A Beginner’s Experience Hiking Garibaldi (in the Rain)

A Western Canada Road Trip – Day 6

I was originally apprehensive about hiking Garibaldi after hiking the Chief the day before, but I am very thankful I did it. Even though it was raining, the Garibaldi hike is one of my favourites I have ever done.

The scenery is unreal. The wooded area is very green and the lake is so blue. Also, the switchbacks are relatively chill (even for a beginner like me).

The Garibaldi Hike

Like the day before, we needed tickets to hike in Garibaldi Park, so Callum and his brother’s girlfriend woke up, and booked the free tickets for the four of us.

My legs were sore, but I actually fared way better than I expected. I was shocked I could actually walk after hiking the Chief the day before.

It was raining and I knew there was no way I was going to be able to make it up to Panorama Ridge. It’s a 28.8km out-and-back trail and I was wiped out. I honestly don’t think I would have been able to do it in one day even with non-sore legs.

It’s common for people to hike up to a campsite right by Garibaldi Lake and do the hike up to Panorama ridge the following day as the Garibaldi Lake hike is 18km on its own.

We’re Doing It, We’re Going for the Ridge

We started off hiking with the four of us together, but eventually it was just Callum and I as his brother and his girlfriend went on ahead. I don’t like to hold anyone back, and am comfortable on my own so I wasn’t fussed.

Part way up the hike to the lake, two strangers stopped us and delivered a message to us from Callum’s brother/brother’s girlfriend, “we’re doing it. We’re going for the ridge!”

In this moment Callum decided he was also going to go for it, so he started running up the switchbacks to catch up with them.

Hiking Garibaldi Lake Alone

The trails themselves seemed to almost have a bit of reddish brown mulch on top of the dirt paths. The walk up the switchbacks was incredibly scenic with no shortage of trees, and lush greenery.

In this moment I decided to enjoy the scenery at my pace, so I pulled out my headphones and continued walking with my audiobook, Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist.

In a light rain, I leisurely walked up the trail towards the lake, protected by the trees. Despite the weather, I got to the lake quicker than I expected. The lake was stunning and I loved the contrast of the bright blue against the stormy clouds.

Since we had no cell phone service, we set a meeting location, and that meeting location was the lake. Once I was out of the forested area, I didn’t have the trees protecting me. It started raining harder, and there were mosquitoes so after standing at the lake for ten minutes, I decided to walk up the trail I knew they would be taking down so I could run into them.

Probably about 20 minutes in, I ran into them in this nice meadow. It was really foggy, and they said they made it up to the ridge, but couldn’t see anything. I had 0 regrets about not attempting the ridge since they saw nothing.

Lakeside at Garibaldi Lake

Once we got to the lake, we walked around it, towards the camping area and took photos along the lake.

We found a sheltered area and I ate my sandwich. It was quite cold (even in the shelter), and still rainy, but at least it didn’t rain on my sandwich.

After a bit of a rest and a visit to the campground outhouses, we started to head back down the switchbacks we came up, to the truck.

Hiking Down Garibaldi

It started pouring rain, so we picked up our pace down the trail. I could go much quicker down this path since it didn’t have any giant boulders like the chief. Even though the descent wasn’t a challenge, a couple of us did get blisters with me being one of them.

When we got back to our Airbnb (same one as the night before), we showered, made curry for dinner, and watched Jurassic Park 🦖

---

Prepare for your Trip