[simage=3434,200,n,left,]An August weekend with a great weather forecast – we wondered where to go backpacking that would potentially not be too busy. We picked Rainbow Lake – an “outstanding” hike in our hiking bible (Don’t Waste Your Time in the BC Coast Mountains).
We made a lazy start and packed on Saturday morning. We stopped at Galileo in Britannia Beach for coffee on the way and started hiking at lunchtime. The trail is within the Whistler Resort Municipality – the trailhead could be better signed! The trail eventually climbs through pleasant forest – some of the problems with collapsed old raised wooden platforms over wet areas are being addressed by a major trail improvements and re-routing of the trail. Rainbow lake is easily attainable in a few hours and is a very nice alpine lake. The views back to Mount Wedge are superb.
The lake is the water supply for whistler and no camping is allowed in the watershed. We climbed out of the watershed to the west, the trail passing a very good patch of wild blueberries. The watershed is the point where day hikers turn around, but we dropped down about 1km to Hanging Lake where there is a campground. We were surprised to have the entire place to ourselves and chose a good site – there are no marked tent pads so it is a natural setting. Unfortunately, the pit toilet is almost completely destroyed following a tree fall. It is just about useable. One other couple arrived and camped far away and we didn’t see them for the evening.
The pit toilet should really be fixed to protect the area from people doing their business elsewhere. However, given how quiet it was this is a really great option for the summer weekends. Some people apparently also camp up the river above the Rainbow Lake, on the south west slope of Rainbow Mountain. However, this is actually within the Rainbow Lake watershed. The area would make a good long weekend destination as a climb up Rainbow Mountain looks like an easy scramble and would provide fantastic views.
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