Wayne's (Mountain) World: July 2009 Ron's 10 Day Epic Adventure

Normally I would not write very much about a client's guided adventure, but in this case the story needs to be told. Ron Gass from Connecticut had been on a previous trip with me in 2006 while I was guiding in Jasper. Ron wanted to spend 10 days in the mountains with me. As a new person to this area I explained to Ron that this trip would be a bit of a reconnaissance for me while I guided. We went to the following areas: Downton Valley, Blow Down Valley, Gott Creek, and Mission Ridge. Everything went very smooth and Ron and I cemented a new friendship together as we travelled through this new terrain. However, on the last day on Mission Ridge, unknown to us, the Mt McLean fire started due to a lightning strike. Ron and I had a very ambitious day planned that involved nearly 15 km and an amazing 2000 meter elevation loss that would bring us right back into Lillooet. The day turned out to be rather epic instead of merely ambitious. We began hiking at 8 am and reached the alpine by 10 am. As we travelled South East, we spotted several planes flying low over-head. We were a little curious what was going on until we moved on tho the North shoulder of Mt McLean. There directly ahead of us was a large plume of smoke, right in our direction of travel. I was not able to get any information from BC Forestry about whether or not the fire was in our path (it was). When we reached the East shoulder of Mt McLean was began to descend from our intended route to try to reach a clearing that looked like a fire road from Google Earth. All we had to do was descend through a 1 km stretch of forest. The forest was hideous! A tangle of snarled downed trees that were at times five trees deep. The forest floor was mossy and due to a light (and brief) rain shower became treacherous. This 1 km stretch of forest cost us 4 hours! Upon reaching the 'fire road' we realized that it was actually an old fire guard. The forestry service lays trees perpendicular to the edges of the fire guards to stop people with ATV's driving through them. This meant we had to climb over everyone of these trees while carrying our heavy packs.
By the time we reached the real fire road, Ron was pretty tired, but enthusiastic to be on a road. It was now 8 pm and I was receiving calls from my friend Scott (who flies helicopters) on my radio inquiring where we were... we were supposed to be back in town 3 hours earlier. When I finally got within the line of site of his hanger I was able to tell him we were OK. He asked if we wanted a pick up and be brought back to the hanger. After explaining to Ron that we were only 5 km from town, Ron stated that he wanted to finish this hike on his feet. Unfortunately Ron was pretty tired and the last 5 km were pretty painful for him. It was at 12:30 am that we finally rolled into town. At that time Ron stated that he thought that this day was a little too much for him. When we met the next day for lunch, Ron thought that the day before was truly an amazing experience and that he could not believe what he accomplished! He did accomplish quite a lot - more than most would do in a big day.