A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself.
– Laura Gilpin
February 12, Squamish BC.
Beginning to get restless at the house, my cousin Brandon and I felt the need to get outside. We had a quick discussion about where to drive, and decided to go up the Mamquam FSR (Forest Service Road).
We had a quick stop to fuel up my 1992 Toyota Sprinter Carib, the Japanese Domestic Market version of the Corolla AWD. We fuelled up, checked the fluids, raised the ride height 2″ (Toyota Japan factory feature), locked the centre differential, and worked our way up the service road making stops at spots with access to the Mamquam River.
2:00PM, we made our first stop, an area with technical rock climbing for bouldering.
Exploring Squamish blows me away everyday…
Brandon underneath one of the many intense bouldering features Squamish has to offer.
Myself getting some stealth selfies in… stealfies? is that a thing?
It is unreal how lush the forest is near the rivers in Squamish. It appears that the forest with the Stawamus River carved through it is some of the most vivid, thriving forests in the valley.
We got back in the Carib and continued up the Mamquam service road. It is hilarious how comfortable and capable the granny wagon is on these logging roads. There are quite a few bridges over the river as you zig-zag up the valley, we stopped at one of the highest bridges on this FSR.
This stop was a good opportunity for Brandon to sneak into the driver seat and give the Carib a go. He was quite impressed with the wagons 4WD locking differentials, go Japan! The photos do not do justice how steep some of the inclines were.
Another stop at a river access point. Walking through the undergrowth was dense moss beds covering blowdown, rocks, and anything else it could go and grow.
Brandon took a good handful of water when we got there, and declared it was “really ****ing cold!”…
The variant textures of the rocks is very interesting in the river. I had to take some close ups.
I would love to talk to someone in the Squamish area about the history of logging. Seeing only the moss covered stumps of modest 4-5ft Cedars, slowly decomposing and retreating back to the Earth.
Foggy weather in my eyes has this eeriness and emotional that I am fascinated with, and always try to get a good shot to portray it.
The last stop before we turned around was the best of the day. We were trying to navigate to get the island in the river. Brandon was so excited that he jumped from the slippery moss covered boulders to the other side, and quickly realized that it was going to be much more difficult on the return. I wished I had my caulked logging boots, I would have been over the river in a heartbeat… Lesson learned: we should bring an aluminum ladder on our next adventure, and wear logging boots.
We had a great time driving on the roads and standing by the Stawamus River. After days like this, I look forward to what adventure will unfold next time…
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