BRITISH COLUMBIA
ONE TANK
MOUNT ALBERT EDWARD, Strathcona Park, Canada
CHALLENGING
THREE LEGS ON ONE TRIP
NATURAL HISTORIC
By PETER THOMAS BUSCH
I
was able to discover three distinct natural historical geological landmarks on the same tank of gasoline because of the diverse parks network in British Columbia that rivals any other jurisdiction.
Strathcona Provincial Park on the east side of Vancouver Island was the first park reserve in the province dedicated in 1911. The provincial park just north of Courtenay is within the UNESCO Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve established in 2000.
Mount Washington ski resort is an adjoining recreational area for alpine and Nordic activities. The parkway takes about 30 minutes from the Island Highway entrance. Hikers use the same parking lot in the summer as the skiers and snowboarders do in the winter.
Strathcona Park has a boardwalk and a heavily groomed lake loop trail for day users. Lake Helen Mackenzie and the Battleship Lake Loop provide a serene setting for naturalists to spend the day with their families. The boardwalk is a bit slippery after a rain and in the early hours when the wooden slats are damp from morning dew. Walking poles do not really help in such treacherous conditions.
The Battleship Lake loop trail is otherwise easy hiking, although on a really hot day the duration of the hike can be a bit of a bother. Hikers should take water and energy snacks. The ski chalet in the parking lot is only open in the winter, making the next meal about an hour drive away back down the parkway and into Courtenay.
Strathcona Provincial Park does offer quite a bit more for ultra-trail runners and seasoned hikers. Hikers can follow a trail to overnight backcountry campgrounds at Kwai Lake and Circlet Lake. These campgrounds have wooden tent pads, pitted toilets and a food cache to keep the bears away from dinner.
A fit hiker can make the trip to Circlet Lake in under five hours even with a heavy pack. The trails beyond the Battleship Lake Loop are left as natural as possible with many rocks and tree roots posing a challenge for people with tired feet.
Once at Circlet Lake a serious question is posed as to whether to stop and camp until the next day or to continue on to the Forbidden Plateau.
Camping is not permitted on Forbidden Plateau, so hikers will have to go and return before nightfall.
Once on the plateau, Mount Albert Edward poses a significant challenge to summit before nightfall. Mount Albert Edward is the sixth highest peak on Vancouver Island at 2,093 meters.
The elevation gain from Circlet Lake to the plateau below Mount Albert Edward is substantial and challenging with trails quite often following nature’s path through dry creek beds on loose jagged rock.
The Forbidden Plateau has a short well-worn trail that suddenly comes to an end. Hikers must then follow the dozens of stone cairns that mark the trail on rock bed all the way to the summit. The cairns often provide the outside parameters of where people should go as the mind and legs begin to drift a bit while walking on bare hard rock in the summer heat.
The long hike into the park provides a wonderful natural historical experience beginning with the topography of a thickly forested watershed along the lakes. The green landscape is dotted with mushrooms larger than a handful, cupped in just such a way as to hold enough drinking water for a deer. Dark fungus protrudes on the side of trees like steps for the tree animals.
The plateau is more barren and windswept, having been corroded by successive seasons of ice and snow and then also by the late spring thaw year after year over the centuries, stunting the growth of trees and vegetations while at the same time smoothing the mountain surface and crushing sharp rocks into sharper smaller bits and pieces.
Castlecrag Mountain provides motivation early on as the natural sculpture, shaped and formed by nature, appears to the south. Hikers though should not be fooled and drawn toward this natural mystique because Castlecrag remains all the more elusive much further along the ascent.
An icefield and the summit opens up to the east, but also a plummeting rock cliff that rapidly falls into a deep valley where all but the Raven are strangers.
The hike on varied terrain is intermediate in difficulty, requiring careful mindful steps following the cairns so as not to get lost.
