How Panorama Ridge Blew Our Minds
It’s always nice to wake up camping to a sunny day full of optimistic adventures. I got up before the others and took a stroll around the campground to take some photos and video. The girls were up shortly afterwards by the time I got back so we packed up and ate pancakes for breakfast. Our pots aren’t very good and even with lots of oil the pancakes were sticking. Kate took over and was really good at making them not stick to the tiny pan that we have. If she ever comes camping with us again, she might be designated head chef.
Our plan for the day was to hike up to Panorama Ridge. This ridge would give us a good view of the lake and the surrounding mountains. Like many of the other campers, we left bags in the campground shelter and just took water and food for the day. The hike began in Taylor Meadows and it was quite nice going through the alpine flora. Already close to midday by the time we left, we alternated between shuffling through the extreme heat in the sun between patches of shade under the trees where the mosquitoes waited for us.
The trail slowly meandered its way along the valley edge, crossing a few streams here and there until we came to Mimulus Lake, Black Tusk Lake, and then Helm Lake. There weren’t many other hikers around in this vast wilderness and we marveled at the last remaining patches of snow feeding the lakes multi coloured waters. As the day progressed, the sky became thinly cloudy. This was good because it kept the sun off us but also made for less interesting photographs.
We stopped to take some more panorama photos at Helm Lake and then played in the first snow we came across. The trail up to the ridge was what appeared to be a glacier moraine. Part way up, just before the snow began, we had lunch overlooking the valley, Black Tusk, and the lakes below. The view was pretty wild, mind blowing wild.
This wasn’t even the end of it. Once we’d recovered our energy, we did some rock scrambling and snow hiking to the top of the ridge where coming over the lip, we were on the edge of Garibaldi Lake. This was like nothing else and completely blew our minds.
I wished again for time to stop and that we could stay here longer.
The funnest part about snow hiking is that on the way down you can slide. Yuki and Frances were able to slide on their buts as well as a small plastic cutting board we’d brought. It made a pretty good sled and they were able to slide down most of the snow patch. We even hiked up one patch to do it again.
We made quick time back to the campground where we ate instant noodles for dinner and packed up to go. We were some of the last campers to leave at 7pm. It began to rain as we were leaving but we soon outran the rain and took cover in the trees below. The hike down only took 2 hours to the car. The ride home was quite fast and we were all glad to get home for a hot shower and to wash off the dust.
I shot a lot of video of the three girls and am editing a video together. I had trouble trying to film everything and take photos too. I also felt that my camera was starting to limit my photos because the field of view just wasn’t quite wide enough with such an expansive landscape. I suppose, even if I had the 500$ lens I’ve been eye, the landscape is just so expansive that it might still not be enough. At the same time, I fear that I spent too much time taking photos and video and not enough time enjoying all the scenery. We certainly came away with some great photos, but trying to capture everything and everyone in a cohesive story made for a lot of effort.
Still, this trip was quite the adventure for all of us and very enjoyable. It was the first time Kate went camping and probably set a high standard. In many ways it was mind blowing. More importantly, it made me even more exciting to visit Cape Scott in August! Frances is suppose to come with us if she can get the time off which will be super awesome too. Spending so much time in the office, it’s nice to get outside and I’m looking forward to more hiking and camping opportunities.
