This ten day hike was unusual for me (Manrico) for a couple of reasons. First was the group. On most trips I know everyone or almost everyone in the group before we leave. On this trip I knew only Marilyn with whom I’ve done two big hikes and two big canoe trips previously. Marilyn is a long time friend of Meg and has a newish partner, Jim. Jim has friends Calder and Justin. So our group of six got to know each other on the trip.
The other unusual aspect was the location. Mt. Edziza Provincial Park is dominated by Mt. Edziza, an eight million year old volcano with many vents/cones/craters on its flanks. Some or all of us climbed hiked up three of these. Our route traversed the lava flows on the west side of Mt. Edziza.
We chartered a floatplane from Alpine Lakes Air to take us to Buckley Lake. Eleven days later we were picked up at Mowdade Lake. It was a very good trip except for the hike down the Chakima Creek trail to Mowdade Lake. That part was truly miserable and is best avoided. (See the photos.) Other groups fly in to Little Ball Lake and then hike to Buckley Lake.
Big thanks to Jim and Marilyn for organizing the trip and inviting me. Also big thanks to Dan Fine and his daughter Sarah who did the route in 2016. Sarah’s blog description of the route was very helpful.
Here is a Google Earth tour of our route. The photos follow that.
Now the photos. If you expand the photo viewer to full page the “Adventures” menu will stop working. This is because of technical issues with the website software. Pick any other menu item and go to that web page. The “Adventures” menu will then work properly.