These are two approaches to Wee Sandy Lake from Caribou Creek, the drainage on the west side of the Valhalla watershed. Shannon Creek Rd. crosses Caribou Pass and contours around to the Upper Caribou Creek watershed. There are two routes to the north of Mt Niord and one route to Mt Meers.
To Mt Meers:
Difficulty: D2
Elevation gained:
Key Elevations: End of road 1600m 5250′.
Distance:
Time: full day
Season: July-September
Map: 82K/4 Nakusp
Drive: Shannon Creek Road to Caribou Creek
On Highway 6 just south of Hills (northwest of Rosebery) turn west on Bonanza Road (km 0.0).
1.0km Cross bridge, turn right (sign)
3.9km Go right. Left goes to Wragge Beach on Slocan Lake and the Wragge Beach Recreation Site with several campsites. Fees. Can also access Wragge Lake.
8.1km Go right.
11.1km Right. Left goes to Huss Creek, the Shannon Lake Trail and Mt Vingolf.
12.5km Left. Right goes to Big Sister and Rugged Pk
Then descend over the pass (go straight), a long road. Note the odometer reading at the pass. 7kms from here, at the second big indentation of the road (about 550-417, map 82K/4 Nakusp), take a rough spur road (high clearance, four-wheel drive, low range) up the north side of the creek to the tree line (the valley is flat here). At 2kms the car must ford a steam.
25.0km (approximate) Rough road toward the pass to Wee Sandy Lake (Branch 25, sign)
26.5km Old road goes left and up (4WD, high clearance, low-range), then turns right and crosses a creek. Semi-deactivation sign for road.
27.8km Left, a road built partly over a rockslide.
29.8km Road ends, upper Caribou Creek (1600m 5250’). Start of the route to Mt Meers.
Route: Caribou Creek to Wee Sandy Lakes. Two routes access the area north of Mt Niord via Grizzly Lakes and one route accesses Mt Meers.
To Mt Niord and Grizzly Lakes. Backpack up and southeast (bear trails through grass) to the pass in the divide west-northwest of Grizzly Lakes (two lakes north of Wee Sandy Lake). This pass (one of two; 584-387) is just south of Un. 2640m (at the Un. 2640m-Niord col). Descend (slippery, very steep, some steep grass; use ice axe) on the east side to Grizzly Lakes, and then to Wee Sandy Lake. Stay high to the west of the big Grizzly Lake and contour to avoid bushwhacking.
Alternative Route to Mt Niord and Grizzly Lakes. There is a much easier pass just east of Un. 2640m, but the approach up the east branch of the valley (rather than going southeast) appears blocked by bush. The approach was on a skid road (partly overgrown with alder), then up a somewhat steep headwall (some bush) and then open country. Pass around the north side of Un. 2640m and go over the pass east of it and descend to Wee Sandy Lake, staying high to the west of big Grizzly Lake.
To Mt Meers: Continue along the road (overgrown, alder) with some flagging; flagging continues beyond the road. Go through timber until the valley opens up near its end (waist-high weeds, rocks). Then there is alder, fallen trees and stinging nettles (do not wear shorts).
Then diagonal east and up under the buttress at 562-342 (map 82F/13), following a west-flowing tributary of Caribou Creek (not shown on map). Continue over steep heather and scree up a headwall to a kind of trough south of the bump at 578-344. Follow the scoured landscape and descend 60 meters on snow to a basin just southwest of the col west of Mount Meers (that can see). Gain the col.
It is easy to descend north and northeast to the Wee Sandy Lakes (lower lake is sub-alpine, surrounded by trees). One must bushwhack around the east or west shore of the lake to reach Mount Meers from the Wee Sandy Creek trail (10 hours up from Slocan Lake).
The approach from Caribou Creek is not easy; a full day’s trip. The trip is harder than many years ago because of vegetation growth.
From Wee Sandy Lake, the trip to Mount Denver is not short.
WEE SANDY FROM SHANNON CK by Kim Kratky
I think I can now shed some light on the mystery of access to Mt. Niord, Mt. Meers, and Wee Sandy Lake. On Tuesday, August 12th, Peter Tchir and I repeated the route that you, Bob, and I drove on Friday, August 8th. Leaving Nelson at 6:00 am, we reached our previous stopping spot on the Caribou Creek road around 9:00. By 9:20 we were ready to hike up the valley to scramble up Mt. Meers.
We soon discovered that the road continues well beyond that marshy spot where we stopped. It’s badly overgrown with alder, but there is a rudimentary flagged trail on it–not great but better than stumbling over boulders, stumps, and deadfalls as we were later to learn. Eventually, the road ended, but the flagging continued through timber until we reached the signed inscription of some timber cruisers on a tree. Peter knew both of the guys who had done the work.
On we carried until finally the valley opened up near its end. At this point, we were by the creek in waist-high weeds concealing rocks and other leg-grabbers. An 80-minute struggle through slide alder, blown-down trees, profuse stinging nettles, and an armada of savagely biting black and horse flies rewarded us with an elevation gain of 200 feet.
