Garibaldi Lake, Black Tusk and Panorama Ridge Hike

21-23^rd September

The apartment we are staying in North Vancouver was set up thanks to a friend, Greg. Lucky for us, his cousin was getting married and moved in with his soon to be wife and hence his place was currently vacant, as the whole building is having building improvements done, he’s unable to rent or sell it and that’s where we come in. A great bargain, to have a whole apartment to ourselves, a bit out of downtown, but we are appreciating every second of it.

So Greg was over for the wedding and had a few spare days at the end. Keen to do some local hiking and as I still hadn’t managed to find a job, getting away seemed like the perfect idea. Unfortunately Lee had to start work on the Wednesday so couldn’t come along.

After I went for an interview in the morning to work as a barista (I got the job) we were then on our way. We arrived at the parking lot after lunchtime knowing we only had about 9km walk into Garibaldi Lake. Its apparently not that cheap to “backcountry camp” 2 nights cost $20, still that wasn’t going to stop us. We had thought going mid week (Tue/Wed) would be quieter than the weekend of tourists, boy were we wrong.

The path is really accessible, wide and winds its way up past a few smaller glacier blue lakes before finally descending down to Garibaldi Lake. It had been a bit cloudy but the rain stayed away. The noise level erupted into screeches and screams from a rather large group of girls. It was here we met Chris, the physical education teacher for an all girls school, totalling 44 as he said. He tried to make the peace with us and just warn us about his large school group, as it turns out another group further down the campsite were there too. So in good time but it was getting really cold, we set up the tent at a vacant spot and went to get warm.

This dedicated campsite even has shelters and a drop toilet so as we cooked inside the shelter we were much warmer inside than outside, we met a really nice Japanese couple, an Australian couple and a Canadian couple over from Vancouver Island. Before too long, darkness fell so we went back to the tent, it wasn’t the most restfull of nights, every now and then you’d hear a girl scream, and it was so cold I just couldn’t get that warm.

As I ended up sleeping in until 7:45, Greg had already been up for the sunrise and taken photos. I was one of the last people ready (besides the schools groups of course), how unusual. Still the very thick layer of frost that had fallen, showed just how cold a night we had really had.

The weather was beautiful, clear blue skies and the sun trying to warm us up. The plan for the day was to hike to the top of black Tusk. Its an awesome volcanic mountain, sticking out on its own. The last section in the chimney is supposed to be an easy rockclimb or hard scamble, though we hadn’t taken helmets upon reflection we should have. As we got higher and higher the views became more magnificent. Able to see all the snow capped mountain ridges around and notice just how low the snow level really was. Fresh snow has fallen for the season already! As we continued to hike up the loose scree with lots of snow, it became apparent the summit was probably out. We watched loose rock falling from the summit as the snow started to melt, making crossing the traverse and the climb a risky one without helmets or at the very least a confidence rope. So instead of the summit, we enjoyed the surrounding views and headed lower out of the icy wind for some lunch.

The girls group arrived not long after, to enjoy their lunch in the sunshine and as the aussie couple went past they asked us if we’d like a beer they had brought up. Sure we said and though I didn’t like it, Greg enjoyed a beer in the mountains. With so much time left, such great weather we decided to descend to where the paths divide and see how we felt. Both with energy in reserve we couldn’t miss out on doing Panorama Ridge. Another uphill slog, then snow crossings and a bit of scambling and we were up the top. Both excited by our efforts and the reward of such a beautiful vista. Garibaldi lake sparkling below us and snow capped mountains as far as the eye could see.

We had had such a great day, it was starting to get late so descended back to camp happy and a bit tired. About 18km were walked in that day. As we relaxed in the shelter keen for a cup of tea, a new teacher arrived saying we would be better changing shelters as she had just bought up her school group today and they would be eating in there. We stood our ground as we didn’t really have anywhere else to go and shared with 26 young boys and girls from a nearby squamish school. I must admit I felt slightly old cursing as these kids took over, but it was funny watching the interaction of the boys with the girls, the boys running into the icy water for a ‘swim’ and this school groups behaviour as apposed the all girls school. Pocket knives were being used to cut their names into the table and lighters were being used when they shouldn’t have been, all being witnessed by the teachers and yet nothing was being said.

So as the night was dry yet cold, we cooked then ate outside. As I hadn’t got all my stuff ready again since arriving in Canada, I had overlooked we didn’t have any tea bags or hot chocolate, oh no! We were speaking to the teachers from the private school and mentioned we didn’t have any and she came back with a pile of earl grey tea and a hot chocolate packet for us. How could we be cross anymore, they had saved us from drinking just another cup of hot water.

We ended the night early as the shelter wasn’t warm with the kids leaving the door open and headed to the tent. At 8:30pm this is rather early but that’s camping for you. We listened to Gregs ipod and then fell asleep. Waking to the rain falling heavily through the night. One never enjoys packing up in the rain.

When it seemed like it had at least slowed, we decided we may as well get up and get things ready as we only had the walk out today. We were lucky though the tent was wet that we had long enough to pack our bags, get the tent down and start cooking breakfast before it started again. With wet weather gear on we then did the walk out.

Why does it always feel so much longer to walk out and down than it did on the way in. Still at 10:30am we were back at the car, to meet yet another school group standing in the rain ready to walk in. We filled them in on the number of school groups already there and they thanked us.

Dry clothes on, something to eat and we headed home. Stopping off in Squamish to the second hand shop so I could buy some new, secondhand clothes for my first shift tomorrow (Friday). We had fajitas ready for Lee when he got home from work and relaxed the rest of the night.

Thanks Greg, it was a fun few days out hiking in BC and for the great photos :-)

The black tusk summit still awaits in summer time……..