summiting McBride in one day, only staying one night up there. I was quite impressed.
After a while of shooting the shit we noticed a full moon start to peak out from behind the mountains. Madi informed us that it was a "blue moon" since there was a full moon also in the same month. The moon was so bright it cast shadows behind us and made for easier food cache hanging in the dark before we went to bed.
Day 2: Slog to the Wheaton Hut
The rest of the way to the Wheaton Hut we were exposed and hot, but I was blown away by the beauty. I was also very aware that there was absolutely no snow and very little water other than the obvious lakes. We passed along Limestone and Globeflower Lakes and only noticed one lone blue tent at Globeflower. The trails were quite well worn and there were cairns to follow; however, trails seemed to shoot off in every direction and I was glad I knew which direction the hut was in. Having a map/GPS and compass are essential if you have not been to this area previously. |
After passing Globeflower and climbing up a small hump we came to a spot where one can either go low and skirt Marblerock Lake, which I had done last time, or climb high and eventually descend to the Wheaton Hut. We took the high road since the idea of losing that much elevation made us both sad. Marblerock Lake looked beautiful and crisply cool beneath us. I remember getting a great view of the valley down into Hellebore Lake from down there on my last trip. | At 1300 we came upon the Wheaton hut. We decided to camp close by so that we could cache our food inside, and picked a nice flat spot just up above it looking down onto Wheaton Lake. The only down side was that there was hardly any water near our camp and the hut. In fact, I imagine that the dwindling tarn we used by the hut will be gone in a matter of days. At that point it will be best to just stay down at the lake. |
Eventually another couple came walking down to the lake with their friendly blue pitty-cross dog to take a dip as well. They said that they were day tripping from Globeflower Lake and were staying in the blue tent we saw. Looking back now I think that I would also stay both nights at Globleflower and day trip from there. Hiking to Globeflower from Buttle Lake and doing Marble Peak in a day is an easy goal, and I found that we had too much time to kill once we got to Wheaton Hut.
Nevertheless, we passed the evening by playing cards and making supper. At 1930 we tucked into our tent pretty much exhausted from not getting any sleep the night previous. Just as we laid down Madi and Jaren hiked by saying that they had summited McBride and were going on 13hrs of hiking so far. They were heading down to Globeflower Lake for the night and then heading out the next day. Again, I was impressed. Before they left, they told us that they figured it would take 9 hours to summit McBride and get back to the Wheaton hut. I figured that if we were going to do Morrison Spire as well and hopefully move our camp farther back down the trail that we better saddle up for a long day of hiking.
Day 3: McBride and Morrison Loop
The summit of McBride loomed above us and it felt like it was so close. However, as we travelled along the ridge I could tell that we still had some serious distance to cover. We dropped down into a low saddle, two hours into our trip, just before the final ascent up the mountain and eyed our route. One way up was to follow a sketchy looking "goat path" along the ridge of McBride all the way to the top (otherwise known as the South Ridge route in Island Alpine). I however was more interested in keeping more northwest along the left side of the mountain until we were closer to the summit and then hiking up (the McBride Glacier route). To start there was a very obvious trail and cairns that headed in this direction. However in a matter of minutes this all disappeared. We became a bit confused and wondered if we were supposed to have headed up already and so we turned our boots up the mountain. This was very premature and we ended up having to cross under some shear rock and up a loose shale-filled gully only to end up on the blasted South Ridge… Oh well. We carried on well out of our comfort zone up the mountain until we came out of the rock and back onto more flat terrain and a slightly booted path. Here I kept eyeing the GPS and eventually 3.5hours into our trip we arrived at the summit. I was very impressed with our time. |
After 30mins we departed back down the mountain. This time we descended much sooner and skipped the sketchy down climb from the South Ridge. We found a decent crack to follow off the rock and joined up with the booted path where we met two guys headed up for the summit. This was their second attempt after being scared off the South Ridge previously. We gave them our advice to stick low and carried on. Not 10 minutes later we ran into a huge group of 6 people attempting the summit who were all coming from Globeflower Lake. Again we passed on our advice and carried on along the ridge. |
The rest of the way back to the Wheaton Hut was smoking hot. I was really starting to feel bad for the dog. He was exhausted and hot, but he kept on trucking. Finally, after 8hrs and 23mins we arrived back at the hut ready for a break. The dog collapsed on the floor while we ate some snacks and drank some water to re-energize for our trek back to Limestone Lake for the night. When we finally packed up and hit the trail again it was slow going. We were all hot and exhausted. However, we made it to Limestone Lake in 50mins from the hut and set up camp down by the water. When we passed by Globeflower Lake we saw tents everywhere. There were even a couple up by us near Limestone.
Day 4: Hike Down and Paddle
The next morning we awoke yet again at 0530, this time in a bit of a hurry. We wanted to make it across the lake as early as possible since the wind tends to kick up some serious waves on Buttle Lake as the day goes on. We were also driven by the desire for greasy breakfast at a restaurant in Campbell River… We packed up camp and left at 0645 just in time to see the sunlight hit Mount McBride on our way out. We sped down the trail making record time. My feet and joints were complaining, but it didn't slow me down. We made it back to the lake in 2hrs and 5mins from Limestone Lake. A distance that took us 4 hrs to climb two days previous… The downhill grade and lighter packs made a huge difference. |