"this'll be easy" - Wedgemount Lake 6/16

After camping at Nair'n Falls (see earlier post) Evelyn and I headed back towards Vancouver. We planned on finding a cool short hike to do in Whistler on the way back. Before getting to Whistler, we saw a sign for hiking on the side of the road. We turned off to check it out and found ourselves on a steep gravel road winding up a valley between two huge mountains. The signs said 4-wheel drive recommended, but we assumed they were meant for winter. They weren't. But we made it, and reached the trailhead about 15 minutes later.

This was our first experience in Garibaldi Provincial Park. We had read about it online but hadn't looked into it too much. I remembered reading about a fairly easy 3km hike around a lake, and this hike was called Wedgemount Lake so it seemed likely that it could be the one I recalled. Judging by the map at the trailhead, it looked like it could be 3km but it was hard to tell with all of the switchbacks and whatnot. Thinking it'd be a short easy hike, we left our food, warm clothes, and time-telling devices behind in the car. We only brought a small backpack with light sweatshirts and two water bottles.

After what could have been anything from 30 minutes to 2 hours, we finally ran into another hiker. He said the top was great, but didn't say anything about how far away it was and we didn't ask, assuming we were close. There were no distance markers on the trail so we had no idea how far we'd gone, but it was getting steeper. Way steeper. Our legs were exhausted but we thought it couldn't be much farther so we continued onward for another hour or two, drinking our water quickly.

After running out of water and considering giving up multiple times we reached a large rocky area. It was nice to be out of the forest where we could see more of what was around us, but there was no lake in sight. We were by a little stream though, and we were thirsty enough to refill our water bottles from it without thinking twice about giardia. After getting back home and googling the hike, I found out that this was only the halfway point.

The trail wove back into the forest and throughout the next section of the hike we were treated with a few quick glimpses of what laid ahead and the occasional patch of snow covering the trail. 

Wedgemount waterfall, a 300m waterfall

We had absolutely no sense of time at this point but we knew we had gone way more than 3km. Some more hikers passed us on their way down and told us the lake was only another 45 minutes up, but it was steep and an avalanche took out the trail. We asked if it was worth going to the top but we knew the answer by the astounded look on their faces before they could answer. 

About 5 more minutes of hiking and the path opened up into a clearing. It was incredible. We were nearing the tree line but most of the trees above us had been taken out by the avalanche. On one side we could see across the valley to the next mountain range over:

On the other side the destruction of the avalanche laid ahead of us:

There was a pretty little waterfall in an area that looked like most of the snow had melted, unfortunately access to that area was blocked by cliffs. The cliffs might have stopped us from getting there, but it didn't stop my camera's 4x zoom lens:

The rest of the trail was all snow, there were no more dry patches. Our shorts and t-shirts held up though even as it got quite steep towards the top. 

The end of the hike was more of a climb than a hike, and I have a habit of eating snow (it's delicious!) so my fingers were pretty numb by the time I got to the climbing section. I made it though, and as we reached the top of the ridge we were greeted by some of the most amazing views the planet can offer. The natural beauty can't be given justice by a camera, but here's my best try:

Those cliffs are at least 300 feet

The lake beginning to thaw

YOU should stop burning fossil fuels so this glacier stops receding up the mountain

the sun came out and the sky got bluer

The wolf pack bags another peak

The hike ended up taking 7 hours and we underestimated the distance by 11km, but in the end we found a place that I'll never forget. 

Total Distance: 14km long, 1.2km elevation gain

Post-hike meal: poutine, of course

Anderson Beach, Nair'n Falls 6/15 - 6/16

This was my first camping expedition in BC, so I did a bit of research on where to go and found an awesome website (http://www.mowgli.ca/ check it out if you're in the area!) which lists all the best spots for backcountry skiing, cliff jumping, and basically everything fun. It also had one "campground" listed, so we decided to check it out. Anderson Beach isn't really a campground, as there are no designated sites, no management, and no rules. But it is a place where you can camp for free and it's amazing.

It's on the banks of the Squamish River, about 20 minutes northwest of the city of Squamish. Situated in a valley between the Tantalus Mountains on one side and some other huge mountains on the other side, the views are very nice. There are no signs on the main road and even in the parking lot there is nothing about camping and only one small sign that says "Anderson Beach", so you'll need directions to get there (find them on www.mowgli.ca). We parked in the tiny lot and walked about 5 minutes through the woods to the beach. The beach is huge since it's a flood plain and is covered in fine glacial silt. This is great for sleeping on but not so great for staying clean. We got sand everywhere but it was more comfortable than my bed. There are also huge piles of logs and trees that have fallen down the mountains which are really fun to climb on. Only two or three other groups were camping there so we had a ton of space for ourselves.

is it a dog or is it a bear?

anderson beach at night

anderson beach during the day

log pile

We made a fire out of the drift wood on the beach and went to sleep. The next morning we explored around the area for a little while and climbed around the tree piles and then left for a quick stop in Whistler.

First, we stopped at the brewery in Whistler. My favorite Canadian beer so far has been Whistler Brewing Co.'s Bear Pay Honey Lager, so naturally I had to stop there and get a pint (and a case). We explored the Whistler village for a while after that, which was a pretty standard ski village. Mountain biking is huge there so there were a ton of bikers everywhere. It looks really fun, I'm hoping to rent a bike and ride down a mountain before I leave here.

Somebody had recommended that we camp at Nair'n Falls, which is about half an hour north of Whistler in a town called Pemberton. We went there for the night and set up camp and then headed into the town for a delicious poutine and pizza meal. The campsite was in an actual campground and wasn't too memorable compared to Anderson Beach, but there were cool hikes around the area. The next morning we did a short hike to the waterfall, which was pretty cool.

Nair'n Falls

The falls were only about 15 minutes from the parking lot, so we were back quickly with the rest of the day ahead of us. Little did we know that we were in for quite the adventure....

(to be continued)

Grouse Grind 6/12

Grouse Mountain is a popular destination in North Vancouver. It has a gondola which is used for skiing in the winter and for tourists who are too lazy to hike in the summer. Ev and I went into the hike thinking it'd be a breeze, it's only 1.8 miles long and we had heard that there are people who do the Grouse Grind every day for their daily exercise. Those people are insane.
The Grouse Grind is literally a staircase directly up a mountain, from near sea level to 4000 feet elevation. As the path eroded they have put in stairs, to the point where there are very few sections without stairs now. It isn't a nice even staircase though, the stairs are made from logs and tree stumps and are anywhere from 2 inches to 2 feet tall. At many points it gets so steep that you can reach out and touch the stairs in front of you at chest height.
As the 1/4 mark first came into view we collapsed onto some nearby logs, heaving and sweating. A few of the people around us looked like they were having a tough time too, but many people breezed past us, a few even jogging. We pushed ourselves onward and the hike seemed to go by a bit faster. This was our first real hike in months so it took a little while to get back into it. It turned out to be a good warm up for hikes later on in the summer.
Somewhere between the 1/2 and 3/4 marks we stopped again for a break. As we were panting on the side of the trail trying to catch our breath, some kids not older than 8 ran by. We caught a bit of their conversation: "this is my fifth time going up! this is easy!" We theorized that Canadians breed their kids to be way tougher than Americans.
When we got to the top we felt a good sense of accomplishment and it was nice to see other people exhausted from the hike and know that we weren't the only ones. The view was nice, we could see over Vancouver to one side:

and some big mountains to the other side:

At the top of the mountain the remnants of a ski jump remained:

 And they also had two resident grizzlies (fenced in):

We finished the day with a delicious poutine meal.