Coast Mountains 2023

Our first backpack of the year was to Flower Ridge, Strathcona Park. We wanted to do some training for undetermined future hikes. We had been to Flower Ridge a few times and knew the climb up and down is a good early season leg burner. We drove to Buttle Lake mid-afternoon; our car was the only one in the parking lot. We walked in a couple of hours to a spring and set up camp for the evening to break up the hike, especially in the warm weather we were experiencing. 

The following day, we completed the climb up to the ridge and set up camp at a windy spot, as we were concerned about the early season bugs. We then went for a gentle 2 hour hike, wandering the ridge. We knew that the views improved, the further along the ridge you go, but we weren't pushing ourselves on a first back-pack trip of the season. We realized that the bugs weren't too bad and we moved our tent down the hill to get out of the wind. A few other backpackers trickled in that afternoon, but no one camped within sight from our tent.

We dropped the tent down and packed up the following (Saturday) morning and encountered a few more hikers down below the ridge. It was a good "training" trip and our quads felt tight for a few days afterwards. The ascent/descent from the parking lot to the first camping area is 1200m.

That was followed by an overnight hike to Adder Mountain. We opted to camp at the Sproat Lake Provincial campground beforehand, for a night. We checked out various swimming places along the lake, but we weren't overly impressed with the campground (too much traffic noise from Hwy 4). The next morning we drove to the Taylor River rest area and then drove up Taylor Main to access "Ptarmigan Ridge". However, there was active logging and hauling taking place on the steep, narrow access road, so we made a strategic retreat back to Hwy 4 . We drove up to Sutton Pass and partly up the deactivated  Adder Mountain road. I had read that it required 4WD, high clearance vehicle, and we chickened out early and opted to park the Subaru and walk up the road. We could have driven up the road a few kilometres without scraping the car too much, but we didn't have a particularly long day ahead of us, or so we thought. However, it was sunny and warm, not especially conducive to hauling backpacks up a steep road. It was a slog up the 600m climb to the road-end. An earlier trail had been crushed by dead fall, so the current trail begins in a recent logged slash area. 

Once the trail entered the old growth forest, the walking improved. The trail dropped to a beautiful creek where we had lunch and topped up our water. We met a couple who were day hiking to Adder and saw no one else. It was another 400m ascent, partly through tall trees and over rocks to reach the meadows. I found a good flat spot to erect the tent with water nearby. The bugs were a nuisance. Below our campsite was some limestone that hides a double arch and a nearby cave. I wandered up Little Adder (1200m) that evening.  The forecast was for another warm day, so I got going about 5:30am and Sheila slept in. I had an interesting walk up towards Adder summit (1500m) and some great views to the west of marine fog. The snow hadn't softened up completely and I didn't feel overly comfortable with going up steep snow slopes in my sandals, so I stopped 100m short of the top.  I was back at the camp by 7:30am. We packed up and headed down to the car.  

The delay on #4 Highway (road works after the Cameron Bluffs fire) to return to the east side of Vancouver Island was over an hour on the return journey.  We had waltzed through on the way in. We detoured at Coombs to buy Hoka trail running shoes in Nanaimo, and we were home by dinner time.

It was a record breaking forest fire season and we had already cancelled one trip over to mainland Canada with concerns of fire smoke levels. Rain was forecast that might clear the air and I booked some back-country campsites and Whistler accommodation.  We caught an 8:45 a.m. ferry to Horseshoe Bay and then drove the Duffy Lake Road to the Joffre Lakes car park. Some day visitors were exiting and we nabbed a good parking spot in the shade and completed our final organization and showed our camping permits to the attending park operator. There was a steady stream of day visitors on the wide trail, most of whom were heading for the exit when we started out at 1:45pm.  It was about a 2 hour hike up past the two lakes and then around the third Joffre Lake to the campsite. The last km was more rugged. There were a few tents already set up in the primitive campground, complete with food storage locker and a toilet. It was our first visit to Joffre Lakes and we were impressed. The Joffre Lakes back-country campground scores high on the reward to effort ratio.

