Tony and Jo Ann's Travels: Capilano Area and Garibaldi Lake

On Saturday, Ian volunteered to take us back to the Capilano area near the dam and show us the historic Douglas Fir tree known as “Grandpa Capilano”, as well as the gorge where the fish hatchery was. We had a nice walk through the rainforest area near the Capilano suspension bridge. Grandpa Capilano is well over 300 years old, is 190 feet high and 75 feet in diameter. This is only one of the enormous trees in the woods filled with ferns and moss. We took the path along the gorge and the water that originated from the Cleveland Dam cascaded down through the gorge down to the harbor.

While I know a little bit about east coast fish, I don’t have a clue about salmon. Ian is not only a great host, but is a huge fly fisherman and was telling us all about the salmon that run in the area Evidently the Coho Salmon that were born and released from the Capilano hatchery, return to breed there. There was a very neat display showing the “fish ladders” that the fish jump to get upstream. Many ladders are man-made when the natural water course has been interrupted by something like a dam. However, these salmon return to breed and since they are farmed fish, they are harvested and processed for animal food products once their eggs have been harvested to raise the next batch of salmon.

We were a couple weeks early, in two weeks or so there will be lots of salmon in this area and those that die before reaching the destination of the ladder. Bears and eagles will be prevalent feeding on the dead or dying fish. Too bad, we would have loved to see that!

Ian, Ava and Benjamin had us over for a nice evening and Ian cooked a gourmet meal for the Kaulback and Tony and I. It was a great ending to a beautiful and enlighten day.

Sunday we took a long planned hike to Garibaldi Lake with Chris and Christina. A 13 mile hike with 3,500 feet of elevation change was to be our most challenging hike of the vacation. When Tony and Chris were planning the hike, it was likened to being as nice as the Lake Louise hike in Banff near Alberta, Canada. The hike to the tea house is one of my favorites, so I was anxious to see how it compared. By the time we made it to the trailhead it was around 10:30. It was a popular trailhead, and we were lucky to get a parking place.

We made fairly good time getting to Taylor Meadows, the ¾ mark of the trail to the lake. During the summer Taylor Meadows is evidently covered with wildflowers. A few varieties we just starting to bloom, but we were too early for the major profusion of bloom the end of July and beginning of August. We passed on the back side of Black Tusk which we had seen from Whistler the Friday before. As we made our way into the meadows the sky was starting to be overcast and we heard thunder in the background. However, the storm stayed in the distance and we made our way to the lake.

The water in the shallow areas as we first crossed over the bridge to the lake was a beautiful aqua blue. However without the sun to hit the deeper areas of the lake, the water didn’t share its aqua highlights except momentarily. As we made our way to the lake, snow capped mountains and glaciers were across the lake forming a perfect backdrop. As we stopped for lunch we had a perfect view of

Garibaldi Lake, it was worth the hike. We had a nice lunch and were entertained by the Whiskey Jacks in the area. I really didn’t believe Christina when she told me to hold my arm out for the birds, that they would come and land on them if tempted with food. Not only did they grab the food, but would perch
on your hand, your arms, or your head and steal food out of ziplock bags if you weren’t looking.

What brave little birds. I wanted to take a couple home!!

We never did get the sun to turn the whole lake aqua and eventually the clouds closed in and a small rain shower with some distance thunder paid us a visit. We eventually headed back down the trail and made our way back to Kathleen’s. Our cruise departed the following day and we had lots of packing to do.