Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Garibaldi Lake

La semaine dernière notre classe est allée au Lac Garibaldi au nord de Vancouver pour 3 jours de camping.

La vue de la plage.

C'est une régio avec une origine volcanique: il y avait donc des paysages interessants.
Une des montagnes les plus célèbres de la région: The Black Tusk ou "La défense noire."



L'eau était un peu fraiche, mais ça fais du bien après une longue journée.
Un copain (Ken Huang) a un appareil pas mal, je lui ai montré comment faire des photos des étoiles.

Le matin avant de partir. On a eu de la chance, la pluie a commencée vers 11h.

Rémi

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Marriott Basin

Sarah commence des leçons de français aujourd'hui, je vais donc essayer de l'aider en écrivant en français içi.
La semaine dernière on est parti vers Pemberton, au nord de Whistler, le site des jeux Olympiques 2010, pour une semaine de camping sauvage.

For those non-French speakers, I'll translate-ish. For our last camping trip of the year, we headed north to the Pemberton area (certainly one of our favourite areas in BC) to a place called Marriott Meadows. We had six days to enjoy the great outdoors!
La première nuit on est resté dans un site publique. Pas très romantique, mais au moins ça nous donne un peu plus de temps le lendemain pour la randonnée.

We spent our first night in a public campground (called a backcountry recreation site, but that's a load of crapola - there's a toilet! Sure it doesn't flush, but it's certainly not the back country of Remi and Sarah ;). We moved the tent once because Remi preferred a different site. I can't remember why...
Et c'est parti de bonne heure, les sentier montait assez rapidement, mais avec seulement 5km avant d'arriver au camping ce n'est pas très long, malgré les sacs pesant 25kg.

My sac weighed 25 kg too!! I got totally ripped off, if you ask me. I'm a little girl!! Anyway, the hike in wasn't very long, but it was a bit of a climb. The site was only 5 km from where we parked.
Avec les feux de foret pas loin, la fumée cachait les montagne.

There were a bunch of forest fires raging in BC this summer (you might have heard). There was one not too far from where we camped that actually closed another trail just up the road. But the smoke only last a day or so.
Eventuellement le vent a changé de direction et on pouvait enfin prendre des bonne photo. Içi c'est une prise panoramique de la vue vers l'est.

A panoramic view to the east after the smoke cleared.
Notre camping était calme et au bord de l'eau.

Relaxing our new camp chairs! We were right on the lake. It was a beautiful site.
On peut tout juste voir la tente en bas à droite. Our little tent (we couldn't live without it Julien and Megan!) is the yellow structure in the bottom right.
Une autre prise panoramique du lac.

Another panoramic of our little lake. I just love these moutains! Staring up at the stark, steep slopes is incredible.
Lundi on s'est baladé un peu pour voir un lac situé un peu plus haut. We climbed up to the middle lake on Monday (we arrived Sunday). It was a gorgeous day.
etc... etc...



C'est un peu dangereux de se balader dans certains endroits, mais c'est pas pour ça qu'on ne peut pas s'amuser. Look at that calf muscle! ;) These rock fields are killer on the body, but we still had some fun.

More relaxing at camp. We actually didn't see another soul for the entire time we were set up (we saw some people on the way in who actually suggested this site to us - we thank them!).
Une dernière promenade avant de diner. A little walk after dinner. We could actually see Joffre Peaks from here - one of the major hiking destinations near Whistler.
Notre vue le lendemain. Our view the next morning.
On a décidé de rester près du camp pour se reposer un peu. Pour passer le temps j'ai construit un petit bateau. Remi was bored so he built a little boat while I relaxed on shore. It actually made it out to the middle of the lake where our little duck friends jabbed at it mystified.

La brume le lendemain. A foggy morning.
En route vers un lac à 2000m, à 4km du camp. Wednesday we took a hike up to the upper lake. It sits at 2000 m and was 4 km from our camp. The hike was really quite nice as we got to see the meadow down to the middle lake from above, but this lake wasn't really that great. It was FREEZING though.
Dans cette photo on peut voir "notre" lac, à gauche. Our lake is seen to the left.
Une autre prise panoramique. Maggie snuck into this panoramic!




Sarah a réussie a se faire mal. I will admit that this was a clutzy affair. There was a rock, all by itself, in the middle of a nice field of soft heather and I smashed into it. I was fine on those damn rock fields, but I found the only rock on the side of a hill ;)

Field dressing!
Jeudi matin c'était le déluge, donc nous sommes parti un peu plus tot que prévu. Pas mal quand même, 4 jours sans être dérangé par d'autre randonneurs, et une bonne dernière vacance avant de retourner à l'école.

Thursday we awoke to rain. And I mean RAIN. It was pouring! We stayed in the tent for about an hour willing it to stop, but no such luck. After the tarp drained onto the tent, we decided to head out. We lost a day at camp, but were able to get the apartment cleaned up a bit before school started. Not a bad vacation before returning to school :)

Rémi and Sarah

Statlu Lake - Or maybe Slollicum Peak - Or just Harrison Lake...

A couple of weeks ago we tried to go for an easy hike near Vancouver, but the road we wanted to follow was blocked by a landslide, so we headed off towards Harrison Hot Springs to see about a hike called Slollicum Peak. After a short hike up and into the woods, we lost the trail (and Sarah's sandal), so we backpedaled to the car and went to a drive in site on Harrison Lake.
We tried
Despite our less than classy neighbours (child services might have a thing or two to say about the way these people talk to their children), we managed a couple of swims in the chilly water.
Dinner by the lake.

And the next morning. We may have missed out on the hike, but the weekend wasn't lost.

There's another recent post right after this one about Eaton Lake the week before.

Remi

Eaton Lake

A few weeks ago Tim and his brother came by for a visit, so true to form, we took off for a camping trip. This time we headed towards Hope, and walked up to Eaton Lake.
This is a "bridge" early on in the hike. The trail wasn't all that difficult, but at one point Sarah stuck her pole in a bee hive, and much hilarity ensued (for the few of us who didn't get stung).
Our quiet site up by the lake.
The next morning.
Grey Jays are at every campsite in BC, just waiting for someone to feed them. They do pretty well this way.
We had heard that there was a summit nearby, so we bushwacked up through the forest (not much fun given the thorny plants that love that habitat) to the alpine, then continued up to a ridge. We gave up on the summit as it seemed to be a death trap. Tim tried, but didn't get very far.
I think the summit in question is the one on the left. Good luck with that.
This is Al, our neighbour at the site. A weird guy, but it was neat talking to him.

Rémi