Little Knuckle - absolutely gorgeous Powell River Backcountry

It's 8.22 in the morning on April 24th maybe I don't know something like that and we're we're going to go up the Little Knuckle for the second time this year. Last time we went we did our camp out up here. Yeah we took the quad to the top here from the Alpha Lake parking area but it was spotty snow so it won't be long and you'll be able to drive almost all the way to the trail ahead. So yeah here we are so we're gonna we put crampons on because this snow is absolutely uh impenetrable at this time but who knows what it's gonna be like up there so we're bringing all the gear ice axe uh snowshoes everything anyways we'll talk to you a little bit later as we head up the hill. Beautiful day my goodness absolutely perfect day. Look over there and you can see we've got an absolutely uh spectacular day. I don't know if you guys can see that but that is a little baby bear track right here see that yeah we've been following these kind of a group of tracks going well you can see the bear tracks going up above us again but then you'll see an interesting little thing you know these tracks going down the hill that's sort of similar to what rabbit tracks look like when they're when they're hopping through the uh through the snow but looks appears to me like the bear went running down the hill and maybe realized she forgot her cubs went over here had a look you know that's what I'm that's what I'm thinking but anyways there's Karen and uh the big knuckling behind her and I don't you probably can't see in the video here but um on that far slope over there below the big knuckle you can see some ski track coming down looks like uh a couple of our mountaineering friends had a great time up here in the last couple days that's pretty cool yeah pretty nice so yeah we're getting we're getting closer and closer to the top it was uh it's it's frozen hard but with crampons on nice walking up dug holes dug step to go down should be safe should be good you can see the sentinel on the hill over there now yeah we're just sending the drone over to the sentinel cabin over there that's the vitco lodge beautiful spot for anybody who wants to go give it a try as you can see the snow is seems to be melting off in a hurry but that's what happens this time of the year you can tell we're partway up the ramp you can see Karen coming up the hill down below there you see beta lake across the way we're over the side here um and what I'm standing on here is a bit of a slough from that last snowfall we had about a week ago and uh we sloughed down the hill I don't know if that would have been enough to push somebody over the edge or not but you know these are the kind of things that you have to watch out for when you're going on slopes like this anyway so far so good you know having a good time we were supposed to go up that hill over there but it's uh so so the snow is so hard and that's a really steep section that uh just I didn't think it was going to be safe so we decided to go up the least challenging option gonna make it pretty simple but you know still have to be careful we'll see you further up the hill well we're still on the way up the ramp and I just wanted to point out here to the bear that one of the bears I don't think the cubs followed maybe the mommy bear went across here went up this hillside over here you know I guess the question always comes up why did the bear climb over the mountain and this proverbial answer of course is to see what he could see you know the good old song the bear went over the mountain to see what he could see to see what he could see to see what he could see the bear went over the mountain the bear went over the mountain and Karen went over the mountain to see what she could see well we're up another mountain as you can see I thought you guys were getting maybe a little bored waiting for us to climb another hill right I don't think so anyways we just like to say cheers to everybody down there beautiful Powell River BC the most gorgeous place on earth cheers from us on Little Knuckle beautiful Powell River backcountry yeah as I said before there's nothing like a hot cup of coffee sitting on the top of one of these peaks back here when you and the view we have today like okay there's a few clouds way way in the distance but this is what what we of course call a bluebird day this is absolutely beautiful up here we are you know once again we we waited and we waited and you know sometimes good things come to those who wait right and I don't know you won't be able to see in the video here but the the bear we've been following bear tracks all the way up this hill a bear and at least one cub probably two and now he's going or she is going over the other side of the mountain so apparently the bear didn't come over the mountain to see what she could see the bear went over the mountain to go over the other side I don't know to find something to eat who knows anyways cheers from Clark and Karen and beautiful Powell River backcountry have a good day down there we're having a great one up here well as you can see there we're just taking the drone for a flight off of the Little Knuckle and heading towards the Big Knuckle and that ridgeline to the left there is a beautiful little place to do some snowshoeing and having some fun in the backcountry it's part of the the Beta Lake Traverse and coming up is the ridgeline heading up to the Big Knuckle and along it there's a cornice that is a bit of a challenge to get past in the wintertime so not too many people go up there and of course here's the top of the Big Knuckle when we'll be going up there sometime this summer for sure and there down below us there is the South Knuckle or otherwise known as the Moose Knuckle and coming up is Pond Peak one of the our favorite go-to mountains when the conditions on the other hills are a little bit treacherous this one here is it's almost always a safe snowshoe in the winter sometimes it's a lot of work getting up there when the snow is soft but it's not that bad it's a beautiful little hike the views up there are actually quite astounding for the amount of work that it takes to get up there and that lake down there below us is Walt Lake we've snowshoed the length of that lake a couple times and on your right hand side was Walt Ridge and coming up is Walt Ridge North that mountain off to the right there and or maybe also known as Mission Hill and below us is McVeigh Lake as you can see it's still winter down there still winter up here in the hills but it won't be long and that lake will be pure blue and here we're coming from the north towards the Little Knuckle and you can't see us but we're sitting on top of that right below us is Narnia the famed ski area for the Fall River skiers and then you have Beta Lake down below us and that face in front of us is a face that a lot of the local skiers really enjoy coming down and we've hiked up and down that a few times it's a bit steep for hiking the skiers seem to absolutely love it and here we are going back along that ridge that we started out heading down from and that's the access to the Little Knuckle and it's quite soon you'll see us sitting there on top of the hill having our lunch yeah there we are well on the way back down see all those lines in the snow down below us down this side those are those are that's where the bear went he did a little bit of uh looking around maybe he's looking for food but i don't know what he's looking up here for that's great good job nice stuff well we just came off the ramp from the Little Knuckle there and crampons of course all the way down there it was it was okay we made steps on the way out and so not so bad coming down and now we had to put the snowshoes on because we're starting to and post hauling is the most uh tiring way of travel and probably on the face of the earth well as you can tell we made it down yeah it was uh it was a great day for hiking my goodness and uh as i said earlier i'm sure glad we used our better discretion and brought all our gear rather than uh decide oh we don't need this don't need that today we used everything ice axes crampons snowshoes you name it we used it so yeah it was really an awesome hike and we're out we're back back at the quad here and it's actually uh quarter to one so you know not before not all done before lunch but all done by lunchtime we had lunch up there anyways that's it for us today thanks you thank you all for watching don't forget to like and subscribe that's one of the lovely spots that the knucklehead crew fixed up last year so it sure makes the ride up there a lot less uh how should we say trepidatious for some of us not for me but you know for her anyways that's it