Lady MacDonald

Okay, let me start by saying this was my longest hike this season so far and that we started at 10.30am so was already a very hot day. So doing a 1200m elevation gain hike was a little daunting.

The first start of the hike was a nice start up Cougar Creek- yes the name is accurate as it is a wildlife corridor and many cougars have been seen here. From this creek you travel a few hundred metres until you see the path coming out of the trees on the left hand side (look for the wildlife signs). From here she’s a straight up dirt track dipping in and out of the trees. I won’t lie, I did die well and truly during the first hour. This continues going through switch backs in and out of the trees.

You will get to a part which is rock laden and it isn’t super clear as to which path is the correct but they all lead to the same part. We chose to go what we thought was the path but turns out was the hardest path. Taking the path less travelled sometimes means the hardest.

From the rocks the landing isn’t far. It looks the a big helicopter pad that hasn’t quite been finished. But however, upon reading something online (I may be incorrect) that it is actually a unfinished teahouse. Which surprises me as I don’t think many people will be hiking 2 hours up that walk to go to a teahouse, nor will the staff wanna walk that all the time.

We stopped at the “teahouse” for a little food and water break as well as letting the feet hang off the edge as a rest. From here we can see the Ridgeline, as well as the scramble up to it. There is a set path that we vaguely followed up to the Ridgeline. It is defiantly a scramble. I tried to hang to the side with the larger rocks as I found it a bit more stable and sought out any long stretch of rock that would allow we to clamber up rather than going up scree. The view from the ridgeline is good as its a set of ranges that aren’t seen unless you travel up cougar creek. The drop off from the ridgeline is also very daunting. Not for the faint hearted.

This is where the hike becomes more difficult. You follow the thin Ridgeline for a few hundred metres until reaching the summit. Both sides are a sheer drop- more so the right side as it’s a lot longer till the sheer cliffs tapers out. Myself and Elena got maybe 100 metres (if that) along the ridge before it became a little to sketchy for us so we found a little wider part to sit and rest and take in the views. If you are a beginner or not a fan of heights I would highly recommend turning around at the teahouse landing. As seen in the photo below of Elena, the Ridgeline is thin.

To reach that part we took just under 3 hours, with a lunch as well as a snack stop on the way up. If I was to do this hike again on a fine day I would probably start earlier than 10.30 as its already rather warm (by warm I mean super hot) as well as dry.

The descend from the Ridgeline was a tonne of fun. Flying down the scree taking one step at a time but making ground as if it was 3 was my first real decent scree experience. Due to the elevation gain of this hike the descend is rough on the knees, but nothing more than a quick break and stretch won’t help.

The most rewarding part is being at the base of Cougar Creek and seeing how high you just hiked and how far it actually was. I will probably return to Lady Mac once again when I rewind my strength, knee stability and also maybe have a bit more experience on Ridgeline walks and scree.