Garibaldi

So fall is hiking season and Tess and I are taking full advantage. With both of us managing to end up in Vancouver with work we thought we would take advantage and do some hiking near Squamish/Whistler. We decided to hit up the well know Garibaldi Lake trail. Wow. I had no idea it was going to be such a highway!! There were 60 cars in the parking lots and we crossed lots of day and overnight hikers. The trail up to the lake is 3 feet wide and totally smooth. Pretty much wheel chair accessible minus the nearly 1000 m gain over the 9 km to the lake. Well, we arrived minutes before 38 high schoolers and claimed a sweet tent pad (made of wood) with a view on the lake. It is no wonder it's a popular place. The lake is an amazing turqoise and there are glaciers all around. Day 2 we went up to black tusk and did our own little adventure to meet up with the trail in another alpine meadow. Well worth it. It was great to hang with Tessa again as she had spent the summer on Haida Gwaii. Tess L. froze overnight as temperatures dropped well below zero, but the days were fantastic with warm fall sunshine in the mid twenties! No complaints for being on the wet coast. We event went for a swim and I made it to the little island just to prove I could! It was definitely warmer than Pinnacle but still numbingly cold. I think I made it into some Euro's photo albums!