Wedgemount Lake, BC

Happy new year!  The last five months of 2013 were exciting times for me with multi-day hikes (this one as well as the West Coast Trail) and a trip to India/Nepal.  I’ll try to be brief with my next few entries so that we can get to exotic southern Asia pictures sooner. 

This hike up to the lovely turquoise Wedgemount Lake was one of the tougher ones I’ve done with an elevation gain of 1200+ metres in 7 km.   I set out with Rod and his cousins, who were doing it as a daytrip.    If you do attempt this hike be careful of the numerous ground wasps which got Rod, one cousin and I.  Ouch!

The way up is quite the grind (especially with a heavy pack) and not too spectacular scenery-wise, but you’re rewarded at the top with views of the beautiful glacial-fed lake in the shadow of the massive Wedge mountain, the highest in the Garibaldi mountain range. 

The BC Mountaineering Club has built a great little hut up on Wedge.  It was windier that it looks in the evening and we had to go inside to keep our cooking flame from going out!  The numerous tent platforms are also a godsend (do you see the size of the rocks lying around?). 

Dinner went smoothly although someone forgot to bring the J-cloths for doing dishes and decided to sacrifice his clean underwear instead.

And more lovely views of the surrounding glaciers, wildflowers, and sunset.  

In the middle of winter here in Vancouver I definitely miss this sunshine.

It was tough to leave Wedge, but even tougher on the knees and quads going down the mountain.  The only thing worse than a steep 1200 metres going up is the same 1200 metres going down….  It seriously took me a week for my quads to recover and to do stairs without looking like an elderly lady. 

Panorama Ridge, BC

More hiking photos from an epic 32 km daytrip, 1500+ metres elevation gain to Panorama Ridge and back.  Last year I hiked Black tusk (the black jutting peak in the title photo, now an extinct volcano) and decided to do nearby Panorama this year which offers some great views of the tusk as well as the perfectly turquoise Garibaldi Lake.   If people are only able to do one hike in the Whistler area it should be this one.  It’s even featured on the front of the SW-BC-hiking bible 103 Hikes.  Thanks to Rod for most of these shots!

The hike begins with 6 km of somewhat tedious switchbacks.  I look somewhat tentative knowing what is ahead.  

We crossed paths with lots of beginner backpackers coming down the trail with fun low-tech water bottles made from 2L coke bottles, as well as some I felt badly for without compression sacs for their sleeping bags which they carried in large garbage bags in their arms (for ~9+ km each way!)

Lunch stop at picturesque Garibaldi Lake.  I didn’t get any pictures but we shared a picnic table with some friendly Persian men who hauled a veritable feast uphill with pickled eggs, fruit, olives, tabouleh, hummus, etc. all in glass containers!  They felt sorry for us with our squished sandwiches and kept trying to offer us their food.

Onto the relatively flat meadows with lots of wildflowers, inviting curving forest paths, and wide open valleys.

Then comes the tougher scramble up Panorama Ridge.    The vegetation starts to thin to rocks and then it’s a slog up some snow.   Snow is so much more enjoyable sliding on the way down. 

Close to the top!   The tusk is at roughly the same elevation as Panorama Ridge and this is the best/closest viewpoint of it.

Finally over the ridge and we are rewarded with an amazing view of Garibaldi Lake (our lunch stop) far below.  The water is an unbelievable blue you have to see to believe (no adjustment of colours in these photos!).

It's a long hike back down, but we reward ourselves with pizza and beers at Howe Sound brewery in Squamish.   

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.

Lake Louise, Alberta

Happy September everyone!  Hope your summer was wonderful.  My knee continues to talk to me and so I’ve given up on ultimate for this year at least, but am hoping for next year.   In the meantime I’m still doing physio like crazy.  Fortunately I was able to do a lot of hiking and backpacking despite my knee this summer, which was a lot of fun and took me to many beautiful places.  It culminated in the West Coast Trail, but I’ll save that for another post.

First some pictures from a trip back to Alberta.  Dev, Kiran and I managed to sneak away from family engagements to do a quick hike up the Big Beehive at Lake Louise.  Fun facts about Lake Louise:

·         at 1536 m it’s the highest permanent settlement in Canada

·         roughly 2600 mountain goats, 80 grizzlies and 50 black bears call the Lake Louise area home

·         the tea house at Lake Agnes only gets one helicopter supply run a year to bring up all the flour, sugar, propane and other dry goods for the year.

Our goal:

On the way up.  Can’t believe Dev is wearing jeans…

Lake Agnes.  Still lots of snow in mid-June.

Past the snow field and at the top.  Time to pose as the intrepid explorers that we are.

Suddenly a short but nasty hail storm hit, but it left us with a beautiful double-rainbow (better than that ridiculous Youtube video which made the rounds years ago). 

That was it for Lake Louise this year.  Maybe a backpacking trip in the Rockies next year?  Let me know if you are in!

Changing the topic from hiking, Rod and I are doing well in our new rental.  I’ve even made friends with Steve, a beautiful ginger cat down the street. 

Steve: definitely the cutest cat within a 3 block radius.

I also went to the hilarious Avenue Q Broadway musical showing in Vancouver, which I would highly recommend! It’s Sesame-street for adults (caution…some puppet nudity). Its tagline is “Like your life.  Only funnier.  With puppets.”

Other summer activities included rubbing these dogs’ bellies, trying my luck at Rod’s family’s annual ring loss (beginner’s luck and I won!), and enjoying a gorgeous Vancouver evening on the beach with friends for the fireworks (thanks Sarah for the photo). 

 I leave you with one more anecdote left over from moving day a few months back.  Rod and I each sold some stuff on Craigslist.  One guy showed up with a suitcase to pack away the microwave I sold him.  He got the height and length right, but forgot about the depth.  Seeing him stuff it in and strain the zippers was somewhat entertaining.  Even more so though was someone who offered to take Rod’s free couch off his hands:

“Wow what an offer. I am excited to take your possession to a great new home in the Olympic Village.
 I just moved in to a great new bachelor pad that needs to be pimped with the right furnishings, and yours suits my style, looking upon a sunset drinking wine and dining. Oh please call me and you will be just as happy to know it is in good faith to be needed “.