Now that it is getting hotter, we're looking for hikes with good swimming spots. I've asked around but haven't had much response so we decided to join a MeetUp that was for a hike and swim. This is a group that I don't think any of us had done in anything in before, or at least I hadn't.
There was a group of twelve so we knew things would go a little slower and we didn't end up starting our hike for almost an hour after we arrived. Everyone had to go to the real bathroom, then 3 people had to discuss the map and trail with the centre and then we had to move our cars since we were starting from the other parking lot...
Leslie, Shane and I did a variation of this trail in the winter so I wasn't expecting it to be hard, just hot out. However, part of the trail seemed closed so there was a lot of back and forth and looking at maps trying to figure out where to go. I usually end up doing a lot of navigation, but Leslie, Shane and I are laid back and don't mind changing our plans. The leader of this group though seemed pretty set on doing the loop she wanted even though it was closed. There was another trail we could do that was a bit longer, but super wide and well maintained. Most people wanted to just do that instead to keep moving. However, they decided we would cut across other loops and walk on the road until we could get on this trail at another point.
We somehow still managed to get all turned around and ended up at someone's house. The woman ended up coming out to see why twelve people were just hanging out in her yard. She was super nice and took us to her back yard where there actually is a trail connected to the main trail. We continued on like this, pretty much getting turned around at every intersection. There was a guy using AllTrails and telling us where to go. However, the leader disagreed almost every time...I'll let you guess who was right and who wasn't.
A local came by while the group was debating over which way to go since there were 4 options. When it was explained to him where we were going he said he was too and to just follow him. This was a nice break from the constant back tracking since we just followed him all the way up to the summit. We had a quick lunch break and then continued on to the next summits.
There continued to be more confusion but we made it to the second summit pretty quick. We didn't stop for long since we knew there was one more summit to go before descending. We continued to get all turned around, this was only made worse by the fact that the ski hill we were hiking on is also used for mountain biking. For the most part we were able to avoid them and they weren't going fast on the messier trails. However, we had reached an open space where they were just barreling down the hills. The leader wanted us to go up it and no one else did. She was trying to make us go up it but I told her no quite firmly so we went another way. Most people were ready to start descending a new way. They didn't even want to bother with the third summit at this point.
One of the girls had run out of water and was going quite slow and starting to struggle. The leader didn't really pay much attention, I don't know if she even knew she had run out. I had my water filter but there was no water source around. I ended up giving her Shane's juice box to tide her over.
We had been running into two girls hiking the same trail as us a bunch of times and they were on a nice wide path to get to the final summit. Most of the group wanted to follow them but the leader made us go into a smaller wooded trail...full of cyclists going downhill. This trail seemed to be only for cyclists and was making a lot of people uncomfortable. It was at this point another girl said she was super hot and needed to rest. She sat down on the side of the trail and the leader just kept going with the group. I stopped to check on her, she still had water but was feeling dizzy so I gave her some electrolytes. While we were stopped a cyclist stopped to tell us that this was a biking trail only and we had to get off it... so those of us who had stayed with the tired person went back to the nice trail.
We met up with the rest of the group at the summit and were able to sit back and relax.
There were a couple of employees roaming around and we got chatting with one, Guy. We could see the ski lift going up and down for the cyclists and wanted to know if we could take it down. He said normally it was used for people that were injured but he'd see what he could do. The two people who had been having a hard time seemed to be doing better but a ride down would make it easier. He managed to get them to agree so we took the lift down which was a beautiful break.
Once we got to the bottom, we were at the first parking lot we had parked in before moving our cars so we had a good laugh about how unnecessary that was. Everyone of course had to go use the real bathroom again. Although at this point there was a group of us who were frustrated and just wanted to jump in the lake. So when the leader suggested going back to town and visiting a grocery store before the lake, there were a few of us who quickly shot it down and said we'd meet them at the lake!
It was a tiny little beach but looked super appealing with how hot we were. There was a canteen so we got popsicles while waiting in line to change into our swim suits and then got right into the water. It was chilly but beautifully refreshing. We swam for quite a while before anyone else showed up and then swam some more.
We ended up staying there chatting for almost two hours, it was a really good group of people. I didn't get back home until almost 8 and exchanged contact info with most people. I'm not sure if I'll go on another MeetUp with that group but we'll see. It was super frustrating but I wasn't in charge so it didn't overly effect me. The part that worried me the most is that four people practically had heat stroke and the leader wasn't involved in any of the treatment. Overall a good day though, I'm glad restrictions are easing up so we can have bigger groups.