Garibaldi Adventure – Part 2

The morning sun has just reached out tent. The frost on the tent platform, testimony to a cold night, has not melted yet.
The slanting morning sun bathed Helm Creek Campground in a golden glow.
The Black Tusk.
This was the first of several beautiful mountain lakes that we would see along the trail.
Our trail crossed some dark desert-like gravel flats; remnants of ancient volcanic eruptions.
Steep green slopes rose from the cinder fields towards the Black Tusk.
The bridge across a glacial stream that likely drains the Helm Glacier.
From the other direction, the backdrop to the bridge was greener and less of a volcanic wasteland.
We are crossing a black cinder desert high in Garibaldi Provincial Park.
Another beautiful mountain lake as we travelled on to the junction with the Panorama Ridge Trail.
It was the late fall, and there were not many flowers, even at high elevations, but these anemones caught my eye.
The scenery was stunning in all directions, including the way we had just come as shown here.
The first part of our bear sighting.
I thought the bear has a distinct hump and must be a grizzly, but the hump is not visible in these photographs
As we climbed up the Panorama Ridge trail, a small lake receded behind us and snow-capped mountains became visible in the distance.
We passed this colourful lichen display as we ascended on the Panorama Ridge Trail.
The colours on the shoulder of the Black Tusk with white gravel made for a striking view.
More lakes appeared below us as we ascended Panorama Ridge.
Steep snowfields appeared below us as we ascended.
The view of Garibaldi Lake from the summit of Panorama Ridge was magnificent.

Thursday, September 28^th, 2017

It was a cold night, but our warm sleeping bags were up to the challenge. Breakfast, though, was another story. It was very cold indeed, and I wore every stitch of clothing that I had with me, including my night attire. The white frost on our tent platform bore mute testimony to the cold.

The sun did not reach our campsite until just before we left for Panorama Ridge. Then, as we ascended towards the Black Tusk, it warmed up quickly.

The trail took us on a gradually ascending course towards the Black Tusk. In the first several kilometers we crossed 4 streams; there was certainly no shortage of water. Our views of the Black Tusk with its two shouldering ridges became ever more magnificent. We continued on through a light forest which eventually gave way to meadows, and then came to a high mountain lake.

The Black Tusk is an extensively eroded remnant of an extinct volcano which is thought to have formed just over one million years ago. It is considered to be shaped like a Walrus tusk, therefore the name.

The terrain changed abruptly, and we found ourselves walking across flat, desert-like expanses of what looked like dark volcanic cinders. The black gravel and sand stood in sharp contrast to the steep green meadows and small trees that rose below the Black Tusk. There were even rows of stark white dead trees that may have been killed by a lightening-induced forest fire.

We came to a wide rock-studded glacial stream. We had concerns, based upon a video that Ted had watched on the internet that we would have to ford this stream, and perhaps get our feet wet. We were pleased, therefore, when to our surprise the trail abruptly turned to the left, and led us upstream to a sturdy iron bridge. There would be no wet feet for us today.

After the bridge, our trail continued across desert-like cinder fields and we passed several more small lakes before we came to a major trail junction. Here the trail to Panorama Ridge branched off from the main trail to Garibaldi Lake and the other major campgrounds in the park. We had come 5 kilometers from Helm Creek Campground, and had three more to go to get to Panorama Ridge.

It was at the trail junction where I heard Ted say the dreaded words “There’s a bear!”

And indeed, there was a bear, a very large dark one that seemed to have a hump on his back to suggest that he was a grizzly. The photographs did not show this, so perhaps he was a very large black bear. We were all alone with him, as no other hikers were around. The bear looked at us, and after that seemed to totally ignore us as he went slowly on his way from our left to our right. At one point, he came directly towards us as he followed the trail a short distance. This did cause me some concern, and I shouted my bear warning call. Then, much to our relief, he turned left and went down a small valley away from the trail and out of sight.

After a few minutes, we thought it safe to carry on and went on our way as planned up the trail to Panorama Ridge.

Our trail initially led up through a sparse alpine forest, and they changed in character completely as it led us along the top of a long very rocky ridge. It gradually became steeper, and after several kilometers we came to the end of the trail on top of a rounded knoll. To our amazement, a huge beautiful deep blue lake, Garibaldi Lake, was spread out below us on the far side of Panorama Ridge. The lake was cradled by snow-capped mountains, and was a magnificent sight indeed.

We decided to go further, as the ridge extended further to our left as we faced Garibaldi Lake.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4