Elfin lakes is a popular overnight backpacking trip in the Garibaldi park region, generally accessed from the diamond head trail network in Squamish. 95% of people we saw on the trail were hiking. This was our first overnight backpacking trip of any kind, so we learned a couple lessons..
- Freeze dried food packs are the way to go. We brought a whole bunch of pre-cooked stuff and a bottle of wine. Next time we’ll leave the bottle at home and empty the wine into an easier to carry container.
- Packing in water sucks – everyone there had water filters. We carried in 10L of water for the two of us. This was a lot of extra weight and we would’ve been much better off picking up a filtration system and packing only what we needed to get ourselves to the water source.
- Compression sacks are key. Our two sleeping bags took up almost my entire pack. That could’ve been avoided with a couple good compression sacks.
- Doing tables with a full pack is actually more fun.
The descent the next morning was a good time, and we were thankful we put in the extra effort to ride up rather than hike.
Ascent
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Descent
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Our first of 4 bear encounters.
Half way there, time for a Cliff bar
There were a few steep and loose pushes.
Things got majestic as we made our way into the alpine
I stood out in the middle of the lake battling horseflies to get this.. It was worth it. That’s the ranger station you can see in the background.
One of these things is not like the other..
Looking west – this lake was glass.
Golden hour looking east
Sun starting to set
Enjoying the last rays of sun
Obviously we brought whole foods to the backcountry
This ridge had a bit of sunlight left
Cool golden hour light on the trees with the moon
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Seriously, wake up!
Majestic camping pads
There were about 30 tent pads
Mornings in the backcountry
Successful bikepackers!
The climbs on the exit were short and sweet
Kirst powering up a steeper climb
The descending begins!
Starting to leave the alpine
These birds flocked to my whistling
Whiskeyjack
Getting steezing with a full pack 🙂