Peaks & Pints – Cheam Peak
Have you ever been to a bottle share? It’s where some beer nerds (like myself) bring some special beer over to a fellow beer nerd’s house and we all take pictures of drink these rare and hard to find beer. It’s fun. You get to hang out with friends, shoot the s#!t and drink some beer you’ve probably never tried and most likely won’t get to try again.
While traditional bottle shares are awesome, as an avid hiker and lover of the outdoors I’ve always wanted to bring this concept to the mountain tops. How cool would it be to crack some rare reward beer on an epic peak?
To organize it has been tougher than I thought it would be for a few reasons;
- Organizing a group of people to do anything is always a challenge. Especially when we all have jobs, kids and priorities that take precedence.
- Finding a group of intermediate-to-advanced hikers that are also beer nerds isn’t the easiest thing in the world. Beer nerds show no judgment while you’re embarrassingly taking photos of your bottle at the top of a mountain.
- Lugging bomber bottles in your backpack isn’t ideal for pack weight on a hike. Liquid and glass are heavy. Rare beers big enough for sharing with three other people don’t come in lightweight cans.
Well, through no effort of my own, it finally happened a couple weeks ago.
Trust the Trailhawk
My friend and fellow beer nerd / hiker, Tim (@crafttourist) rounded up the troops for this one; Tim, Gabor (@bcbeerguy), Josh (@westcoasthomebrewer) and myself made the trek out to Chilliwack. This hike kinda had to be organized by Tim though. Before you even start the hike up Cheam Peak you need to make the 12km drive up a pretty gnarly logging road. Just check out the reviews on AllTrails. Every second comment talks about car parts falling off and vehicles overheating. Luckily for us Tim is the proud owner of a Jeep Trailhawk, so the drive up was no problem except for us all looking like bobbleheads for 45 minutes.
Once you get to the trailhead you can really see how open the trail is. Lush green alpine and wildflowers and not a lot of tree coverage. It kind of reminded me of what, I think, the Swiss Alps would look like in Summer (call me Captain von Trapp). It definitely doesn’t have the same terrain as a typical BC hike does.
The lack of tree coverage was definitely more noticeable on a 30 degree day. Right when we got out of Tim’s car we could feel the sun baking us. Nothing a little zinc and some Hawaiian Tropic couldn’t handle though, right?? Wrong! I definitely improved my farmer’s tan by the end of it.
What’s The Trail All About?
I don’t want to spend too much time writing about the trail as those are all details you can look up on numerous sites like AllTrails and Vancouver Trails. Here’s what I can point out for you:
- The trail starts off mellow and flat but by about the 1/3 mark starts going up fairly aggressively and doesn’t really stop til the peak.
- As mentioned previously, there isn’t much tree coverage at all. So on a hot day you’re going to be drinking a lot of water. Make sure to bring enough as there aren’t really any spots to fill up along the trail.
- Also don’t do what I did and freeze all your water thinking it will melt in time to drink it. Licking ice isn’t nearly as hydrating as drinking a big gulp of water.
- Before you start your final ascent up to the peak there’s a fork in the trail where you can turn left to go up to Cheam Peak or right to walk the saddle between two peaks. Take the extra 10-15 minutes to walk the saddle as it gives you a good rest from incline and some terrific views of Wahleach Lake (aka Jones Lake).
- On a hot day the trail can be very dry and unstable. Make sure to wear proper hiking shoes/boots and watch your footing.
- The view at the top of Cheam Peak makes the slog of a hike worth it. It’s honestly one of the top 3 views I’ve seen on a hike in BC.
Mountain Top Cheers
After a stop at the saddle for our first hydration beer, a mini snowball fight (yes, we’re grown men) and some knee issues with old man Gabor (sorry bud) we slogged it out to the top of Mt Cheam.
Cheese n’ rice, those views were next level. You could see everything from up there and any of the pictures I’ve posted in this blog don’t do it justice.
Once we all made it to the top and soaked in the epic views it was time to find a spot for our bottle share. First up was the Rodenbach Vintage 2017 Belgian sour ale courtesy of Tim.
Next up was my bottle of Cantillon Gueuze 100% Lambic Bio. Which I totally forgot has a cork in it. Lucky for us Macgyver (aka Tim) is good with a knife and had us covered.
Third was Josh’s bottle of Barn Owl from Bellwoods in Toronto. A classic from one of the best breweries on the East coast and maybe all of Canada.
Last but certainly not least was Gabor’s contribution from Austin, Texas based brewery, Jester King and their Biere De Syrah sour ale.
Who’s In For The Next One
Damn, what a day! With a great hike, great beer and great company we were finally able to pull of a mountain top bottle share. A. O. Campbell, Ebe B. Knight and their party may have made the first ascent up Cheam Peak in 1888 but I’m going to claim that Tim, Gabor, Josh and Myself held the first bottle share up there.
The way down was a lot better (as it usually is) especially with some delicious brews in our bellies. We even found a shortcut slide down some snow (did you see my IG story?) and a creek with fresh water to cool off our faces.
The question now is, when’s the next one and who else is joining for the next mountain top bottle share?