The elevation gain from Circlet Lake to the Mount Albert Edward summit takes about four to five hours one way with a heavy pack. If you started in the morning from the parking lot by the alpine chalet, plan your trip carefully.
I took 12 hours, with a heavy pack, to go from Paradise Meadows to the summit and back to Circlet Lake for overnight camping. I stored my heavy pack on the last stage of the summit since camping on this stretch, even in an emergency, would result in certain danger.
Hiking with a heavy pack full of backcountry gear as far as possible is advised in case of getting caught in the sudden weather change that requires hikers to make an emergency shelter. Many day hikers will pass you by though on a good weather day with just a day pack full of water and energy snacks.
These ultra-trail hikers are fit, but also extremely determined to summit and return to the parking lot before nightfall on a summer day with the long daylight hours.
After summiting, I descended to Circlet Lake for overnight camping. Parks BC requires people to obtain a permit for overnight camping, which can be paid for on-line for a small fee.
First thing the next morning, I took about four hours to descend to the parking lot from Circlet Lake. My legs and feet, particularly my toes, were extremely fragile from the previous day’s 12 hour hike uphill. I had also experienced muscle cramps down both legs during the night.
I had heavy water loss, particularly in the afternoon hours on Forbidden Plateau. I consumed five water bottles of water and two sports drinks from 7 am on day one until 11:30 am on day two, but I still suffered as a result of too much water loss. I was so down on water that I was grateful to have saved a half bottle of water for the last break at Helen Mackenzie before the hour of hiking from the lakeshore picnic site to the parking lot.
The hike down is more difficult than the hike up. On the way up, I took short breaks every hour or so, often getting carried away on a stage of the hiking and not breaking for two hours.
Several ultra-trail runners with just water and snacks with them go in and out of the park in a day. Even for a less fit hiker, summitting in one day is possible with an early start. You do need to pack water and energy snacks, though. Hikers may spend several hours on the plateau, where there is very little protection from fast approaching storms. Day hikers should pick good weather days with certainty.
The temperature drops rather quickly once the sun takes back the light. A good light weight sleeping bag is required in summer months for overnight camping.
Bedding is definitely also required to cushion against the hard wooden boards of the camping pad. The camping pad was a blessing though because the rains started, however briefly, during the night, quickly turning the campground around Circlet Lake into a soup of soft mud and flora.
From the unusual sounds emitted from those hikers cleansing in Circlet Lake after a difficult day hiking, the waters are definitely too cold for swimming.
I then headed west, for the second leg of my journey, from Strathcona Provincial Park to Pacific Rim National Park where nature’s cauldron thrusts the rain and wind off the ocean surfaces into the land, thereby carving places in which to hide from the bitter forceful cold.
The coastal rainforest bends in places to where the storms made them bend. Trees have been gnarled and disfigured by the natural elements over generations.
The Pacific Rim provided not only shelter in small coves, but hunting and fishing grounds for 14 indigenous tribes that travelled from winter to summer camps in large canoes made from the hard flexible Spruce trees that grow on the Coast.
These natural places have been transformed into tourist towns for people wanting to experience the wild wind of the Pacific Ocean without the risks of a gritty backcountry adventure. I enjoyed my two nights recovering from the backcountry on a soft motel bed in downtown Tofino.
The rustic charm of the Pacific Rim National Park on the west coast of Vancouver Island has been tarnished a bit over the years by corporate tourism buying, building and gaining a foothold in this place that once allowed camping on the beaches.
The investments into beach front lodges has lured a greater tourist traffic into Ucluelet and Tofino. These once small resource working towns are situated on either end of a long strip of coastal land several kilometers along the Pacific.
Tofino is just a few square town blocks here and there between the waters. The tourist destination town in picturesque natural settings has a few gourmet restaurants with house specials featuring the seafood harvested from the natural surroundings.
The national park was preserved at a time when international forest product companies were harvesting the old growth cedars in the region so fast even corporate executives realized that some sections of the untouched forests should be set aside for future generations to visit.
