Della Falls via Cream Lake

This years expedition will be a slow paced, 5 day trip travelling mostly in alpine meadows. This trip will be less technical than the last couple of years and is suitable for novice hikers. This year is more hiking, and less mountaineering.

The dates for this hike have been set for Aug 30, through Sep 3, 2000. Sep 4th is held in reserve for the unexpected.

We will start at the southern tip of Buttle Lake, heading south along the Price Creek Trail. The first camp is about 5 hours along this trail. This site is in a heavily wooded area on the river bank. This makes for easy camping, but being in the valley, it will get dark early, and the moon will not be visible.

Our second day is an average, yet constantly up-hill excursion. Our route is easily seen from the adjacent Flower Ridge trail just north of the lake. This day will also only be 6 hours, but more strenuous than the first day. We will skirt around the east side of Cream Lake, just below Mt. Septimus, as shown in the enlarged Mt. Septimus picture (click on the image at left). Our camp site will be on the south shore of Cream Lake. This is a very open area, almost always windy during the night. It provides a good water source, and lots of open sky.

The third day will be a quick paced adventure, ascending a large snow bowl on the west side of Mt. Septimus. This route is shown in the enlarged image of Mt. Septimus. From the top of this peak there will be some wonderful views. An enlarged picture can be seen by clicking on the image at left. That's the Nine Peaks in the background. We will head south from Mt. Septimus until we arrive at the south shore of Love Lake. The trail is shown more clearly by clicking on the third day trail in the map. This camp site is a mix of meadows and trees, and is close enough to Della Falls that they will serenade you to sleep.

Although this is the limit of our travels, there will be an excellent view of Della Falls from this camp site. Our line of site is shown in green.

The forth day we start to backtrack. We will have much more time for picture taking and sight seeing than the preceding day because we can slide down Mt. Septimus to Cream lake. This shaves almost 2 hours off the time it took to travel to Love Lake. We will be able to travel east just below the peaks of Mt. Septimus and Mt. Rosseau to get a north facing view of Flower Ridge, the Red Piller and Margaret Lake. This two hour leg of recreation is shown in blue on the maps.

The fifth day is almost exclusively down hill. Don't let this fool you! It isn't any easier, you just travel faster. Since most of the day is down hill, we can make the parking lot in about 6 hours from Cream Lake. That will bring us to the end of this years expedition.

Technical Specs

All ratings are on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is family camping, and 10 is considered Mountain climbing where you need ropes and significant experience.

Technical Difficulty

5 This is not a very technical trip, but don't confuse that with strenuous.

Fitness Level Required

6 Although the terrain is not unusaully difficult, there are a couple of short, yet very steep sections. Traversing these with your pack will require that you are not too exhausted.

Mandatory Equipment

Other than normal hiking gear such as tent and rain clothes, nothing is required.

Recommended Equipment

Ice Axe Going up and coming down the snow bowl on Mt. Septimus will be a lot more convenient (read less scary) with an ice axe. If you have crampons and you are not over weight, they will make the third day much easier for you, but there is no danger if you don't have them.