Day 52 -- A hike in the BC rainforest

Friday 8/11/2006

We slept well and did not rush to get up. My plan was for us to eat breakfast as quickly as we could, move to our new site and then head down into Vancouver for a day trip. This turned out to be a bit different due to the site move. I had hoped we'd be able to just eat breakfast, switch sites and then head down to Vancouver on a day trip. The site we were moving to (#22) was clearly visible from our present site (#41) so we were able to see how far the camper over there had come with packing up. He was busy lighting a new fire for his kids, dumping gray water on the ground and being generally loud. He pulled a pop-up with his Hummer H2, just to give you some additional ideas of what we were up against.

After a while I gave up on the idea of a day trip down to Vancouver and wanted to take care of our laundry instead. Erik and I headed down into Squamish with our big pile. After we had loaded up the washers we sat around and felt generally bored. We decided we should do some grocery shopping after we had loaded the dryer. We headed to Extra Foods in Squamish. When we got back to the cleaner our clothes we ready. We rushed back up to Alice Lake since it was already 11:30AM, a 1/2 hour after we were supposed to check out. Do you think the camper in site #22 had moved? No. But he finally did. I hitched up and headed over to the dump station, which was outside of the campground, and then back inside. Like on last night's site, we were on a double site. However, unlike last night we ended up on the even numbered side. Turns out that the odd numbered sites are much better for camping trailers since you face the fire, the picnic table and the rest of our site. Oh, well. Isabella had made french toasts while we were gone that she had kept warm in the oven. We ate a very late breakfast on our new site.

Laundromat in Squamish

Erik is rolling a cart around at Extra Foods in Squamish, BC

After we had eaten I thought we should use this day to explore the rain forest that surrounded us. I had heard about hiking trails that passed through the camp ground. We packed a picnic lunch and headed out. There was a nice panel just outside the campground that indicated what trails we could choose from. I decided we needed some exercise so we started out on the Four Lakes Trail which is about 4 miles long. The kids grumbled a bit but soon enjoyed the scenery. A good portion of the trail is under the trees of the rain forest. The trees are covered with moss, as is the ground. Some trees even have secondary plants rooted on them, similar to what you can see when you hike in Guadeloupe. I had learned that this entire forest was clear cut back in the 1950s. It was quite amazing how it had recovered since. But you could clearly see that some very large trees had been taken out during that clear cutting and that none of the current trees had yet reached such sizes.

The kids walk out on a tree trunk that goes out into a lake along the trail

An example of what you might see along the Four Lakes hiking trail around Alice Lake PP, BC

Isabella and Karl pose by a fallen tree. Notice the remnant of a huge tree that was cut down in the 1950s.

A small creek flows from the rain forest out into Alice Lake

Karl is the only one who dares to take a dip into Alice Lake after the hike

After the hike we returned to our campsite and just relaxed. Despite me telling Erik, he insisted on chopping at fallen tree logs that scattered the woods around our campsite. Eventually one of our campground neighbors came by and talked with Erik. The neighbor mentioned that chopping at wood like that would mean a huge fee if a Park Ranger caught him. Erik promptly stopped. The neighbor then offered Erik and Isabella some firewood. They had collected several large "end bits" from a log house construction site. Such construction sites apparently just get rid of the end bits from the logs after they are trimmed from the house. This was great pine wood that burned very well. The kids also ran around with some other kids from the campground. One of them was named Chris. After dinner we went to bed.

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All Pictures (c) 2006 Hamnqvist, Background features the Yukon Sky.