Bike & Hike to South Needle 15th October

Maya writes

Several words describe this trip:

Steep.

Beautiful.

Worth the climb.

But, probably, never again!

It was an almost perfect mid-October day. Almost perfect, because, for mid-October, 23 degrees was a little too hot.

Four of us cycled along Lillooet Road to Hydraulic Creek, and then took a slow 2-and-a-half-hour climb to South Needle. The views from the top were stunning. Breath-taking. And clear, despite the smoke from fires.

And we thought that we were mighty... until four knee-knacker runners came from the opposite direction to South Needle peak. They had run further up Lillooet road than us and had run Coliseum, North Needle, Middle Needle and South Needle was their last peak of the day. They'd been out 5 hours already. MAD! And they were out of water. BAD! We shared our water with them, for which they were very grateful. And they were not the only ones out running, who were out of water.

Descending was slow. Lots of stumbles. The two who stumbled the most were least scratched. Maybe they were used to stumbling. One of us got a tiny nick in their knee. It wouldn't stop bleeding. After three bandages, we tied a hankie tightly around their knee, which seemed to work...some what...see photo.

Brilliant day. If long and very tiring.

12 km bike ride, over 1000m climb, 7 hours in total.