Bourgeau Lake

So the thinking was - sun rises at 8am, sets at 6pm, it's a 7 hour hike plus an hour for lunch so we had better be on the trail at sunset to have a good margin of saftey. In a moment of surprising self sacrafice, Mark agrees to wake up early and we are actually standing at the gate to the trail at 8am. The car said it was 4°C - I think it was optimistic.

The trail was in better conditions than pretty much anything I have seen in the Vancouver area. It was a gentle slope up and the light dusting of snow (which wasn't even close to melting) had the occasional foot prints from squirls. In the forest we climbed and climbed, thankful for the work to keep us warm. At one break in the trees we could see the golden light of sunrise on the mountains. Climb and climb.

At some point we started to turn into a pass taking us to the lake, but just before going in, a beautiful view opened up. We were standing in an avalache destroyed area, but thankfully we were months ahead of avalanche season. As a skiier, I still had an uneasy feeling being there. The sun wasn't going to reach us any time soon - it was on the other side of the ridge we were climbing which made for some nice contrast, but no warmth.

Once we got up into the meadows (at least I think it was a meadow - it was burried in snow!), We really missed the heat. I was hoping I could see the sun edge it's way against the rock face, but it was traveling too slow to easily perceive.

Welcome to Bourgeau lake. Frozen. Not green. Nothing like the hike book photo (which was probably taken in July). I was just about frozen from stopping to take photos and I wasn't about to sit down in below zero temperatures to eat lunch at 10:30am.

In what has to be the nicest sign I have ever seen 7km from a trail head, Harvey lake was just over there (the pass on the right in the above photo) and guide book said it was about an hour away. No problems - the possibilty of sun made it a reasonable destination. (I have to admit the name also has a certain attraction).

Funny thing. The higher you go, the colder it gets. The colder it gets, the more snow there is. We had good boots, but we weren't prepared for two feet of snow. The sun was welcome relief. Once we got up high enough that we saw another lake (which turned out to be just some unnamed lake - not Harvey Lake - that's over the rim in the below picture). We climbed the skree a little and sat down for lunch. And froze.

Neither of us had gloves but both of us were falling into the snow as we hiked. Both of us were wearing just pants. It was time to go back to the hotel with the hot tub.