Home»All Photographs»2019 Hikes»Monola Peak 06-01-19

The official start of the 2019 Super Saturday season was looking questionable the day before. Heavy smoke from the fires in High Level had us scrambling for options in other areas that may be less smoky. Fortunately, the wind changed around 6 pm Friday, and we were gifted the most amazing blue skies and clear air (which seemed even cleaner after breathing such heavy smoke for the previous two days - my throat and eyes were sore even inside the restaurant where I work).
The hike started with a ford of the Livingstone River (which we had crossed two years earlier on the approach to Isola Peak). It was a chilly 2 degrees out, so we wasted no time getting that over with. I noticed that I had forgotten my bear spray in Konrads car, but wasn't fording the river again to get it - my three hiking partners had theirs anyway.
Once on the logging road, we made good time toward Monola Peak. No footprints in the mud were seen, just lots of bear tracks, both old and fresh. Then I looked up and about 120 metres in front of us on the road was a grizzly. It stretched up on its hind legs to get a scent of us before bolting off across a cutblock. It's demeanor presented no threat to us, but I found it ironic to see a bear so soon after I had left my spray behind.
Farther into the hike, we wallowed up some melting snowpatches as we bushwacked our way up the western slopes of Monola. Soon, the tangled forest gave way to open ground and a delicious ridgewalk to the summit of Monola. We had lunch and napped there for a bit before returning the same way. More fresh bear tracks and a dig that wasn't there five hours ago had us calling out to alert any nearby bruins, although none were seen. The heat of the afternoon was peaking by now, and hot feet that had been in big boots all day were soothed by the return river ford. The cold water was much more pleasant the second time around.