Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Exploring the Trails Near Whistler

Saturday Neil and I drove 24 km south of Whistler to the Garibaldi Lake trail head in  Garabaldi Provincial Park. No dogs are allowed in the park so Fergus had a quiet day indoors. The first 6km of the trail is a gradual uphill climb through dense forest of Douglas Fir trees. We ran into snow at approximately 2km up the trail. Thankfully we had our Kathoolas in the pack and once we had them on our feet it made a big difference to provide us with some grip on the slippery snow. I had 1 pole for additional grip. 
The weather was getting colder the higher we climbed. Once we reached Taylor Meadows we stopped for lunch and decided to turn around. 
We had guests for lunch - the Whisky Jacks! 
The birds take the food right out of your hand. We were wise to turn around and head back as it started to rain (freezing rain) which made the conditions a bit slick coming down. The Kathoolas sure make a big difference. 12 km return. 
Sunday we woke to glorious sunshine and warm temperatures. We ventured out on the Cheakamus Lake trail which is just 4km south of Whistler. There were trees down on the access road so we added  a few additional km's to the journey.  The lake was beautiful. I think this will be a regular summer route for us. 13 km total for the day. 
The route had many trees down. I wouldn't have wanted to be near this tree when it hit the ground! 
We found a route over the tree. While on the trail to Cheakamus Lake we came upon the trail junction to Garabaldi Lake (16km one way) which we will tackle once the snow is gone. 

The weather here in the Vancouver area is unseasonally hot! 31 degrees C today! It's only mid April. That's really crazy. It hasn't been this hot in April since 1962. There are some early forest fires that have started in both BC and Alberta. Yikes! 

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