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Published: July 29th 2018
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4 Lakes Trail
At Alice Lake Prov Park We left the Hannegan Pass trailhead around 2:30 PM for what should have been a 3 hour drive to our hotel just north of the city of Squamish, BC, Canada. Instead it took closer to 4. We arrived at the USA – Canada border crossing at Sumas, WA, around 4:00 PM and after waiting in a long line of cars, finally crossed into Canada around 4:35. Then approaching Vancouver, we hit stop and go traffic for many miles until we got to the north side of the big city where the torrential rains started. Finally arrived somewhere around 7:00 PM. Not a relaxing trip. We finally found our hotel, strangely located in the middle of a strip mall type shopping center. Looked pretty rough from the outside but was actually very nice once inside and in our room. Needless to say, we did no more hiking that day, having dinner at the restaurant next door to the hotel. The restaurant was called That Irish Place, but it was a lot closer to Nashville than Ireland. Country music, uninspiring menu of burgers, sandwiches and traditional entrees with inattentive service. Did not go back the next night.
On Saturday we
4 Lakes Trail
The trail is through an old second growth forest of huge larches and other evergreens. woke to cloudy skies with off and on rain and a forecast of more to come all day long. Consequently we changed our plans from driving to Garibaldi Provincial Park to hike the Elfin Lakes Trail to finding something closer that we could do more easily with umbrellas. The lady at the hotel desk recommended the Alice Lake Provincial Park that was only about 10 miles up the road and had hiking trails. The Four Lakes trail there was about 4 miles long through old second growth forests and, as the name suggests, passed by four pretty mountain lakes. We drove to the park a little after 10:00 in the morning after the rain had pretty much quit leaving just clouds and the occasional light shower. As we started our hike, the rain had all but stopped so we did not have to use the umbrellas. The trail was interesting and did pass by the lakes as well as the small, fast moving Cheekye river. Supposedly, there were peek-a-boo views of Mt. Garibaldi to the northeast through the trees from time to time, but it was too cloudy when we were there to see any distant mountains. We stopped for
Cheekye River
Along the 4 Lakes Tail at Alice Lake Prov Park. lunch at the last and largest lake, Alice Lake, where there were developed picnic, swimming, and boating areas. After completing the hike, we went back to our hotel and dropped off backpacks. I had seen what appeared to be a river walk nearby on the map. This turned out to be right across the Squamish River from the Brackendale Eagles Provincial Park and this “river walk” is a prime eagle viewing area in the winter time. The park’s website states that:
“The Squamish River Valley has long been recognized as one of the most significant areas of wintering bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in North America. In the 1994 bird count, Squamish had the world record count of 3,769 eagles. The river’s riparian area provides suitable habitat for roosting, perching, and feeding. The prolific runs of chum salmon (Onc orhynchuus keta) in the Squamish, Cheakamus, and Mamquam rivers attract eagles from all over the Pacific Northwest from November to February each year.”
Of course, we saw no eagles in July, but the river was nice, and the view of the nearby mountains was impressive. The next day would be mostly a travel day that would
Fawn Lake
One of the four lakes - Alice Lake Provincial Park. take us some 250 miles and a planned 5 hour drive to Winthrop, WA, for a couple of nights.
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