Aug 14, 2013
Oddly, the night BEFORE hiking bug lake a second time, I was bitten by mosquitos at home and still have huge bites on me. On the trail, the bugs weren’t bad this time, but I was stung by a bee twice!
This hike was a grudge match, 2 of us had gone up before and not made it to the top. Eric and I went prepared this time with Frank (a hearty German visitor that had cycled much of the Elaho and Squamish backroads).
This time, instead of walking an extra 4km on each end due to a slide blocking the road (the tree however was cleared,..) we took bikes and cut that time way down as we rang bells and yelled to scare off any bears we might overtake.
The hike itself was harder this time (for me), and I don’t know why. I found myself out of breath early but I guess it is the 2nd highest gradient listed in 103 hikes so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. Unfortunately there was high cloud and later rain, so like the first time, it was a bit of a dark hike and slippery on the way down.
So, is a lake with such an un-appealing name worth doing? I’d say no, not if you just go to the lake anyways. Way too much drama to get there, and minimal payoff save for a few wide views and a mediocre lake. However,… maybe what we did would be comparable to entering the shipping entrance of the Taj Mahal. Apparently the famous mountaineer John Clarke considered this area his favourite when accessed from the other side,… I get the feeling that like many 103 hikes,.. we just got to the door but the payoff was another 5km away.
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