My husband really got me into hiking a few years ago as we were starting to try and get in better shape for our wedding. Every week was a different adventure, a different sense of accomplishment and a different mountain. We’ve done many easy hikes and a few much tougher ones. Ones that made me question why in the world do I do this to myself, but then I’m reminded at the top why I do it.
When we decided to go to Whistler for our second wedding anniversary, we wanted to take in a few hikes in the area. The first one that jumped to my mind was the Joffre Lake hike, as it’s been on my hiking bucket list for the past few years. It was listed as a “medium” skill level hike which was good for us as we had our two dogs with us. So we set off early one morning and arrived at the parking lot just as the sun was making its way up and over the mountain top.
Now this hike is normally VERY busy in the summer months, but because we went in October and on a Tuesday, it was actually quite quiet. It was a tough hike, much tougher than I anticipated. It was straight up hill for a long portion of the trail. I had to stop at one point, getting light headed and we contemplated turning back. But I wanted to keep going, to see a spot that I’d only seen in photos but fell in love with.
Well, it was totally worth it! The view at the middle lake was STUNNING beyond words. We stopped and the dogs jumped in the lake to cool off and then we kept going up to the upper lake which was just as amazing. It was a hard hike and I really hurt the next day. But man, oh man! Was it ever worth every step it took to get up there!