We had time to wander above the lake up the obvious informal trail in the evening, for better views. Mosquitoes were somewhat of a nuisance but not intolerable. In the morning, we elected to walk out early but still encountered the early bird day hikers  by 8:45am on the north side of Upper Joffre Lake. The lighting was better and little wind improved the overall impression of the fine vistas. We encountered a steady stream of day hikers on the way down and a full parking lot at the base. 

We drove into Pemberton for showers at the rec centre followed by burgers for lunch (we should have skipped the fries). We had booked a campsite at Nairn Falls Provincial Park for the night. We put the tent up, but found it intolerably warm (33-34C and no breeze), so we spent about 4 hours in the  nearby Pemberton library. It had cooled off by the time we returned to make dinner. We didn't put the fly on the tent that night.

We had a half hour drive to Whistler where we fumbled for a while to figure out how/where to park for multiple days; looking at the BC Parks website would have made it easier. We had Whistler Edge cards for the upcoming ski season and that allowed a free trip up on the gondola and the Peak 2 Peak gondola. The Blackcomb gondola opened at 9:30a.m. and we reached the Roundhouse by 10:15 am.. We weren't sure about the Peak Express chair that would have whisked us to the top of Whistler Peak, so we started walking at 10:30 am. It felt like a long 2 hours to reach the border of Garibaldi Park.It was a warm day and sweltering on the lee side of Whistler Peak, so by the time we started ascending Flute Peak on the Musical Bumps trail, we were cooked. A breeze came up that moderated the effective temperature. Oh yes, the views were excellent and we encountered a handful of people once we left the ski resort. 

There were ups and downs (700m of ascent) to reach Russet Lake campsite. We later wondered if we should have made an earlier start by hiking in through the trees of the Singing Pass trail on such a warm day. There were a few other campers set up and we opted for the numbered site #7 for the night. The setting is very nice. As it went dark, and later on in the night, parties arrived and took some time to set up and settle down for the night. There were a few sites across the creek that were a longer walk to the food storage set-up, and we later decided to move our tent for the second night away from the central, sometimes noisy, camp area. The higher ground was also a little breezier to keep the mosquitoes at bay.

We had a full day up at Russet Lake and we didn't know anything about the area, but we were in for a treat. We got off to a relaxed start on Friday and followed an obvious trail up through the meadows above the lake. We zigzagged our way up, as the amazing flowers  slowed our progress (profuse in places with many varieties). We eventually picked up a small ridge, providing excellent views of the Cheakamus Glacier. We talked to a few people who were staying at the Kees and Claire Hut and realized that we were on the Whirlwind Peak trail. We carried on to the steep ridge that ascends the peak and took in the impressive views. We were planning a leisurely wander and didn't have much food with us and opted to return to camp via a small viewpoint that provided a view to the end of Cheakamus Lake. More wandering ensued, and we made our way back to camp for lunch and a transfer of our tent to site #15. In the afternoon, I wandered to the end of Cowboy Ridge for a better view of the Overlord Glacier (Russet Ridge might have been a better choice). Later in the day a group of 10 arrived at the main camp, and others bringing the population up to about 20 for the night. The village-like atmosphere provided us with entertainment on the other side of the creek.

The tent went down at 6:00am on Saturday morning and the walk out was  certainly more enjoyable on a cooler day. We took a slightly different route through the Whistler ski resort to reach the Roundhouse. We realized that the Peak Express was running, so we made an excursion to the peak before heading down the Whistler Gondola. Whistler Resort was surprisingly busy with sightseers up top and the mountain bikers filled the gondolas and trails at lower elevations. Later, we wandered around Whistler village (still, not our kind of place), checked in to our rental (office in Whistler, the unit was in Creekside), picked up some groceries and headed for the condo that we had rented for a couple of nights.

We had a mellow Sunday, wandered some of the trails around Brandywine Falls in the morning. With rain forecast for the following days, we cancelled our back-country camp bookings at Elfin lakes in Garibaldi. We opted to catch an early ferry from Horseshoe Bay back to the island on Monday morning. Garibaldi has become a multi-year project; Diamond Head and Elfin Lakes will have to wait for another visit.