Rohr '09

 

On the weekend of August the 21st we trekked up to Rohr Lake, British Columbia, for our second annual Peppermill Music Festival. 

While the new location was slightly easier to hike to than last year, the scenery was no less spectacular.  Mountains, glaciers, alpine meadows, blue skies and an icy cold lake that looked like it belonged on a postcard.  But thankfully it's so out of the way and a bit difficult to get to, we had it to ourselves.  Here's some photos we took over the course of the three days:

 

 

 

 

While a lot of the weekend will be left solely to our memories, some parts of it were documented.  Above are a few interesting things we saw on the hike after we got the chopper to sling up our food and instruments and things.  Those berries were quite tasty, thanks to the locals that pointed them out to us.

 

 

 

Up, up, up.  At first we were following the trail through the forest, past some pretty large trees, till we came up to a bowl with an meadow and the start of the more difficult part of the journey.  The last hour or so was spent negotiating our way up a rock slide, around boulders, across small waterfalls, great fun.

 

 

 

...and then we saw the lake!  That second photo above isn't photoshopped at all, those are the colours we saw.  It felt a bit surreal.

 

 

 

Nobody will forget our talented chef Mike.  Thanks to him and Linda for coming up early to help set up.

 

 

 

A few more images of the lake.  Depending on where you stood, it could appear any number of shades of blue.

 

 

 

The second day, Paleo took us up to a rock amphitheatre for his performance.

 

 

 

 

Afterwards some of us hiked further, headed for one of Rohr's peaks, up to the alpine, past Marmotville (although the little critters went silent as soon as we approached, hidden away behind the rocks) to where the air became thinner and the trees shorter.  That last pic is the final glimpse we had of the boulder-leaping Paleo till he appeared back in camp a number of hours later.

 

 

 

 

Lots of wildflowers growing out of the boulder field.  I forget what kind they are, anybody?

 

 

 

 

Almost there...

 

 

 

 

 

 

...made it!  You could see everything from up here, quite the 360 panorama.  The really large snow-capped peaks to our southwest were the Joffre group, a much more well known hiking destination, but you couldn't really top this.

 

 

 

 

Back to camp we went.  And after supper when the sun went down we huddled round the fire and took in all the amazing people that were there to play for us.  To be more specific... Nick Caceres, Fabi Reyna, Valerie Graham with Jordie Dammet, Ilana Cameron with Kurt Goltz, Tarran the Tailor, Paleo, and A Hawk and a Hacksaw.  As well as some great stuff from other musical types in attendance. 

 

 

 

While it was tough to photograph the going-ons at night, you can however listen in right here.  Included are some highlights from each of the performers.

So our second festival went off splendidly, once again zero fatalities which is always a bonus!  Everyone played safe and came together to create this perfect kind of summer adventure.  Hopefully we'll see you all again next August...