Brew Lake: The Most Refreshing Lake in the World
A few months ago Gili got an email from a friend asking if we would like to join a family hike to Blowdown Pass at the end of July. Gili replied that we would love to as long as the weather cooperates. When he wrote that we thought of rain possibly ruining our plans, not of extreme heat. A few days before the planned trip emails started flying around, reconsidering the plan. Temperatures in Pemberton were around 34C and the hike to Blowdown is exposed to the sun, on a logging road, and with the long drive no one sounded too keen.
So a new plan emerged – hiking to Brew Lake, which we thought might be a bit cooler. Most of us were actually quite surprised to find that this hike was quite exposed to the sun as well, in some parts. Then we realized that most of us had actually only been to Brew in winter, or spring and not so much in the middle of summer.
On Saturday morning five families with kids of various ages met at the logging road leading to the trail head. After some car shuttling to get everyone to the trail head we finally started hiking. Except for the one year old, all kids hiked in which was pretty impressive. The trail does not have a good foot bed, some parts involved crossing boulder fields and some sections are quite steep, and as mentioned it was hot.
After a good few hours we finally reached the lake. I was glad we were not aiming to reach the hut because the lake seemed far enough. It’s funny because on all the other times I’ve been there, the lake was always covered in snow, so I hardly even noticed that there’s a lake there. Five minutes post arrival I was already in the lake. It was such a hot hike that the lake felt like the most refreshing source of water ever created. I spent quite awhile in the lake and even went in for another dip after dinner, since the air still felt warm.
The kids entertained themselves by swimming, throwing rocks into the lake or just running around. There wasn’t much to worry about and the parents were very relaxed. Luckily there were hardly any bugs and we could all enjoy a long evening outside.
In the morning we decided to start heading back after breakfast and of course another dip in the lake. It was already pretty hot at 10am and we wanted to avoid mid-day hiking. In addition, we figured that this way we’d be back in the car in time for Neil’s nap, which is always a plus.
The two families with the older kids hiked up to the ridge, but we still wanted Neil to hike back so there was no way we could go up further, which was fine with me. The way down was a bit quicker and we were back at the cars, ready to drive back around 2pm. I was very proud of Neil and his twin friends, Max and Ava. There was very little complaining and lots of smiles and good times to remember. I think that despite the heat and the challenging trail the kids had type one fun. Hopefully more joint hikes will come in the future!
