I just got back from a 10-day work trip to Nashville and Boston. And then had knee surgery, and so I am falling further behind on posts. This one is from before the trip, when Justine and I did a hike up on the Sea to Sky Gondola in Squamish. We needed to get another day on our season pass, and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day. So it seemed like the right time to do it!

We wanted to do something different on this hike, so we picked the slightly longer Sky Pilot Trail up into the backcountry off the top of the Sea to Sky Gondola.

We headed up to Squamish at a reasonable time, in order to get to the gondola not long after they opened. We were a bit later than we wanted, and the parking lot was already starting to fill in when we arrived. It was going to be a busy day. We got parked, got our gear organized and made our way to the (thankfully short) line to board for the trip up the mountain!

We had a pretty nice start to the day as we headed up the gondola. The sun was shining, but it was a bit cooler than I had planned for.

Looking down onto Squamish.

Going past the Chief on the way up.

Howe Sound in all it;s late summer/early fall glory.

Once up at the top, we didn’t spend a lot of time before heading out. We did look around at the top form the main deck, as it was a beautiful start to the day. And when you’re in the mountains, you never know if the weather will turn on you.

Looking down into Howe Sound, you can see the huge new LNG plant being constructed.

Zooming in, you can see the cruise ship they have docked at the site to house the workers on the project.

Before too long, it was time to head out on the hike. Our friend Nicole was going to meet us at the top after our hike. We had decided to try Sky Pilot, which takes up into the backcountry, and will extend up onto a glacier if you go the whole way.

We were not really equipped for that, so we thought we would to the main part of the trail, turning around before it gets too rough, making the whole thing about 10-12 km round trip. That seemed like enough.

The trail starts off easily enough, mainly following old logging roads as it starts to climb up into the backcountry. While not the most scenic, it did provide the off views of the local mountains. And it was a nice day to be outside and going for a hike.

They have done a lot of work building infrastructure up at the top of the gondola, and as we hiked, we could see evidence of the impact of some of that work. They have done a lot of repairs on the old logging roads, put in a lot of drainage and in doing so have created a series of small gravel pits along the main road.

While that might not seem good, it did create habitat for some wildlife, and we did see a pika amongst the boulders, busy collecting food for the upcoming winter. So cute!

Pika on the trail. It was a good start to the hike.

We continued to hike up, taking the main trail for a good 3-4 km. This year has been a really interesting year for mushrooms, and this hike was no exception. We had seen lots of different ones along the trail, but at one point we noticed some interesting ones off in the forest. So we headed off trail, and we got lead from one interesting and huge mushroom to the next. We had to be a bit careful that we didn’t get ourselves lost!

We saw a huge variety of mushrooms on the hike, from the mundane LBM…

…to some tiny, but intricate varieties…

…to collections of different kinds together.

There were old trees just covered in mushrooms in some places.

These were the ones that caught our attention in the forest, from the trail. They were huge!

Justine providing some context for these big ones.

There were even mushrooms growing on mushrooms.

This one looked ready made for someone or something to be living under it.

Eventually the trail changed from the wide, easy former logging road to a narrow, rocky trail (that I suspect was a stream in the spring) that worked it’s way more steeply up the mountainside. The way got a little bit tougher as you had to nvigate the loose rocks on the trail.

Most of the trail was like this - nice and wide and easy.

But eventually it turned to this - a little bit more of a scramble.

At the transition point.

As we climbed, every once in a while we got a nice view back down into the valley.

Across the valley, as we rose to near our turnabout point, there was a small waterfall.

You could see the start of fall creeping into the colours in the foliage.

Eventually we got to the end of the marked trail, where we had planned to turn back. The trail up to the glacier did not seem any different from the one we were on, and while we stopped for some water and a snack, we debated if we should continue up. At that point a guy came down the trail, dressed for proper hiking with an ice axe and helmet. He had decided to turn around as there was debris falling off the glacier and he didn’t feel safe. So that sold it for us, and we were turning around to head back.

The hike back down was pretty uneventful. Eventually we made it back to the main lodge at the gondola - and boy was it busy! They were setting up for a wedding, which had part of the lodge closed off. There were huge lines for the bar and the cafeteria, and it took s quite a while to get ourselves sorted for lunch. Nicole joined us, and we got caught up, not having seen her in a while. We had all been on trips and had lots of stories to share.