Joffre Lakes has gone F*in INSANE
 

We bailed on Brew this morning due to road conditions and, since the weather was garbage and the weekend half over, thought we would try Joffre instead.

What a mistake that was.

You know the "2km to Joffre" sign? The cars started lining the highway on both sides *before* the sign. We saw people just merrily pulled down the embankment in 2wd cars. We saw dozens of groups headed up in flip-flops and skirts, with umbrellas, in the pissing rain. We saw a near fistfight over a parking spot.

We bailed from the madness, and on the way back saw a 4runner *blocking the southbound lane in a corner, so it could rig a backwoods style tow line up to a car which had pulled too far down the embankment.*

This is insanity, pure insanity. Parks royally screwed up when they paved that trail while doing nothing to expand the parking situation, and personally I have no intention of heading back there ever again. I sincerely hope that the MoT gets off their assets and starts fining people, because Pemberton Towing could probably retire after a single weekend of work.

I have a video of the entire 3km parking fiasco, including tow debacle, which I'll upload here after a relaxing evening somewhere far away from that shitshow.

Stick a fork in it.

Video:

Just sounds like a typical long weekend at a popular destination.

You've got to stay away from the well marked, well constructed trails if you want a bit of solitude, particularly on a long weekend. The irony is that I can find a trail with very little traffic on it in my own "backyard" if I'm not averse to a bit of "rougher" travel or some bushwhacking.

My first trip to Joffre was some 40 years ago when the Duffey was a nasty, gravel logging road and Joffre trail was not more than a mountaineering path. We hiked it with caulk (spiked) loggers boots, it was ugly and it took all day. Parking for my 1970 Rambler Ambassador was a wide spot in the road. At that time Joffre was not even a protected area, let alone a park. As it evolved into a park owing to its unique natural beauty and prominent glacier, It had to expand, it needed to expand. Parking and pit toilets with it. You're right, more needs to be done about that.

Truth be told, BC has grown a lot since then and demand for outdoor recreation has grown with it. I'm totally fine with that. People like us on CT can always venture further afield to Tenquille, Oak creek, Marriott, Semaphore, Cerise, Meagher, Downton etc., etc. However, citizens want and should have more general access trails/parks and maybe it's time to bring other places into the mix, like Rohr Lake where access from the main road is not too far.

Curiously, some of the best winter hikes my wife and I have every year are at Joffre. Microspikes/snowshoes in hand there's often not a soul around, especially mid week

this is bang on. My theory is that 95% of metro-Van "outdoor" population knows ~5 trails: Grind, Lions, Chief, Garibaldi, Joffre. As soon as you move a bit, it starts looking better. Good backyard example would be Kennedy Falls -- circus on Headwaters and hardly a soul across the river.

But things are getting worse everywhere. Rockies are far cry from how it was in 90s. Break-ins on popular trailheads in K-country are now getting common. Stay away from Louise July - October. Trans-Canada between Calgary and Banff on long weekend is often horror show. And then someone causes accident because of texting or whatever, road gets blocked and what is 1 hr drive becomes 3 or more.

Yeah.. Last year I saw at least 100 people on Sept. long weekend in the Lions area. This year I moved a bit, only saw one soul on Gillspie/Seed area today. Of course the traffic back home was still fairly heavy even at 8-9 pm..

Also, what happened to Brew's road access? Can you explain with a bit of details as Brew is on my "list".

BTW, which Brew you were trying to access? I assume it's the one by Texas Creek near Lillooet, not the one near Whistler along Sea to Sky.

Nah, we were going to overnight at Brew Lake near Whistler. One of the cars couldn't make it up the hill after the bridge however, and we had a late start into what looked like rough weather, so we went looking for alternatives. Last time I camped at Joffre on a long weekend was 2014, and it was pretty sane at the time. Pre-trail.

I don't particularly care that hundreds of people are now enjoying the majestic beauty of Joffre (because perhaps a few of them are inspired to get out for more than a selfie at a lake afterwards), I have a problem that the province did nothing to upgrade the supporting infrastructure around it and has created a recipe for inevitable catastrophe. Whether it's from grossly unprepared tourists heading up there in fashion clothes in January with a snowstorm closing in, or a multi-vehicle pileup which closes the Duffy for days, they're courting disaster and don't appear to care one whit about it.

Edited the video into the OP. Here's some gems that might be missed:

I like the pic of the Jeep Cherokee trailhawk off the road ... my kinda rig:)

well, before they built trail over the old boulder field we had among other things, helped rescue a little girl with a broken leg, assist two elderly diabetic tourists with blood sugar collapse and patched up several serious cuts from falling on the trail. Things haven't been so interesting since then but yup, the volume has escalated. Maybe they'll have to start requiring day use passes, like on so many USA state and national park trails, and restrict the numbers on busy days.

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I agree the Joffre shit show has gone too far, but now you cant turn it back, somebody's idea and possible positive intentions went bad real quick, I knew it would, likely posted several concerns in the past.. too bad. it will just get worse now. It needs some management, because just not enjoyable, except for the first timers, maybe

UNREAL.............."INSANE''.........pretty appropiate term here.

K

Does the extra distance and elevation gain due to walking along the road upgrade this from an "easy" to a "moderate" difficulty trail?

DOES ANYONE HAVE A GPS TRACK FOR THIS NEW ROADTRAIL?

When at the zoo; expect to encounter wildlife! Those were my thoughts as I drove there yesterday. There had to have been over 200 people! Once at the third lake I took an immediate right up to Tzsil. There was only one person I ran into and three others coming down Slalok.

To your point that Joffre needs some management. It has management, but woefully insufficient and quite outdated. Joffre is managed under an approved plan that was authored in 1989 then approved by BC Parks in 1990. Much has changed since then. No government, not NDP or Liberal, has revisited the plan in a meaningful way. In 1992, with the Duffey road only recently fully paved, there were some public information sessions by Parks in Whislter about local park plans. The NDP MLA office of the day sent a representative with glowing committments to both expand the Joffre park boundary, add additional parks in the area and expand "visitor services". Some of this stuff was done, some not.

BC voters love their parks but put almost every other government priority ahead of them. With a paltry budget of maybe $30 million and a volunteer fund of about $20 million, BC Parks has a ridculous mandate covering more than a thousand parks, yet the public demands for recreation in wilderness areas grows every year.

:D exactly