Things were to get better, however, as we made a wise choice and diagonal L (east) and up under the buttress at 562-342 on 82F/13, following a west-flowing tributary of Caribou Creek not shown on the map. By noon we had reached the alps and continued over steep heather and scree up a headwall to a kind of trough S. of the 8150′ bump at 578-344. We followed this scoured landscape until we descended on snow about 200′ into a basin just SW of the col between bump 8150′ and Mt. Meers.
From the basin, we plodded up the easy 700′ of the W. face of Meers, say 500′ of snow finished off by 200′ of shattered rock. All class 2–no hands needed except for the ice axe.
On top by 1:50 (that’s 4 1/2 hours from the truck), we found a substantial cairn with no record. The summit is a long more-or-less flat ridge running north-south; it’s more serrated on the south end. Snow on the north and northeast sides offers easy descents to the upper Wee Sandy lakes even in mid-August.
Wee Sandy itself is sub-alpine and surrounded by trees. As the trail seems to end at the north side of the lake, You would need to bushwhack along either the east or west shore or gain the 7500′ ridge to the east if you wanted to approach Meers via the Wee Sandy trail. John Carter’s book lists the Wee Sandy trail as 14.5 km. in length with a 4500′ elevation gain and a 9-hours one-way hiking time. Although his listed times tend to be somewhat slow, this would still be a serious hike, especially as one needs a boat just to access the trailhead.
Lounging around on the summit for an hour, we reached some conclusions. Although Mt. Denver showed up nicely as three prongs with the outlier of English Pk. to the north, it is a long way off. Mt. Niord to the north looked like a reddish junk heap; the Adams party inspected it from the south, dismissed it as unworthy of their attention, and headed for Meers. Both Mt. Hela and her unnamed sister 1 km. west looked impressive. The unnamed 8650′ peak at the head of Nemo Creek is an attractive cone that would be a straight shot via easy snow on the north side. Both the Devil’s Range and Mulvey Group presented a line of sharp teeth on the horizon. Finally, we were impressed by the ruggedness of the country. Traverses are not easy; that’s just what I remember from my 1981 Avis Lakes to Drinnon car park jaunt with Fred and his government colleagues.
Finally, at 2:50 it was time to head down, a prospect we viewed with mixed emotions. By this time our knees were buzzing with the toxins from the stinging nettles, as we had sanguinely worn shorts the whole way. Retracing our steps to the alps at 6500′, we then traversed north in the Caribou valley, trying to stay above the bush. Unfortunately, the tree line kept rising the farther north we continued, pushing us higher toward the slabby upper portions of the many avalanche paths that go right down to the creek. Donning long pants and long-sleeved shirts we plunged into the forest, diagonally down toward the road. Popping into a badly overgrown cutblock, we could see the road several hundred feet below outlined in a vivid green indicating it was even more overgrown than the logged portion. After surviving a thrash down an alder-choked rivulet and a wasp attack, we came out on the brushy road with mercifully only about 10 minutes walking left.
By 5:20 we were back for a cold bottle of Dos Equis and the long drive home. Although our hiking and climbing time was only 8 hrs. 20 min., both of us felt drained, even on the ascent. Peter surmises it could have been the nettles. Not surprisingly, neither of us slept much that night as the itching and stinging kept us awake.
I’ve done some more investigating into the history of this approach. First, I checked your guidebook source, the Aug. 1980 KMC Newsletter, which I have. Dave Adams led a party including Bob Dean, Peggy LePage, Robin Lidstone, Janice, and Eric and Julie Norton from a car camp on Snowslide Creek to the top of Meers. Janice couldn’t remember anything about the trip except that she had climbed Meers (I was away at Mt. Louis at the time). Peggy, however, remembered the trip as an easy outing with no bushwhacking. Recalling that Howie and Dave Adams ended their 1980s-era Valhalla traverse at Caribou Creek, I gave Ridge a call. He, of course, doesn’t need to consult a journal but can draw the experience out of his head. They passed under the u/n 8650′ peak (549-309) at the head of Nemo Creek but did not climb it. For the final bit of their trip, they climbed to the col just north of the northernmost of the Nemo Lakes and descended into the upper Caribou valley and easily walked along the road to where their truck was waiting. Howie even remembered that he could see the vehicle from the col. Thus, I think that the Adams’ trip write-up was correct–for 1980 but not for today.
CONCLUSIONS: First, the Caribou and Snowslide valleys are too brushy to give decent access to the northern part of Valhalla Provincial Park at this time. Secondly, a period of 12 to 15 years in these wet, lush drainages can wipe out a road. However, we do recall that the timber cruisers spray painted the year 1993 on one of the trees in the cut block they laid out. There may be plans for further logging in Caribou Creek as the timber companies strive to extract every last stick of merchantable wood.