The old growth cedars once stood majestically straight into the sky so as to blot out the blue and the sun and even the moon at times.
The Pacific Rim National Park now hosts a constant stream of tourists driving into the area wanting to make their footprints into the sand where they are just as quickly swept away by ocean currents.
Long Beach visitors can choose from the showcase parking lot along the beach and a larger parking lot just a couple of hundred meters south, just a few meters off the highway.
Surfers, of whom there are many, play in the surf in greater numbers at Wickaninnish Beach. Wickaninnish Beach is like a larger sheltered cover with more intense wave activity. The long parking lot has a modern washroom facility. Surfers and beach walkers also have access to beach style changerooms and showers.
Combers Beach has more of a rustic naturalistic atmosphere for beach walkers liking to stroll up and down experiencing the sand beneath their feet and the natural elements whirling all around them.
The ocean coast from south to north also has a number of picturesque smaller coves.
Tofino is a functioning town with everything, including: the all-natural bakery, co-op grocery, government liquor store, post office and gas station.
The area is going through another build-out stage with the construction of a multi-use path for bicycles and pedestrians that will extend along the highway into Wickaninnish Beach when the project is completed in a couple of years. Tofino currently has a multi-use paved path that extends from the downtown area along the highway into the residential area, but the path does stop well before the national park and the major beach areas.
Canada has an extensive national parks network that extends from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast.
Backcountry hikers having wanted the high altitude elevation and then the ocean surf to conquer can now cross back over Georgia Strait by car ferry and begin again a third leg within the Sea to Sky Corridor.
People making the journey into this area will find themselves not alone in search of adventure, but then visitors also find safety on these hikes by being within a few hours of travel from the city.
Garibaldi Provincial Park has access points from Highway 99.
The Elfin Lake area can be accessed just north of Squamish town center, but south of the boundary where retail shops end and the journey to higher elevations begin.
The Black Tusk area can be accessed north of Squamish, and about 19 kilometers south of the international destination Resort of Whistler.
The Black Tusk turn-off traveling north is marked by a small road sign a bit too early on the right of the highway, and then again by a second small road sign just before the turn-off but not at the actual turnoff.
Adventurers will just have to will the right turn after the second sign. Of course, if you missed the first sign, then you will have to make a U-turn when a U-turn is safe to do so after you realize the second sign just will not be visible any time soon.
The access road off the highway leads to a paved parking lot at the trail head that quickly becomes filled to capacity with vehicles.
Parking on the highway is not allowed, although the length of the walk from the highway to the trailhead would be inconvenient anyway.
Driving along the parkway takes just a few minutes. The parkway is easily accessed by any vehicle in the spring and summer.
The Black Tusk trail into Garibaldi Provincial Park from the parking lot has been well-groomed by BC Provincial Park Rangers with only some shallow stones showing along the trail.
The trail is easy to walk, except for the rapid elevation gain, as opposed to more of a backcountry trail that requires continuous uphill caution.
The Black Tusk trail switches back and forth uphill through substantial rapid elevation gain, taking about three to four hours one way with a heavy pack. Fit day hikers just carrying water and snacks might only take two hours one-way.
The trail itself is somewhat uneventful, winding through the thick forests until finishing above the tree line. One makeshift look out, about half-way up the trail, enables hikers to view the fragility of the Barrier built by nature from lava flows. The Barrier is a natural dam built from cooling lava flows that eventually solidified to hold back the waters of Garibaldi Lake.
Overnight hikers can camp at park campgrounds maintained at Taylor Meadows and Garibaldi Lake.
I chose to camp overnight at Taylor Meadows because the provincial campground is positioned between Black Tusk and Garibaldi Lake. I wanted to visit both geological sites in the same trip.
I managed to get up to Taylor Meadows by late afternoon, drop my heavy pack and set up camp in about five minutes. I then hiked with just a day pack filled with water and energy snacks to Black Tusk and then back to camp about one hour before nightfall.
