We awoke to another drizzly departure in order to continue our journey west. Today we would be heading to Squamish, a town just north of Vancouver. The start of our trip led us passed the town of Lillooet, which we hadn't seen yesterday. There wasn't much to see - the town consisted of just a few buildings, and a road bridge that took us across the Fraser River (which we'd followed north the day before) and into the Coast Mountain Range which we would cross to reach the Pacific.
We had a few stops on the way to view the lakes, rivers, and mountains that lined the route. It was a very scenic and beautiful drive. Our main stop was at the Joffre Lakes. These are a set of three lakes which can be reached just off the highway, which were recommended to us by the guide on the Athabasca Glacier after we told her about our planned route.
Reaching the first lake was simple enough, a short walk from the car park. As with all the lakes we've seen in Canada, it was a stunning colour. This time, a turquoise blue. Unfortunately we'd brought the poor weather with us this time and although it wasn't raining, the skies were overcast and the air misty which meant we couldn't yet fully appreciate the surroundings.
We continued our trek to the middle lake, which was only a couple of miles but led us along the most rugged trails we'd encountered so far. Much of the path consisted of carefully hopping along boulders, and over slippery unearthed tree roots. At one point, we were scrambling on all fours up an steep rock slide. We were over halfway up before we realised we had actually deviated from the trail at this point, but we stubbornly continued on and rejoined the trail further up.
The middle lake was was much like the first, but bigger and - now that the weather had begun to clear - had a much better view of the surroundings, including the three nearby glaciers that sat above the third and final of the lakes, these glaciers actually formed the three Joffre Lakes on their retreat up the valley many millennia ago. After another steep climb, we reached the final lake and were rewarded with a great view. We stopped for a quick something to eat, and after taking in the sights, began our descent.
On arriving back at the middle lake, we became aware of a squeaking sounds coming from the piles of rocks along the hillside. After some careful scanning, we eventually spotted the source: small rodents called 'Picas'. We'd read about these creatures at Myra Canyon, but left disappointed without managing to see them. Their chirp sounds were exactly like a squeaky toy noise, and they just happily laid there on the rocks relaying these to each other.
Climbing down the slippery trial seemed much more treacherous, but amazingly neither of us managed to fall over. Unfortunately the same couldn't be said for another walker who slipped and landed bum first on a (correctly aligned) wedge-shaped rock.
On reaching the bottom, we continued west and arrived at large town of Whistler in the early evening. The town was built in an attempt to host the Winter Olympics in the 60s (and did, in 2010). It is mainly a ski resort, but also a general hub for tourists. We had a quick look around the shops, and went to a nearby restaurant for some food.
By the time we were leaving Whistler, it was already dark. This was unfortunate since the remainder of our journey took us down part of the Sea to Sky Highway - a road known for its scenery. We would be driving back up part of this road, and down the rest of the road tomorrow so weren't too upset.
We arrived at our overnight campgrounds quite late and, after a quick shower, settled down for a night.
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