Anne at Joffre Lakes:
“Three of us took off on the Labour Day weekend for an overnighter trip to Joffre Lakes. The last part of the drive from Pemberton to Joffre Lakes Park was quite painful because we had 3 (!) RVs in front of us – so it seemed to take forever to get to the parking at the trail head. Once we started hiking we were accompanied by light rain most of the time; but it wasn’t too bad because the sun was poking through at the same time. At the second lake we had a pretty dramatic encounter: Kim got attacked by a Whisky Jack and had to give up an entire chocolate bar to the vicious bird! We still made it in pretty good time up to the Upper Lake and arrived early enough to find great camping spots right on the water. By the end of the day almost all camping spots were taken – it sure is a popular destination for a weekend. We had all sort of weather; sunshine, rain and hail. Unfortunately there was not much of evening entertainment possible because it just kept raining and hailing in the evening and it was REALLY cold. (Lesson learned: do not forget your toque!) The next day we woke up to great sunshine, after breakfast we set out to explore the glacier – well, actually we only wanted to walk up a bit on the ridge but somehow ended up right at the glacier. The cracking noise of the glacier and the terrain was a bit intimidating, but we got some great views. During the day the clouds moved in and out, on our way down back to the car we had some more rain. The trail was by then really muddy, so gaiters sure came in handy. Once we got back into the car and started driving back towards Pemberton we encountered a bear right on the street. We finished off a great weekend with a steak in Whistler before heading back to Vancouver.”