In the morning, I hiked to Garibaldi Lake and then back to the camp before heading down the same trail to the parking lot.
Unfortunately, after a lot of hiking with heavy packs over a six day period, the descent took just as long as the ascent because the soreness had set back into my muscles and bones again, and also both big toes, making for some painful downward sideway turning.
Once inside Garibaldi Park, you would think I would stay and rest a few days. But the temptation to hike on other trails within the park is too much for one person.
The trails inside the park are also well maintained by park rangers, and reinforced by heavy hiker use, making for easy walking and easy directional findings toward the geological features without raising concerns of becoming lost in the backcountry. Hiking off the trail system is prohibited.
Black Tusk and Garibaldi Lake are equally accessible, with a trail directly to the geological features.
At Garibaldi Lake, a trail follows the shoreline to the campgrounds.
The trail to Black Tusk goes through some low treed areas, but hikers are above the treeline and the south of the park opens up a number of times for spectacular views of the Table above Garibaldi Lake.
The Table was formed from a vertical magma column that occurred within an ice sheet. The large block flattened on top from the rapid cooling inside the ice sheet and also from the downward pull of gravity.
The geological monument provides a pleasant distraction that slows the progress along the trail to Black Tusk.
Once at the final approach to Black Task, the trail switches back and forth quite a bit over loose volcanic materials making for an extension of time and a compression of space as the many minutes seem to disappear without any substantial elevation gain. Black Tusk, as the stratovolcano appears from Whistler, seems too illusive at times.
The official park trail to Black Tusk eventually stops, but the well worn path cannot hide that many hikers continue further up despite the official warnings about the dangers of proceeding.
The park is in the high alpine, so in late summer several different colorful alpine flowers are visible amongst the green along the trails.
A bear bell is recommended as I and many other hikers spotted a golden brown bear off in a ravine near the trail playing “scare the pants off the hikers” game that wildlife tend to play with visitors from time to time.
Small quick chipmunks dash in and out of the trail areas. I also saw a pair of tiny black woodpeckers hammering away at a tree on the ascent into the park. I accidentally scared a silvery grey marmot out of a hole on the Black Tusk summit area.
So much life makes the trip seem serene even with the constant stream of other hikers in and out of the park.
Other trails also exist inside the park, but I only had time and the legs for what I did see, after a week of adventure from ocean floor to mountain peak in spectacular British Columbia.
I managed to keep the costs to a minimum for one week of holidays. The car ferry costs about $150 return. The majority of the gas tank was emptied from Courtenay to Tofino and then back to the ferry resulting in about a $60 expense. I stayed two nights at a motel in downtown Tofino for $185 per night. I spent about $60 on two dinners and one brunch in Tofino. Of course, beer and white wine for the motel bar fridge cost about $30. For the back country adventure, I bought two boxes of fancy granola snack bars, a jar of roasted peanuts and packaged vegetables, and also some sports drinks for during the hike. I bought some beef jerky and a roll of brie cheese for breakfast bagels. I had lost much of my appetite during the hike from the physical exertion of the climb and from the water loss. I essentially force fed myself food and water to maintain my energy levels during the trip, except for the extreme thirst in the ferry back to the Sea to Sky Corridor, which I quenched with a liquid smoothie and a mineral drink for about $9.50. I bought a two-person tent for $45 that took about five minutes to set up. I used an old backpack and an existing day pack for hauling the backcountry equipment. A summer sleeping bag and tent air mattress are recommended, as well as being able to change into some dry, clean clothes before bedding down for the night. I would have liked to have brought a single unit camp stove to make a hot meal and a warm drink at night, and also for in the morning for boiling coffee and cooking breakfast. When purchasing backcountry equipment, a delicate balance exists between the price points and the weight of the equipment with a gentle note that a heavy pack becomes much heavier after a couple hours of hiking in the backcountry.
