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Trip Report: Callaghan Lake / Cirque Lake
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Author:  timvan [ October 19th, 2012, 2:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Trip Report: Callaghan Lake / Cirque Lake

Thanksgiving 2012.
BC’s summer weather was holding strong…sunny every day!
For Thanksgiving long weekend, we planned a trip to Callaghan Lake Provincial Park, NW of Whistler.

The entire family consisted of 5 adults and 4 boys aged 3, 2, 1, & 0 which was awesome!

We drove up the bumpy logging road (still 2wd accessible) to the parking lot with pit toilet. There is no longer any camping allowed at the lakeshore near the parking lot, but there are a few metal fire rings to allow camping in the parking lot itself. We set out in the crystal clear water in the mid-day sun. We paddled ~1hr around the shore (the long way, CCW) to the other end of the lake to a campsite that had a well-established rock fire ring. We had too much stuff/people in the canoe to safely/comfortably make it in one trip, so we ditched some of the load on shore and came back later to get it. P & family had an inflatable dinghy in tow to carry some of their stuff.

Crystal clear waters:
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Alpenglow across the lake on the Black Tusk, something P and I hiked up a couple years ago.
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We brought lots of blankets and firewood to keep warm, and cooked a turkey/potatoes/chili/veggie Thanksgiving dinner, complete with a fine Pinot Noir. It was sunny & warm during the day and cold and clear at night with lots of stars.

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Early one morning, I saw a bear in the forest behind camp, but he just kept walking by. (The evening before, P had canoed all of our food/cooking items to another part of the lake to eliminate attractants.)

Saturday was the 3-yr-old’s fourth birthday, so we even ‘baked’ a cake complete with icing and candles! (I'm sure I heard Betty Crocker roll in her grave, but nobody was complaining.)

Sunday some of us canoed to the main inlet creek and hiked up to Cirque Lake, about 1000ft elevation gain into the alpine. It was a tough hike with 2 little kids, but they did amazingly well on the way up. The views back down over Callaghan were fantastic and Cirque Lake was beautiful. We played on a snow patch, and headed down. The kids got tired and sleepy so we carried them down. Boulder-field hopping while holding a kid is not easy! They didn’t actually sleep much and didnt get a lot of rest. That night around the fire they were draped over the log-bench like a couple of wet noodles. Needless to say, they slept well that night!

Climbing high above Callaghan Lake:
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Cirque Lake:
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The next morning after breakfast we packed up and headed out, favouring several quick ferry trips back to the car. We made it back to Vancouver in time for a 'real' turkey dinner with the extended family, but this one was a bit more special

Author:  Canoeheadted [ October 19th, 2012, 4:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Trip Report: Callaghan Lake / Cirque Lake

Awesome!
Thanks for the tour.

Author:  Ralph [ October 19th, 2012, 5:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Trip Report: Callaghan Lake / Cirque Lake

Beautiful pictures and a fine report.
Thanks,
Ralph

Author:  Stencil [ October 19th, 2012, 6:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Trip Report: Callaghan Lake / Cirque Lake

Excellent. Good to see kids on trip reports.
Thanks
S

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