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ria_oaksOooh, ow, I am tired and sore. ^^ Busy couple of days with lots of walking and/or standing involved. Mom and I hiked up to Garibaldi Lake yesterday, which is 18km return and took us about 6 hours (~7 total, incl. stopping at the lake for about an hour to eat and wander around). It was challenging, but definitely beat last week's hike - no hiking up ski runs in the blazing sunlight. :) Temperature was perfect, warm but not hot, and we were in trees for the majority of it. Going up it's pretty much a 9km slog up switchbacks, but it's a well kept trail and isn't too steep. It was also like a bloody four-lane highway, lol - guess because it's the holiday weekend, everyone and their dog was there. (except for the dog part, fortunately, because that would have really sucked!) Made me feel more secure about the possibility of bears though, at least. And the view at the top is amazing - alpine glacial lake, beautiful turqoise colour, and the glacier at the far end.
We woke up pretty early, at 6:30, because it takes at least an hour to get there. The drive up to Garibaldi was nice (it's just a bit past Squamish, on the way to Whistler) - I haven't been up that way in several years, since I last went to Whistler (which Mom informs me was 7 years ago, when I started my first year of uni - WTF. o.o Am getting old already, wah). Anyway, the new and improved Sea to Sky Highway is quite nice, at least for the first part of the drive, and it does seem safer than before. Not sure it was worth all the controversy and destruction of nature, though... great views going up, I'd kind of forgotten how beautiful it is up there! Got to the trailhead at ~9 and on the trail by 9:30 (it took awhile to park/pay for parking...). They have markers at almost every kilometre, which is nice, though we missed the 1km mark and didn't see one until the 2.5 km mark. Which was also nice, because it felt like we'd gone quite a distance and it had only been 45 min!
Anyway, it took us about 2.5 hours to reach the Barrier at the 6km mark, which a. offers spectacular views, and b. is pretty nifty because the cliff's all sheared away. Check it out:
(I fooled around with all these pics in Photoshop, trying to bring out the colour... think it helped a bit. ^^)
View from the Barrier:
The cliff/Barrier itself:
After the Barrier it's another 3km/approx 1 hour to the lake, passing by various other smaller lakes like this one:
Until finally... Garibaldi Lake! It's fed into by a glacier and hence is very cold, though some people were swimming. It wasn't quite hot enough out for me to want to take the plunge. ^^ Pity, because it looks so crystal clear and beautiful; you just want to jump in!
Black Tusk off in the background (the black peak you can see over the ridge). Mom hiked it 38 years ago, when she and some friends hiked up to Garibaldi Lake, camped for 4 days, and did various hikes from the lake. I heard much about this trip on Saturday. ^^ Sounded fun, anway, and back then it was a. less busy and b. less strict about where you could camp (there are set campsites now and you may even have to reserve, but back then I think you just pitched a tent wherever...). The campsite is still very basic, though - no running water, and of course you have to carry everything up and back with you. We ran into a colleague of Mom's, too, who'd been camping up there for a couple of days already - small world!
Me in front of the lake...
Anyway, we had lunch and headed down, which took another 2.5 hours... I was really sore by the end, and about 20 min from the parking lot we started hearing thunder so we were glad we got off before the storm started! It just started raining as we left. Some people were still heading up, too, even though it was 5pm... guess they'll be camping, but still! Could well have been snowing at the top. o.o
All in all, fun but tiring day. Compounded on by 3 hours of standing today to watch the Pride Parade, which was lots of fun but tiring. And I'm too tired now to post about it, so... tomorrow. I'll just leave you with this:
HAPPY PRIDE!!
(also, this - yay almost naked dancers! Gotta love Pride)
We woke up pretty early, at 6:30, because it takes at least an hour to get there. The drive up to Garibaldi was nice (it's just a bit past Squamish, on the way to Whistler) - I haven't been up that way in several years, since I last went to Whistler (which Mom informs me was 7 years ago, when I started my first year of uni - WTF. o.o Am getting old already, wah). Anyway, the new and improved Sea to Sky Highway is quite nice, at least for the first part of the drive, and it does seem safer than before. Not sure it was worth all the controversy and destruction of nature, though... great views going up, I'd kind of forgotten how beautiful it is up there! Got to the trailhead at ~9 and on the trail by 9:30 (it took awhile to park/pay for parking...). They have markers at almost every kilometre, which is nice, though we missed the 1km mark and didn't see one until the 2.5 km mark. Which was also nice, because it felt like we'd gone quite a distance and it had only been 45 min!
Anyway, it took us about 2.5 hours to reach the Barrier at the 6km mark, which a. offers spectacular views, and b. is pretty nifty because the cliff's all sheared away. Check it out:
(I fooled around with all these pics in Photoshop, trying to bring out the colour... think it helped a bit. ^^)
View from the Barrier:
The cliff/Barrier itself:
After the Barrier it's another 3km/approx 1 hour to the lake, passing by various other smaller lakes like this one:
Until finally... Garibaldi Lake! It's fed into by a glacier and hence is very cold, though some people were swimming. It wasn't quite hot enough out for me to want to take the plunge. ^^ Pity, because it looks so crystal clear and beautiful; you just want to jump in!
Black Tusk off in the background (the black peak you can see over the ridge). Mom hiked it 38 years ago, when she and some friends hiked up to Garibaldi Lake, camped for 4 days, and did various hikes from the lake. I heard much about this trip on Saturday. ^^ Sounded fun, anway, and back then it was a. less busy and b. less strict about where you could camp (there are set campsites now and you may even have to reserve, but back then I think you just pitched a tent wherever...). The campsite is still very basic, though - no running water, and of course you have to carry everything up and back with you. We ran into a colleague of Mom's, too, who'd been camping up there for a couple of days already - small world!
Me in front of the lake...
Anyway, we had lunch and headed down, which took another 2.5 hours... I was really sore by the end, and about 20 min from the parking lot we started hearing thunder so we were glad we got off before the storm started! It just started raining as we left. Some people were still heading up, too, even though it was 5pm... guess they'll be camping, but still! Could well have been snowing at the top. o.o
All in all, fun but tiring day. Compounded on by 3 hours of standing today to watch the Pride Parade, which was lots of fun but tiring. And I'm too tired now to post about it, so... tomorrow. I'll just leave you with this:
HAPPY PRIDE!!
(also, this - yay almost naked dancers! Gotta love Pride)
