Garibaldi Lake: An Unanticipatedly Snowy Weekend

Locals (including us!) often complain about how you have to book campsites months in advance. This is the case for Garibaldi Lake, and it sure is annoying. So, when I saw a site come open due to a cancellation for the weekend I jumped on it. I realized well why the cancellation had happened – the forecast called for a cold and rainy weekend. But my mind was made up to finally try an overnight trip just me and the kids. Especially since I was going away the next week for work, so I wanted to give Maya some child-free time too.

Still, I wasn’t comfortable (safety-wise) going just the three of us, without any other adults. It’s also more fun to go with friends. I tried asking around, but people were understandably not too excited about the prospects of a cold and wet weekend in the mountains… Finally, I found some friends who’d join us regardless, and we hoped it would end up being nicer than forecast. I packed lots of warm clothes, much of which we used.

We picked up our friends in Squamish and drove over to the Rubble Creek trailhead. We spent the next few hours playing various games, such as “hide the fish”, with a squishy fish toy that Kai had reminded me to bring. It quickly became apparent how this could backfire when the kids spent too long looking for the fish… I also doled out an impressive amazing of gummy bears – luckily I had come prepared.

I haven’t been up this trail for years. So when we reached the Barrier Lookout, I marveled with the kids at this huge and barren volcanic plug, which may one day crumble and cause disastrous flooding. Soon after that, the snow started – first patches, and then we were hiking just on snow for the final bit. The kids loved the snow (“can we go skiing?”) and our pace slowed down quite a bit while they entertained themselves with various games such as “beat the snow” (with a stick).

The winter had brought lower than average snowfall (i.e., bad skiing). So, I hadn’t actually considered that despite the lower snowfall than average it had been a cool spring, so that the snow lingered – the campground was completely covered in about a meter of snow. There were quite a few people in the first cooking shelters (turns out there are four!), so we kept going to the end of the campground. After putting up the tents (one on snow, another on a cleared wooden tent pad) we cooked dinner on Battle Island. It drizzled, which soon turned into snow. Proper snow, the kind that comes down softly with beautiful snowflakes. In a way it was magical, and yet it was hard to believe that it was summer…

Soon enough we were ready for bed. The kids and I slept cuddled together, closer than usual since I had borrowed a two person tent. In the morning it snowed lightly before it cleared up a bit. The kids built a little snow fort and had fun flinging snow around with a shovel we found by the cooking shelter. We made our way back down to the cars, consuming some more gummies, and even running parts down (at least the kids did).

We celebrated with McDonald’s ice cream – I haven’t eaten there in years and prefer not too, but a friend reminded me that they have pretty good soft serve ice cream for a price that can’t be beat ($2).

All in all it was a wonderfully enjoyable weekend in nature. Kai hiked his longest hike yet, Neil carried his gear without complaints, the weather was nicer than anticipated, and we stayed warm and for the most part dry. It’s just another reminder that we can still head out to outdoors (and probably should) even when the forecast or conditions don’t look too attractive, as long as we are prepared for it.