This morning I woke up at 6AM, and left the house at 6:30AM to meet with Vincent, Leah, and Kuno at the VCC-Clark Station. After meeting at 7:30AM, we drove over to the church parking lot to meet with the entire Meetup group of 20 people heading to Garibaldi Lake for a day hike. Here is some additional information about the carpooling group:
- Leah is an 18 year old, Portuguese/Kuwaiti girl who moved to Vancouver by herself at the age of 13. She is currently studying business at University and is working at a supermarket.
- Kuno is about 29 years old and is on the sales side of investment management funds. He has lived in India, London, and now Vancouver and has worked at many big banks. He just moved to Vancouver a couple months ago and loves it very much
- Vincent is a 23 year old Native-Canadian from the central/east coast of Canada. He is working in a sales job and is planning to go back to school as soon as he can pay off some debt. He’s a nice guy, with a “Josh Hiekali” type taste in music of upbeat songs ranging from a few months old to 20 years old.
At about 10AM, we began hiking the Garibaldi Lake trail. There are cars parked down the road for a couple of Kilometers from the trailhead. The trail was also extremely busy, making it difficult for people to pass each other on the trail. The trail is about 18KM and ascends about 2,400 feet past several lakes, before arriving at Garibaldi Lake. About three quarters of the way up to Garibaldi Lake there is a spot called Barrier Point , where Lava from nearby volcanoes has created a water dam/barrier which is currently holding back Barrier Lake and Lesser Garibaldi Lake. This dam broke about 150 years ago, and there is concern that it’s only a matter of time before the natural dam breaks and leads to another huge flood. For that reason, the town of Garibaldi, was abandoned around 1981, the residents were relocated, and plans for a ski resort and other developments were abandoned.
Here is a 2010 article regarding the instability of Barrier Point
Here is an article which explains detailed information about Garibaldi Lake
After continuing past Barrier Point, we were 2/3rds of the way to Garibaldi Lake. Right above the Barrier, was Barrier Lake. Another Kilometer up the trail was Lesser Garibaldi Lake, and soon after we finally reached Garibaldi Lake. Garibaldi Lake was beautiful, especially for the following reasons:
- Glacier/snow backdrop at the far end of the lake
- Tall mountains surrounding most of the lake
- Irregular shape of the lake provides for excellent views from numerous directions
- Numerous lava islands on the lake
I was surprised that the lake wasn’t the same turquoise color as Joffre Lakes, but I guess that has to do with less of the water being from glaciers and more of the water being from snowmelt and other non-glacial sources. Upon reaching the lake, we walked along the shores and onto some of the islands for a couple hours, before descending the trail to the trailhead.
Throughout the day, numerous hikers commented on my hat in a playful way. On the car ride to Garibaldi, I jokingly introduced the floppy hat to Vincent, Leah, and Kuno who all thought is as hilarious. Also, people in the Meetup group, mentioned things like “that looks like an interesting hat” and “that looks useful.” I answered their comments with something like “Yup, it’s really useful, but it looks ridiculous.” Which usually made them comfortable enough to let out their laughter and acknowledge that it did look ridiculous.
After completing the hike, we went to a restaurant in Squamish, where I had a delicious Salmon Burger. When I was dropped off near Burrard Station, it was already 9PM and the lines for the busses to English Bay were hundreds of people long. I decided to just head over to the AirBNB which ended up being a good decision. By the time I showered and slept, it was midnight and I was drained by the long day.
