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Marian and I kicked of the 2003 camping season this
weekend with an overnighter in Garibaldi Provincial
Park. Our trip plans changed many times in the week
leading up to this trip due to a particularly crazy
weather forecast. We were originally planning to ski
but it just seemed like too much trouble with renting
equipment & everything so we decided to snowshoe
instead. At the last minute, the weather forecast changed
from "showers with rainy periods" to "sun
baby" so it was with great enthusiasm that we set
out at 6:30am, Saturday morning - destination Garibaldi
Lake.
We arrived at the trailhead at 8:30 and spent the customary
hour messing about with packs & gear before finally
setting out at 9:30. We were the only ones in the parking
lot and had the whole area to ourselves for the duration
of the trip.
The trail up to Garibaldi lake is mostly pretty boring...
in my humble opinion. For 6km you hike up switchbacks
through the forest with not much to look at other than
the occasional peek-a-boo view, trees, moss & rocks.
It's a pretty forest, but after 6km one tree looks very
much like another. The trail was bare for about 4.5km
and we didn't need the snowshoes for a couple more km
after that. At about 5km you come to infamous "Barrier"
which is admitedly pretty cool.
At 6km, you have the option of heading for Taylor Meadows/Black
Tusk or continuing on to the lake. We headed for the
lake. A few minutes later we came to Barrier Lake and
a ton of snow so we put on our showshoes. Followed the
left hand side of the lake around and went back into
the trees.
The trail climbed gradually towards Lesser Garibaldi
Lake and the Taylor Creek bridge which presented an
interesting challenge. The bridge was uncrossable so
we had to find a place to cross. There was really only
one option; the last snow bridge crossing the river.
We clamored down the bank, did up our jackets, undid
our packs & stepped gently across the bridge, one
at a time.
The trail on the other side of the creek was sketchy
at best. Very narrow & steep with unstable snow.
Hurried through this section and continued on our way
to the lake. The weather had been beautiful all day
but as the lake came into sight the clouds started rolling
in. We took in the view while we could and decided to
press on to Black Tusk Meadows.
This brought the second challenge of the day since
we couldn't find the trail. I entered the waypoint of
the campground at Black Tusk Meadows into my GPS and
we plunged back into the forest. There didn't seem to
be any option but to go up. Of course the GPS only works
with a clear view of the sky which made it interested
given that we were in the trees. I checked it every
time I could get a signal as we made our way up the
600ft or so feet before reaching the lakes at the Meadows.
We were treated to a view of Black Tusk and the other
mountains briefly before the weather started rolling
in. It started snowing so we quickly started looking
for a place to camp. It was about 6:00 when we dropped
the packs and moved into our home for the evening.
I dug out the 'kitchen' and Marian made dinner while
I dug out a place for the tent. After a good upper body
workout I was ready to eat! Dinner was luke warm Caribbean
black beans and rice and cold tea. Kind of hard to keep
anything warm in the snow. By 7:30 it was obvious that
hanging around the camp site wasn't an option so we
crawled into the tent to read.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was too warm
in my new sleeping bag and I drifted off to sleep around
11:45. Had a pretty decent sleep all things considered
and we slept in until 7:30. The sleeping bags were pretty
wet but I was toasty warm and dry which made it that
much harder to get up.
We were totally socked in so I was disappointed that
I hadn't taken pictures the day before. It had snowed
lightly all night so it was still quite beautiful. Marian
made breakfast while I packed up and after some delicious
tepid oatmeal (note to self: bring insulated mug on
winter trips!) we took at look at the map. We decided
to try to find the trail so I made a waypoint for where
I thought we would be able to hook up with it.
It was beautiful as we headed out, snowshoeing through
the fresh powder. I highly recommend flat meadows of
fresh powder over steep inclines of wet heavy snow.
The trees were beautiful with their blankets of snow
and half an hour later we were 30 feet from the waypoint.
We stopped there because it was the last open area before
heading back into the trees. Decided to set the compass
up to use as a backup since the GPS isn't too reliable
in the trees. We pressed on and were very pleasantly
surprised to find the trail about 30 feet later. This
was a great relief because a thick fog was rolling in
and I was not at all sure about that waypoint. The topo
map I had didn't have the trail or the UTMs on it so
I was having to cross reference the map with the trail
with the map with the UTMs.
We had hoped to take the Taylor Meadows trail to bypass
the Taylor Creek bridge but ended up back at the bridge
anyway. Our legs were pretty heavy from the climb yesterday
so the rest of the trail was pretty arduous. We stopped
for a break and lunch at Barrier Lake but didn't stay
long as we were pretty wet and cold. The switchbacks
had several trees down across them that weren't there
yesterday, one of which was pretty spectacular. The
rest of the trip down was uneventful and we were back
at the car at 2:00.
All in all it was a good trip. I don't think I'll be
doing any more overnight trips in the snow this spring.
Its just too wet. We had just the right amount of adventure.
Could have had better conditions but it could have also
been a lot worse.
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