RV Camp at Cal-Cheak Rec Site & Alpine Hikes in BC

Hi everyone. So we're finally on a road trip. A road trip where we don't know where we're going. We're just trying to stay away from the smoke in a lot of the province and and right now we're headed up towards Whistler Way. We managed to find a great spot here at the Cowcheek Recreation Site. Yeah it's quite nice. Some great spots. So in this video we're going to share our camping trip en route to wherever we're going. Winging it again. And we'll also share with you a couple of great hikes that we did in the last couple of weeks. And where we're going next week. Yeah so we hope you enjoyed this video. Off for a short walk hike. Of course we could have gone the other way. A little longer though. Even with COVID weight gain I think we'd be okay. Oh nice. The water is beautiful. The glacial water. So we walked down from our campsite which is I don't know somewhere around here. We're at 13. Down the trail. And then there's another campground they're literally building in here right now that's not finished. It's just literally been cut out of the forest. And then this is the south side which I think actually has nicest looking campsites. Better than here. And we did actually go up to the north site and there there's some okay ones there. But many of these sites look really nice. And it's further away from the highway. Which is here. So we can't hear anything really at our site. The river's so loud. And we're right just before the suspension bridge that we're on right now. With the Callahan Creek and then the Chequemes River which are joining just a little bit below us. Nice little trail. Through the forest. It's got a little bit of hills. Pleasant. Whistler Bungee is closed at the moment. Whenever I'm in the van I'm always amazed at how little water and dish soap I really need to use to do the dishes. A spray bottle mixed with water and a little bit of dish soap. And just a stream of tap water. And it's amazing how you can do all the breakfast dishes with so little use of resources. So we just left our campsite at Calcheek Recreation Site. We had a great stay there. It's really nice actually. Really enjoyed it. Yeah it was it was really nice and quiet last night. And now we're headed up north on Highway 99 towards Lillooet and we'll see how things are. What the smoke's like over there. And we'll find a place to stay. So now as promised here is footage of a couple of the hikes that we did in the last couple of weeks. The first one is to the Helm Lake area of Garibaldi Provincial Park. And the second one is also in Garibaldi Provincial Park where Gordon did that solo. I went up to Winchmont Lake which is a beautiful alpine lake. Hike up is just steep. It's the best way to put it. But it was a very great day. Wonderful day. Just loved it. This is the only real steep bit. Makes 20-25 minutes up to Hell Meadows and then it smooths out. And the bridge we just came across years ago. I'm talking maybe 20 years ago. There used to be a cable car that you needed to pull yourself across. And that used to be fun especially if you're by yourself. That was pretty much all you could do with your upper body strength to get the cable car all the way up on either side. And occasionally someone would lock it out and then you'd have to wait however many hours it might take for somebody else to be coming along the trail from the other side. So bridge makes it easier but yeah maybe not as much fun. Everything looked new this time because they have the new day pass system now with BC Parks. And they actually have a checkpoint where there is a staff member there checking your passes. So if you're coming up here make sure you get your pass online before you leave. We did ours this morning but you can actually pick them up 24 hours ahead of time. So you just print them out. Uphill. This is our first stop on the hike really. We stopped just for maybe a minute just before the steep section and now we're at the first viewpoint of the creek. Very pretty. We were commenting on the way up it's mid-July but everything looks like it's mid-August. I think after our significant heat wave about a month ago it seems like everything's about one month ahead of time. So it's sort of like mid-August trail conditions at least when we've been up here before at that time. Still very nice, very pretty. There's the campground. One, two, three, maybe four tents. Not bad. Not too busy at all. Black Tusk and Petrum up there. Nice. We were just talking to someone coming out they said there's lots of mosquitoes still. A sad thing to know. But it's windy. Maybe I'll avoid them. Time for sun shirts. Anyway, I think what they really mean to say is food cache. Unless it's where they keep bears until they need them. Got some with metal shelving containers. I can't think of the name of it right now. And then some that are hung right up here. That's about 20 feet up so not too many bears will reach that. Two washrooms and some sort of a supply shed. Shirt on to avoid the mosquitoes. Oh I think we have a mosquito right on the camera lens. It's not a mosquito it's a fly. There's a close-up animal shot. I'll be curious to see whether it's in focus. One of my favorite parts on the trail. We come out. This amazing meadow view. Great view of Black Tusk. Lots of snow