Landing Place of the Thunderbird

Last weekend we spent two nights in our favourite Garibaldi park (forgot the biscuits AGAIN). We first went to this part of the park last year for a long day trip and have wanted to return to camp since then.

There are two trails which take you into the park, one goes from Cheakamus Lake and one goes from a car park further South. We wanted to walk from the Cheakamus Lake side, as we hadn’t been that way before, so booked a campsite along that trail. Unfortunately, Cheakamus Lake is quite easily accessible for people who don’t understand the importance of “leaving no trace” in nature. A black bear there was getting pretty used to eating human food/rubbish and had been pretty aggressive with some people – so the trail was closed. Our campsite was still open, but we would have to walk 17km one way to get there (rather that the 8km we had originally planned) – so we booked Friday off work rather than heading up in the evening. Also, the weather forecast was looking shocking – summer is definitely over in British Columbia.

Despite thinks looking speculative for our trip, we woke up on Friday morning to actual sunshine! We didn’t get up particularly early and got to the trailhead at 11am. We felt pretty smug with ourselves as we overtook people on the switchbacks up, despite our heavy backpacks – climbing mountains every weekend appears to be paying off. As we were walking, Ollie was trying to persuade Rosie to climb the Black Tusk, otherwise known as ‘Landing Place of the Thunderbird’, on the way. The original plan had included climbing this iconic peak on Saturday, but the weather was supposed to be way better today.

Rosie was successfully persuaded, and we added the 6km detour to Black Tusk. It is even more impressive close up. As we’d left late, it was about 3pm by the time we got up there. We had the place to ourselves as everyone else had already headed down. There is a bit of a scramble/climb up a “chimney” (wide vertical crack) to get to the top, and the volcanic rock is very loose, so it is certainly not a walk in the park. It was quite an achievement though and we made it up (and down) with only one small cut to Ollie’s hand.

After this, we still had >7km to get to the Helm Creek campsite, so we put on even more speed and made it just before sunset. The place had been fully booked, but less than half of the people had turned up (put off by the weather and the extra distance we assume). We got a decent spot and ate our rehydrated curry in the dark before bed.

Clouds rolled in overnight and it rained all Satuday! Ollie was very pleased we had climbed Black Tusk the evening before and said “I told you so” a lot. Rosie was happy that we could relax for the day, do some wildlife watching and play cards in the tent. We saw lots of soggy marmots (didn’t get the camera out in time) and nearly stepped on some white-tailed ptarmigans near a small muddy lake we found. The volcanic landscape was very atmospheric in the mist, it felt like another planet.

The weather on Sunday was much better again! We packed up the tent and set off to retrace our long journey from the car park. We took another couple of detours:

• “Panorama Ridge” – a favourite spot for Instagrammers due to the panoramic view of Garibaldi Lake and surrounding mountains. We had been up here last year and again felt pretty smug about how easy we found the climb with our newly seasoned legs.
• For a swim in Garibaldi lake, which has got to be the best place to swim in the whole world. Also a great opportunity for Ollie to practise his Insta-pose (he was too embarrassed to do it in front of the experts on Panorama Ridge).

To top off the weekend, we got Mexican junk food on the way home and barely got stuck in any traffic! It did take a while to dry out the tent though…

During the week, Ollie has left Rosie all alone so he could visit Thom and Hannah in Sunpeaks and go downhill mountain biking. Warning: the following video contains scenes of mild peril and may not be suitable for the weak hearted.

We have a whole week off coming up! The weather is threatening to foil our plans again, but we are taking a ferry to Vancouver Island tomorrow anyway, in the hope of catching up with some friends and catching some waves.