Heather at Brew Lake:
“Heather, Bob, Seigfried, Phil, Robin, Ming and John took advantage of a beautiful day to hike to Brew Lake on Sept. 7th. I had not done this trip in fifteen years, and didn’t realize that it’s been taken out of the new 103 Hikes edition. There’s been some logging in the area, never the less, it’s a beautiful, varied hike, although not a very well-used trail, and a fair bit of altitude gain to get to the lake. After parking at Brandywine Falls, we hiked south along the railroad tracks for about 30 minutes, then found the little strip of pink tape marking the overgrown entrance to the trail. The first part is fairly steep through varied forest, with very random markings which led to a 20 minute detour when we got side-tracked across a rock slide area. After that there’s a more gentle mid-section with drier, more open areas, and beautiful pine trees. Then we got to a very steep, rocky slide area with interesting cliffs and the views getting impressive as we went up. By the time you’re on the lookouts over this steep area, there are sweeping vistas of the Wedgemount area, Blackcomb, Whistler, Black Tusk, Garibaldi, and all the way down to the Chief in Squamish. The fourth section is a varied sub-alpine mix leading up to the lake, which is in a beautiful, open bowl. The hike took us longer than expected, so we didn’t go farther than putting feet in the refreshing lake, but the ridge rambling would be amazing around that area. It really merits an over-nighter to explore it. With quite a few breaks, the total time took 8.5 hours. Also, there were almost no bugs! Fall hiking is amazing! Thanks for the great company and to Bob and John for driving.”