up there still. It's gorgeous. The hills are alive. Mickey was just saying this is her favorite spot. Beautiful flowers. Just gorgeous. Onward. We were here once and there was a bear just over, I don't know, maybe halfway down the meadow. And we saw the bear and the bear saw us. And we spent the rest of the day apart which was good. We're actually up right near Helm Lake in Garibaldi Park. And excuse us if the wind's kind of loud. We've actually moved a little ways away from the lake hoping that the wind won't be quite so loud. Most of Helm Lake is gone at this time of year which is probably a little earlier than normal. But not unexpected. It's lucky we didn't bring the pack raft. Anyway it was a great trip up. It's about 11 kilometers from Moreau Park. Not very busy. The campground, maybe what there were four tents something like that. And it probably holds a dozen. So it's just gorgeous. Nice day. Glad we got out. So I hope you enjoyed hiking along on this trip with us. Just one of our favorite places to actually go on a pretty consistent basis. I don't think we've ever been up here and not enjoyed the trip even if it was snowing. Here's just the view from where we're sitting right now. All right so it's I think 3 30. Time for us to turn around and head back down that way. And we're going to see if we can go to Whistler and have dinner. Got a outdoor patio. Yay. So that's Whistler Mountain over there. And we're parked way down in that valley. All right we're done. Parking lot ahead of us. Pretty tired. It was a good day. I think we did about, when I watched, GPS said I think 22 kilometers and about 1300 meters cumulative elevation. Because there were some areas where we went up and down. I think both might be a little less than that. But not by much. Good day. All right vegan wings to start our appetizer. Mickey's happy. So today I'm heading back to Garibaldi Park, but this time to Wedgemont Lake. The Wedgemont Lake trail actually doesn't require a day pass. It's a fairly steep trip. Elevation gain is just under 4 000 feet and it's about seven or eight kilometers to get up to the noise from the construction. I'm hoping it's not in the park. Still very steep, but I think we're at the first sort of plateau up here. Very dry too with the soil. Okay look at that up way over there. kind of on top of that ridge. Last little section was really steep. I'm at about the four and third k mark. But it's going well. All right what a view. I need to go basically right up there. So not too much farther. That's Mount Rethel over there. Mickey and I have been up to the summit. It was six hours up three hours down. So you get an idea how steep that was. Fun day though. That was some time ago though. All right onward. Last couple hundred meters. I don't think you'll be able to see with this camera but there's people just going up that slope right there which is where I go. Lake's just on the other side. Sometimes when you're going up you forget to look behind you. Just see the tip of Green Lake there. Looks like it might get a last section up just over that crest and then down to the lake. There's Mount Cook up there. We've also done that as a day trip. Very long because you have to come up here and then work your way back there and then up the ridge to Slough. Wedgmont's right ahead of us and I think that's the Wedgmont Glacier. Wedgmont Lake and unfortunately it's not sunny. You can see the nice green and you can imagine what it would look like with sunshine on it. Gorgeous nevertheless even on a cloudy day. Glacier over there. I can remember when I first came up here the glacier went right down to the water. Some emergency supplies in those containers. A couple of bunks. Small loft upstairs. I think it's really only intended for people that are in an emergency situation just need some place out of the wind or snow. Everybody else is camping. Pepper. Nice. Refreshing. Maybe it's going to clear up. Don't mind walking downhill for a change. It's just I'm going to have to climb this back up when I'm done. Nice campsites right on the lake. One's up by the hut and then there's ones down by the lake. One here. Another one right over there. Another one over there. What a gorgeous place to camp. All right time to hit the water or at least for a paddle. Goodest places I need to launch. Sorry friend. Time to head back. Getting late. Beautiful trip. Nice. Still gorgeous up here. Now it gets sunny. So we just stopped by Whistler Creek site to grab some groceries on the way up north and we just wanted to talk a little bit about what we're going to be doing next week. Yeah I mean effectively what we're doing is we're going over to Vancouver Island where we're heading over largely because it's still one of the areas where it's hopefully still going to be smoke-free where no smoke here from the forest fires and we're taking the long route. We'll start in Victoria really and drive right up to the northern tip of the island. So looking forward to that. Yeah so it's going to be the Vancouver Island tour so stay tuned for the videos for that in the next few weeks and in the meantime we hope you enjoyed this video and if you did please be sure to give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel if you haven't done so already and we will see you next time. See you next time.