Black Tusk & Garibaldi Lake Aug.18.13
 

The Black Tusk has been on my mind for several years, and somewhat intimidated about reading about the 'Chimney" which takes you to the top.
Weather forecast was iffy; and considered joining up with Maple Ridge Meetup Group. Finally weather forecast gave a small hope of reasonable weather and Saturday evening cleared up giving great hope for Sunday conditions. I invited Janice and Dean for the trip after considering a few other choices with lower priorities. Hence I met Dean and Janice at the Taylor Way Church meeting spot about 6:50 am. We all boarded into my car and headed off making it to the trail head in 1 hour and 4 minutes. We were ready and geared up to hit the trail shortly before 8:30 a.m. Before that we met Rex at the parking lot, and later on with the whole Maple Ridge Meetup group further up the trail.

Being Sunday morning we noted several cars parked below the parking lots. A chartered bus entered the parking lot and dropped off 50 Iranian tourists, one more bus to come after that.

Weather looked promising, plenty of blue sky breaks.

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We made good time up the trail; Rex and his group passed us when we made a brief stop. Caught up to them and together too a break at the junction where the info Board displays the route right and left routes; Garibaldi Lake and Taylor Meadows Respectively. https://www.clubtread.com/forumPix/419000/419960.jpg https://www.clubtread.com/forumPix/419000/419961.jpg

We shared the trails until the Taylor Meadows when we split up to take a Washroom break, we did not see them again for the rest of the day. We made it to the Meadows 8 km, including the 15 minute stop in 2 hours.

We continued up into the meadows beyond and noted the clouds had congealed to hide any of the clear skies. We reached the junction where trail branches off to the Black Tusk versus the one heading south to Garibaldi Lake. We started getting mist fall, and then some light rain. Made a stop to check the map .
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We took shelter under trees where the Black Tusk heads up the hill. Great dry log to lay out for an early lunch out of the rain. 11:30 am on the trail once again, mist did not let up. Plenty of flower rich ravines and stream courses to enjoy, despite lack of views in the mist and fog.
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We entered the part of the mountain where there almost no ground plants, and plenty of basaltic rock fragments cover the ground. Started to look like moonscape and eerie with the fog and low visibility.
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Here the three of us split up after putting on raingear. I had a cramped time with borrowed small size rain pants. Lost my way, Janice caught up and helped find the path. We met Dean at the famous Chimeny. https://www.clubtread.com/forumPix/419000/419985.jpg https://www.clubtread.com/forumPix/419000/419986.jpg Definitely looked less intimidating than expected. We decided not to head up as rock was wet and slippery, and the winds were super strong and very cold. Frost accumulated on my chilled powerade bottle. At times Janice and myself were almost blown over by the high gale-force winds. We decided just to head back down. ****WE WILL BE BACK *** 2176 meters elevation at this point

Way down, below the cloud layer, views improved,, and after some debate we decided to beeline for the lake.
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Always a treat to see Garibaldi Lake up close, we observed a beautiful tourquoise colour especially close to the outflow part of the lake. So we walked across the bridge and along the trail towards the shelters.. https://www.clubtread.com/forumPix/419000/419998.jpg https://www.clubtread.com/forumPix/419000/419999.jpg https://www.clubtread.com/forumPix/420000/420000.jpg https://www.clubtread.com/forumPix/420000/420001.jpg https://www.clubtread.com/forumPix/420000/420002.jpg https://www.clubtread.com/forumPix/420000/420003.jpg https://www.clubtread.com/forumPix/420000/420004.jpg https://www.clubtread.com/forumPix/420000/420005.jpg https://www.clubtread.com/forumPix/420000/420006.jpg

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5 P.M. and time to leave... 9.5 km back to the parking lot from this point.
..past lesser Garibaldi Lake and to make a stop at the barrier lookout

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Made it to the Barrier Lookout; and within a few minutes cloud sprouted up from behind a cliff and socked us in with fog. So rapidly. A few photos only, hope Janice who got there first can post her pictures.

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We made it to the parking lot by 7:15 pm.. making it less than 10.5 hours car to car. For 5 major breaks ..actual hiking time was less than 9 hours for 29 km round trip with 1680 meters elevation gain.

GPS Images of our route:
Overview... and portion to near the Black Tusk Summit itself, and lastly the Barrier (cliff).

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K

Beautiful even in the fog and rain. and probably less crowded.

Awesome day and glad it worked out! I enjoyed the mist and the rain and hiking against the wind until it got to be those gale force winds at the top. Wow.. that was insane.
Thanks Karl for putting this out there and for the use of the gloves. :) and thanks Dean for suggesting Pepe and Gringos in Squamish and helping me to stay awake on the drive back to the Wack. Long day. :)

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That's a wonderful shot!

Great eye:
Nice how the Lake stays mellow even in inclement weather.

Janice - you gotta try visiting Garibaldi PP in nice weather :)

A good long day-trip. Well done!

I like the flower photos.

Too bad about the weather both taking away views and preventing an attempt on the chimney. It really is an awesome area.

Funny about the Iranian tourists. We were returning from a 3-day trip to Garibaldi Lake on a Sunday this time last year and we passed what must have been at least 50 Iranians on the way up to the Lake. Maybe this is an annual event for them. Didn't see a bus though. Good to see people getting out on the trails but it was a bit of a pain in the butt to pull over every 3 minutes on the way down to let more people pass.

You guys are cool! In the similar weather I was there three weeks ago I just got to the lake and no hesitation to turn around and head back.

Good job getting up there. Too bad about the weather, it's a good excuse to do it over again.

Nice report!

We were also there, camping the 16-18th (went up in pouring rain Friday blah) and were surprised how packed it was - only a handful of sites left Friday afternoon and almost none on Saturday, even in that weather!

We debated the tusk vs Panorama on Saturday and opted for Panorama. We ended up to within 100m of the top but it was so cloudy there was no point :( Was still a stunning hike, even in the fog.

We must have been going down same time as you as we also had to pass the 50 Iranian tourists. We were seriously happy we left Sunday and didn't stick around for the gong show that must have been the lake with 100+ people!

I'm planning a three day camping trip to Taylor Meadows to hike Black Tusk and Panorama Ridge. I can't recall if there is a drinkable water source at the campsite or on the trail. If anyone can answer this for me I would appreciate it. I'd hate to carrying three days of water if it can be avoided.

You have to try it from the Helm Creek side! So much less busy and really fantastic landscape as you are coming up towards the Tusk and Panorama.

I agree wholeheartedly; however, the 7-km drive through potholes to the Cheakamus trailhead is a real pain in the neck, but on the other hand, you don't have to put up with those incredibly boring switchbacks and the bus loads of tourists if starting from Rubble Creek.

Good trip, Karl, Janice and Dean; I have no doubt that you will go back to conquer Black Tusk! Excellent pictures despite the weather - thanks for sharing.

Everyone.

Sincerely appreciate everyone's kind thoughts and compliments.

Janice, nice shots - thank you, erie photo up the ridge in fog - that's quite a shot

Kara, not sure about the water source there. But there is a major creek nearby, need to have filter to handle the water amount you need.

Gimmesnow, cool to think you were around there the same time

Hedda, yes we will be back

Jencloss .. Yes we will approach from the Helm Creek side in the near future.


K