Joffre Lakes, BC

Photos from a lovely backpacking trip to Joffre Lakes this past summer on a hot weekend.  The Joffre Lake trailhead is about 40 minutes past Pemberton.  The trail is only 6 km or so with elevation gains of 500 m.  It’s pretty rocky with lots of boulder fields though which slowed me down, especially with my bum knee.   Photo credits go to Rod and his swanky new SLR camera.

Boulder fields!

We managed to stake out a nice, reasonably flat tent spot close to the lake.  There were lots of people and lots of bugs though.  I actually saw a woman wearing one of those full face nets and was kind of jealous. 

There are three gorgeous, glacier fed turquoise lakes along the trail.  They get their colour from the rockflour (glacial silt) suspended in the water reflecting the blues and greens.   It was well over 30 degrees and we decided to go for a dip in the glacial fed waters.   Soaking our feet for a while we finally plunged in…and then right back out.  Some other brave souls were actually swimming, but my quad and calf muscles immediately seized up and I could barely walk back to shore on the slippery, lichen-covered rocks.

Two sweaty hikers

Waterfall leading away from the highest lake.

I found it pretty crazy how close you are allowed to camp to the glacier. This is a shot close to our tent site.  It feels like a chunk of ice could fall off at any time and clock you. 

Late afternoon

Twilight

Sunrise

Not too many alpine flowers were out, but Rod captured this beautiful leatherleaf saxifrage 

Relaxing in the evening after dinner

For the first time we were trying the prepackaged dehydrated food.  All-in-all not very tasty, but nothing out of a bag seems to be.  If you’re really organized and have a dehydrator you can create some pretty delicious concoctions (my sister made AWESOME vegetarian chili and dehydrated arrabiata tomato sauce for the West Coast Trail).  For the boil-in-bag stuff I wouldn’t recommend Backpacker’s Pantry Chicken Cashew Curry (tasted like chicken noodle soup with rice).  The Cuban Coconut Black Beans and Rice was better, but packed a punch at 30g of fibre….not good to eat and then share a tent with someone.

My favourite thing about the boil-in-a-bag meals?  You can put the pouch under your jacket and have your very own hot water bottle for 10 minutes.