The weather hasn't exactly been cooperating lately. When I laid out the trip I was figuring on mild Indian Summer days interspersed with a little rain here and there just to keep everything green. Actually it's been just the reverse and the sunny days have been hard to come by. Still, we've been persevering, donning our waterproof gear and heading out whenever the hard rain lets up enough to do so.
Lots of nice hikes in the area. Similar to Columbia Gorge conditions what with all of the up and downhill tracks. Pretty though, and the rewards after you top out on a long climb are views like those shown below.
A lunch spot at one of the high mountain lakes. This particular one was Garibaldi Lake, like most of the others glacier fed. You can just see the glacier across the lake on the other side.
The sun really did come out occasionally.
On our way up we passed a group of 13-14 year old girls from a private school in Vancouver who were on an outing. They were planning to camp out for 4 nights at the campground at the top of the trail near the lake. Must have been the first wilderness trip for most of them - they had that pained expression that only an afflicted 13 year old girl can muster - but they were hanging in there much to their credit. Must admit that the hike was a relatively challenging one both for the distance and the elevation gained in the climb...especially if you weren't used to it, so their general lack of enthusiasm was to be understood. It started raining as we descended and stayed wet for the next day or so, so their excursion must have been pretty cold and miserable for most of them - just the sort of thing that would create memories they would carry with them for the rest of their lives.
One day we headed north to the little town of Pemberton and stopped off in their Visitor Center to get oriented. Glad we did, as they told us about a place to go just up the road to see the Sockeye salmon run...so that's where we went.
Felt like being in a National Geographic special watching these guys spawning in the river. This is one of the males, who change color on the last leg of their journey from the Pacific. Big too - I thought these were little guys but they looked to weigh about 30 lbs or so.
And one of the females. After laying their eggs (which the males then fertilize) that they both die. We were looking around for bears come to feast on the harvest, but didn't see any.
There was another pretty Provincial Park up the Road that we hiked around to take advantage of the fleeting sunshine. Made for a very enjoyable day.
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