Monday 14 March 2016

In the Wild: Elfin Lakes

Hey!

Welcome to my very first blog post! I'm so excited to share with you my (sorta) recent camping trip to Elfin Lakes with my school.

A little background info:
Elfin Lakes is in Garibaldi Park, which is in Squamish, BC. Basically, you arrive at the trailhead at Garibaldi, and hike 11 kilometres to reach Elfin Lakes. It is such a beautiful park, and there are many different activities that you can do all four seasons, including biking, hiking, swimming, and canoeing in the summer, and snowshoeing, skiing, and snowboarding in the winter. My class went during one of the weeks of February, and snowshoed to Elfin, and back in 4 days.

So our trip!

On the first day, my class hiked 5 kilometres into the park. You'll know when you reach the 5k mark because there is actually a Red Heather Hut. It's just this little house that has a fireplace, and a few stoves. The first 5k of the hike was, not gonna lie, hell. It was all a steady incline, I was carrying a huge backpack with heavy things inside, and the pace was fast because we wanted to reach the hut before sundown. I honestly thought I was gonna die.


The trail is really beautiful, though. That made the hiking a little easier, at least. The trees were blanketed in snow, and the floor was covered in fluffy, white, snow. I hadn't seen that much snow in all my life. Anyways, when we finally hiked to the hut, I was probably the happiest I'd ever been. I dropped my bag, and jumped for joy when I saw the hut. That night was hard though. My group had to make snow kitchens, and it got really cold when the sun went down. What's even worse was that our group forgot to bring pots! So, we had to constantly ask other groups for their pots during the entire trip. Our class slept in tents that night, and it was okay, I guess. I was really warm up until one of the girls in my group, Sophie, asked me to go to the washroom. That meant I had to get out of my sleeping bag, and escape the heat. I actually had to pee, though, so I mean, that was a plus. When I got back into my sleeping bag, it was really hard to fall back asleep. I got colder and colder. Our tent was also on a little hill, so I always rolled to my right the entire night.

On the second day, we hiked 6k all the way to Elfin Lakes. The first kilometre of the hike after the Red Heather Hut was absolute torture. Some of the girls in my class began crying, fell over, and couldn't breath at some points. I felt like I was going to pass out sometime during that kilometre. After that though, the hike was pretty good. When we finally reached the hut, I was so so happy. The cabin was heated, and had stoves, a fire, tables, and bunk beds! That meant I got to spend all night in this warm little house. 

This first photo below is me from the spot where my class stopped for lunch. If you look carefully behind me, (hint: in the little V of trees), you'll be able to see the cabin! 


This photo is of my friend, Joey, and I, in our bunk. I was so warm this night, and started sweating! (Who says that on a winter camping trip? Hahah)

I loved spending the night in the cabin. There were also these two boys that were at the cabin with us too. They were from White Rock, and our class called them the White Rock Boys. More will come on them later ;) They aren't really important right now; they spent the entire night blaring some Justin Bieber, and drinking whisky.

The third day was super chill. Our class stayed at the cabin, and we made quinzhees the entire day! Quinzhees are kind of like igloos, except that they are made differently. You have to pile snow into one big dome, and then dig it out from the inside. Igloos are made from many cut out snow blocks that are stacked onto each other. I was in a quinzhee group with Joey, Lauren, and Varshita. We spent basically the entire day making our quinzhee. There was one guide with us, Steve, who helped us a lot with our quinzhee. He was probably the reason why it was so awesome in the end. This day was probably my favourite. We spent so much time together, and really enjoyed each other's company.


This is Joey, Lauren, and me standing on top of our quinzhee :)


Joey and Varshita in the entrance of our quinzhee

Finally, on the last day, our class hiked 11 kilometres back to the beginning of the hike! It was unbelievable, but I actually didn't find it that hard, and I also had lots of fun hiking too! This trip was so fun, and I played in the snow so much that week. 

This post was really long, but I hope you enjoyed reading it! Get outside sometime, and don't spend all your time looking at that cellphone or laptop glow :)

Lots of love,

Manny








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