Three Days of BC Hiking

I lived in Vancouver, BC for two years while I went to graduate school and I absolutely fell in love with the place. It is so gorgeous up there! A grad school friend of mine got married in Vancouver at the end of July, so Greg and I used it as an excuse to take a week-long vacation up there. We spent four nights near Whistler and four nights in Vancouver.

Day 1

The first day in Whistler we hiked the High Note Trail, which starts on Whistler Peak and wraps around the back side of the mountain, looping back around to the Roundhouse Lodge just below the summit. It’s about seven miles total, I think. I call it the $88 hike because the only way to do this as a day hike (and not hike up from the bottom), is to take the 20-minute gondola ride to the top. Because Intrawest just opened this other fancy new gondola that goes back and forth between Whistler and Blackcomb, they make you buy a one-size-fits-all ticket, even if you don’t want to ride the new gondola. So we paid for far more than we wanted to. Oh well. The hike was totally spectacular and I’m glad we paid to go up there and do it.

Greg standing by the Inukshuk on Whistler Summit, which is the official symbol of the 2010 Olympics. There are Inukshuks all over the place.

Looking down on the Cheakamus River and Helm Creek flowing down from the mountains into the river. The “bump” on the left is Black Tusk.

The mountains felt close enough to touch. Those particular mountains are in Garibaldi Provincial Park, which is mostly wilderness, but has some spectacular hikes on the western edge.

The wildflower meadows were amazing. We could hear hundreds of bees buzzing around and doing their thing. (Unfortunately we also had to deal with another insect: mosquitoes.)

We could see down to Cheakamus Lake far below us. We would hike to this lake a few days later.

Harmony Lake, on the “front” side of Whistler Mountain, just a few miles from Roundhouse Lodge. That’s Blackcomb Mountain in the background.

Looking off to the east and the Spearhead Range. That is total wilderness out there. There are no roads, no trails. Just wild rugged mountains.

A parting shot of the mountains before we ended our hike at the Roundhouse Lodge and took the gondola back down to Whistler Village. That’s the Peak 2 Peak gondola in this shot, the one we were forced to pay for and couldn’t ride since it shut down three hours before anything else.

Day 2

Our second day we drove up to Joffre Lakes Provincial Park. I remember reading a lot about this hike when I lived in Vancouver. It’s very very popular. One of my hiking books says the trailhead parking lot is packed on weekends. Which is why we went on Monday instead of Sunday. I had never done the hike when I lived in Vancouver. For one thing it’s a three-hour drive from Vancouver. Plus it always sounded too hard. But when Greg suggested we try it, I reasoned I was in better hiking shape than I was four years ago so I was game to try it. I discovered why the hike was difficult: every single bit of trail was laced with tree roots and littered with rocks and boulders. It was Mother Nature’s stairmaster.

The drive through the mountains to the trailhead was beautiful. And mere minutes after setting off from the parking lot we were at Lower Joffre Lake.

The middle lake is about an hour up the trail. Part of the way there, we had a 15-minute crossing of a huge boulder field full of huge boulders. I took this shot on the way back down. You can see little Greg on the big boulders up ahead.

When we weren’t crossing the boulder field, we were hiking through this obstacle course known as a trail. Most trails in BC are like this, but Oregon trails have spoiled me and I’m not used to this!

Middle Joffre Lake was a welcome sight, but we had a little ways to go before we reached the upper lake, which lies at the foot of that mountain straight ahead.

When we reached Upper Joffre Lake, boy was that a sight for sore eyes! It was incredibly beautiful. We ate lunch on the lake shore with our feet in the icy cold water, which felt oh so good! The rest of our bodies were totally covered despite the very warm afternoon because the mosquitoes were abundant and ferocious up here. But we were prepared, so we enjoyed the beauty and let the annoying pests hover futilely.

It’s beautiful up here, but not quiet. Glacier meltwater roars down from the mountainside into the lake, so it sounds like you’re hanging out near a waterfall. It’s quite spectacular to sit at the foot of this huge glacier.

A couple set up camp on the lake shore while we were roaming about taking pictures. Looks like a beautiful spot to camp, if not a little too close to the water. Also, the mosquitoes would make this potentially unpleasant.

It took us 2.5 hours to hike up and 2.25 hours to hike back down. We normally would have made better time going down, but the rocky rooty trail slowed us up. We were tired and slept VERY well that night.

Day 3

After hanging around Whistler Village in the morning, we drove out to Cheakamus Lake for a short hike. (This is the lake you can see in the fifth photo above.) As the crow flies, this lake is pretty close to Whistler. But it’s a 30-minute drive and an hours hike away. I’ve heard it can get crowded here, but I guess I’ve been lucky. I’ve been here twice before and neither time did I have to deal with crowds. This day was no exception.

The trail is easy and passes through a lovely forest of big trees. The raging Cheakamus River flows alongside you. And then you reach the huge lake backdropped by huge snowy mountains. It’s quite breathtaking.

A persistent jay kept track of us all afternoon, hoping for handouts which he did not get. While we were wading in the water taking pictures, he would swoop down to where our packs were and look for crumbs!

We hung out at the lake for the afternoon, enjoying the fantastic weather, cool water, and amazing scenery. I feel very lucky I’ve been able to come to this place three times. I’ll be back for more.

That was it for hiking. The next day we drove to Vancouver where we spent four nights. BC is very beautiful and there are lots of great hiking opportunities. I can’t recommend it highly enough!