3. Lake of the Hanging Glacier

Dates: August 29-30, 2014

Additional Challenges Met:
2/5 places we've never been to before
3/5 involving water/snow

We have had this hike on our wish list for 6 years now, so we were thrilled to finally go! Well, "thrilled" might not describe Will's initial reaction-he had become pretty comfy at home again and had a strong argument for "we have just spent most of our summer in a tent so I don't see why we have to go this weekend". Plus, he has been helping a friend build a fence in very rocky ground and had another building project to work on this next week, so I can understand the desire to rest. However, we were both really happy that I coerced him into going in the end!

Since our decision was very last minute, we packed faster than we ever have before, leaving me wondering if we forgot anything. Somehow, magically, we didn't! We were on the road early afternoon with hopes of getting to the trailhead with time to hike into the lake and camp. The drive to the trailhead should have been about 3 hours from our place, but we missed a turn and ended up on another back road paralleling the one we needed to be on. Once we got turned around and over to the right road (driving along the bumpy road, complete with a couple fair sized washouts), it was getting fairly late. It was raining as we ate dinner, so we decided to camp at the trailhead and start up in the morning. After breakfast and a visit with another group who had come in really late the night before, we set out on the trail. Janice Strong's (guide book we use for lots of our hikes) description of the trail was great. The trail involved a number of bridges that were all in good condition and a bunch of switchbacks. After climbing up for 8 km, we reached the stunning lake. Words cannot do this place justice. Looking at the pictures, they barely do either. After having lunch by the waters edge, we decided to hike along the rocky side of the lake, adding another 2.5 km to the hike out. Although the rock scramble was tough, the rewarding view at the end was totally worth it. The experience of being surrounded by those huge glaciers, thinking about what is happening to them and how they have changed, the changing colours of the water and sky, the sounds of the rushing waterfalls and the few mini avalanches we witnessed... there was so much to take in. It was so difficult to leave this place. On our way out, we found an awesome spot to set up camp that we have vowed to return to someday. As we hiked down, we realized we had just put in a 21 km hiking day, which explained our achy legs! The day's weather was really funny, moving from sunny to windy to rainy to hail and back quite quickly. Luckily, we were dressed for it and could enjoy it despite the changing weather.