Having had some good fortune on the walking trails yesterday, we decided to try our luck and attempted a visit to the Joffre Lakes Provincial Park; a network of lakes connected by a progressively difficult hiking path promising spectacular views of the glacial mountainscape. The trail would normally be well into thawing itself out by this time of the year, but a now familiar scene soon presented itself as we made our way into the forest…

It was a 30 minute drive out of Whistler Village, and with the weather being good I was quietly optimistic about getting some milage under our feet up at the park. That soon turned to wishful thinking as we travelled up the Cayoosh Pass; with a gain in altitude of 700m and the temperature dropping into low single figures, snow was starting to appear at the sides of the road - it looked like we may be in for a repeat performance of yesterday.

Sure enough, after leaving the car behind and setting off from the trailhead, the gravel rapidly dissappeared under a blanket of old, thick snow and before we realised it we were walking on nearly six-feet of the stuff. We were able to scramble our way to Lower Joffre lake, with but with no sign of the path beyond that point we had no choice but to give up and go.

Reducing our altitude, the weather was warm and gorgeous and at a loss for what to do next, we stopped to regroup at the One Mile Lake near Pembeton Village. Scoffing our sizable packed lunch and watching the local youth rowing team practicing hard, we decided to walk the perimiter boardwalk to kill some time; with the ubiquitous mountainous scenery in the background, flowering lilies in the water and the odd bright-orange hummingbird hovering over head, it turned out to be far more than just a timewaster and the highlight of the day.