Wedgemount Lake

Two days after my return from my three day trip to Golden Ears and here I go again on another adventure. Me and 4 friends, 3 of which have never been on an overnight hike before, aimed our cars at Wedgemount Lake on this super hot Saturday afternoon. We arrived at the entrance to the park some time before 2pm only to discover that the only way up to the trail head was through a 4x4 road. After trying to decide if our cars, a honda civic and an acura integra could be considered 4x4, we decided they could... So we drove as far as we could, basically 1km up, where the non 4x4 cars of the other campers were parked. Another car came up just as we arrived and it turned out to be two other hikers that I've met on the Joffre Lakes hike just 2 weeks ago. I forgot to get their names though...

So up we went. First km to the trail head was hot and painful. I had just bought new boots and I hadn't quite broken them in yet so by the time we got to the trail head I had to do some adjustments and add a bunch of band-aids to prevent any more damage to my feet. Things proceeded well from there. The trail was steep but interesting so I enjoyed the hike immensely. We ran into a bunch of hikers that were coming down and they all seemed in good spirits and were raving on how beautiful it is up there.

It took us 6 hours to get to the top... I welcomed the many breaks since it was way too hot out and the heat was starting to get to me, although I would have preferred to get up there faster to avoid carrying that big back pack (46 pounds) for so long.

Once we reached the top I think I took about 10 minutes to just stare in silence at the magnificent views. I've been on many hikes and seen lots but that place has got to be one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. A jewel of a lake sorrounded by a huge fortress of the most massive mountains in garibaldi park and two big glaciers feeding the lake from two sides. Words cannot do it justice...

We quickly descended to the lake and first thing we did is jump in. Brrr, was it ever cold, but on such a hot day it was a welcome relief. After the short 2 second "swim" we got out and started preparing the site for our tents. Needed to clean a ton of rocks to be able to soften our sleeping area. I didn't even bother with the tarp for my tent, it wasn't likely to rain this time. (finally a weekend when my friend the dark cloud wasn't following me). I had some food, took a little nap and some advils trying to shake off a headache that started up during the hike. The heat obviously got to me. After trying everything, the thing that did it was this delicious blue nun (white wine) which cured me of all ills.

The sun descended over the mountains and left behind a white glow in the east and this strange glow in the north. We were waiting for the glow to go away so we can see the stars which would have been perfectly clear with a moonless sky, but we got another surprise...the north sky became brighter and brighter and huge perfectly parallel pillars of light kept growing out of the mountains. And then just as we thought it couldn't get any better than this, these fast waves of light kept travelling south, converging in the middle of the sky with all the white pillars pulsating with each wave. It was a magnificient display of the northern lights. I have seen the northern lights before but I had never seen these fast shifting waves. This just made an already perfect night even more amazing. After a couple of hours of watching the aurora borealis and the occasional shooting star we went to bed. I fell asleep still watching the lights shift through my tent window. Slept like a baby.

Woke up early in the morning and waited impatiently for everyone else to wake up. I was itching to go exploring. We decided to go to the foot of Wedgemount glacier and try to get around it to Weart glacier. We got to wedgemount glacier without incident and took some close up pictures with it after hopping over its rushing melt. The hike up to Weart wasn't as successful. After climbing up the loose rock for about 15 minutes I got more and more scared. The ground was extremely unstable. I couldn't find a single rock that stood firmly when I stepped on it and every step felt like it was going to cause an avalanche of rocks. There were a few big rocks that once stepped on, they slid down a few inches. The image of me surfing on a giant rock during an avalanche of rocks into a glacier didn't seem like something I would enjoy very much. So I told everyone to turn back. My friend Cang, the other more seasoned hiker was very dissapointed I didn't want to go any further and was suggesting we try and climb to the peak near where we were, but with the fear of the incredibly unstable terrain I refused and we all turned back.

We got back to the tents and basked in the sun for a while after which we packed our site and were preparing to leave. A firefigher plane passed above Wedge mountain and my friend Ray, not knowing any better, waved hello to it with both hands... I quickly told him to stop as they might actually see us and think we're in trouble and they may send a helicopter or something...and not a moment later this other smaller plane started circling above over and over again...and of course a few minutes later a helicopter passed above... Later I found out that all the aircraft activity was due to a fire that was just a few kilometers south of there.

We headed down feeling bad for leaving so soon from this beautiful place but happy to be rid of the many bugs (swarms of small horse flies on the way up, billions of mosquitos in the everning and gigantic horse flies during the day - I hit one of those horse flies with a baseball style hit from my stick, it bounced off a rock and came back flying towards my face unhurt). Nearly the entire place was abandoned with the exception of one tent. I went down faster than the rest and after it took them over half an hour to get to the place I was waiting for them I told them I'll just wait at the car. It took me 2 hours to get down and then I relaxed for another 2 hours until they arrived.

All in all this was one of the best trips yet. The weather was perfect, the hike challenging and fun and the location unreal. I highly recommend this hike.