On the August long weekend, Irene, Carlos and Carolina and I went for a three day hike to the popular Garibaldi Provincial Park. I had not done a camping hike trip for many years and I found that the equipment I had... tent, sleeping bag, cooking pots were heavier and bulkier than I would have liked. My old back pack was completely full. We left early Saturday morning and arrived at the parking lot just after 8:00 and it was already almost full. It was a three hour hike zig zagging up a steady slope in the typical coastal forest full of tall cedar and douglas fir. We had decided to stay at Taylor meadows camp spot as it was closer to the alpine hikes than the camp spot at Garibaldi lake. Also, all three had been to the lake before. I was the only one who had not done this hike. Irene and I were a bit slower and met up with Carlos and Carolina there.
We found a nice spot to put the tents right by a fast running stream. Better, I thought, than the tent pads of wooden planks that were the official spots. After setting up camp and cooking lunch, we continued uphill (free of heavy backpacks) through the meadows and eventually to the alpine region and on to the "panorama" trail. It was a spectacular view of Garibaldi lake. It was a hot day and pretty tiring as it was just over 20km of walking. I was surprised by the amount of mosquitos, deer flies and horse flies that were happy to be feasting on all the hikers. This is a very popular hike so it was no surprise that the trails and campgrounds were full of people, either staying a couple of nights like us or just for a day hike. On the way down from the panorama, Irene and I decided to go part way down on the snow. It was pretty funny slip sliding down, but better than going downhill on all the sharp shale rocks on that part of the mountain. Across the valley was a great view of the black tusk where we were going to go the following day.
click here for a sweet panorama by Carlos http://360.io/T2REjw
The next morning after a breakfast of eggs we hiked back through the meadows and this time took the fork toward the black tusk. It was another hot summer day with clear skies. Luckily it was windy once we got higher up which helped somewhat with the feasting insects. At the end of the trail, we had a great lunch of avocado, sprouts, tomatoes, salami and bread, with a view of the panorama mountain we had hiked the day before. Irene and I decided to stop at the end of the trail while Carlos and Carolina were going right to the base of the tusk and, we found out later, climbed right up onto the summit. After hearing their adventure on the summit I sort of wished we had gone too however, I was having foot issues with a new pair of hiking boots and we both wanted to take it a little easier that day. Back down at the tent by late afternoon and taking a nap, we were awaken by the ranger who told us we had to move the tent as it was not an official spot. That was unpleasant. Carlos and Carolina made it back by nightfall and joined us after I had left a map indicating where we were now camped. The next day we packed up and left after a breakfast of pancakes. It was a nice weekend getaway. Going back down I could not believe the amount of hikers going up for the the day, the holiday Monday. On the drive back, we were already thinking of the ramen noodles we were going to have at a neighbourhood restaurant.
