Recently I鈥檝e had conversations in Squamish about how 鈥渢he secret is out鈥� and that 鈥淪quamish is getting crowded now,鈥� but in my mind Squamish is still very much a quiet town. If you need solitude, you simply need to make a little effort.
Sure, it seems that the popular, easily accessible areas are getting busier, but places like that will always be busy because the effort needed to visit them is low. There is good reason the multitudes flock to Squamish: It鈥檚 staggeringly beautiful here and most new visitors to the area are, of course, going to see the popular sights first.聽
So, am I surprised that on a sunny weekend in Squamish there are crowds on the summits of the Stawamus Chief, at Elfin Lakes or Garibaldi Lake in Garibaldi Park? No, why would I be? These places are well known and documented in guides, both printed and online, and have well signed and obvious trails that lead to them.
Yet, on a clear and sunny weekend when most campgrounds around Squamish were at capacity, I drove 25 minutes from downtown Squamish, hiked for less than three hours and had an entire lake and set of mountains all to myself. All that was required was to expend the effort to find it.
I had heard rumours about the British Columbia Mountaineering Club looking to build a cabin at a lake near Squamish called Watersprite Lake. Whether these rumours are true or not, the mention of this lake alone piqued my interest.聽
I opened up Google Earth and found the coordinates for the lake, then determined the closest road. From my research I found that the roads in the area had actually recently been upgraded as part of the new Skookum Creek Dam and that work had already begun on a well flagged trail to Watersprite Lake. I even found GPS data for this trail which was a pleasant surprise.
My wife and I packed our camping gear and headed out at around noon on a Saturday. The sun was out and the streets in Squamish were bustling with people. The roads were at close to capacity with traffic, but as we turned onto the Mamquam River Forest Service Road, we left it all behind. Traffic and parked cars began to dwindle and by the time we were on the roads up to the Watersprite Lake trailhead, we were alone.聽
We shouldered our packs and headed out on the trail, which starts out as an old, deactivated road. Before long, we were on the flagged trail, which is still fairly new. The footbed of the trail is still loose, and hikers need to watch carefully for flagging tape through some of the meadows. In time, with more traffic, this trail will become as easy to follow as the Elfin Lakes trail.
We reached a steep headwall that needed to be hiked up, but the view of a clearing above and the knowledge that it was likely the lake ahead spurred us on. We crested a rise in the trail and there it was, Watersprite Lake and, beyond, the impressive peak known as Watersprite Tower.聽
I couldn鈥檛 believe we were alone here. Less than four hours from our home in Squamish we had made it to a completely new location of which I鈥檇 previously been unaware. The views were simply stunning. Watersprite Lake itself is fairly small but interesting, with a series of treed islands similar to the 鈥淏attleship Islands鈥� at Garibaldi Lake. The water is a beautifully deep turquoise, evidently from glaciers nearby that must be melting into it. We had planned to swim in it the following day to see just how cold it might be, but when we awoke to clouds above and cooler temperatures the following morning, we delayed that adventure until a future trip.
There appears to be a few spots to camp at the far end of the lake near some meadows below Watersprite Tower, but as a photographer, I wanted to stay on the west side of the lake, near the treed islands, to shoot the alpenglow as it worked its way up the rock faces around me.聽
We found a little nook on a rocky peninsula jutting out into the lake and enough space to just fit our small, two-person tent. From evidence left around, I could tell others had camped here in the past, but likely not many.
We settled in and as the sun set, the winds died down, making the lake as reflective as a mirror. The temperature was comfortable for us so we stayed up watching the Milky Way overhead until well after midnight.聽
As is usually the case on my camping trips, I got hardly any sleep. Not due to having an uncomfortable sleeping bag but because I stay up late watching the stars and then set my alarm to get up early before the sunrise. A big part of being out in the wild for me is spending time just looking at it. I could sit in a single location for hours, watching the scene changing as the light wanes. My focus also varies, sometimes on the environment close to me, sometimes the peaks and valleys out on the horizon.聽
We got up at sunrise time but, peculiarly, the sun never seemed to rise. It rose up exactly behind Watersprite Tower so that its rays were blocked from reaching our campsite until much later in the morning. We could see clouds rolling in around us.聽
We decided to climb up to the summit of the nearby Martin Peak.聽I could see it on my GPS but didn鈥檛 have information about a route to the top, and there certainly weren鈥檛 any trails, but I knew that we could work our way up by simply reading the changes in the terrain with our eyes.
After a few hours of navigating, we stood on the summit and looked out towards Squamish and the distinctive summit of Mount Garibaldi. We were also in a position to look down on Watersprite Lake and our small tent, always a novel experience.聽From this vantage point we could see dark cloudbanks rolling in all around us and the distinctive chill in the air that one begins to feel in the months before the first snow flies. We descended, broke camp and headed out. In short order we reached our vehicle and in what seemed like no time at all, we were back home in Squamish.聽
Watersprite Lake is sure to become a popular destination now. It has been known by mountaineers, but previously, accessing it required more effort. Now, with a better road and a good trail, its popularity will increase due to the beauty of the area.
But even if it becomes busy, finding a space for solitude in Squamish will always be easy. Look at any topographic map of Squamish and you will see that it is surrounded by many little lakes and valleys. Some have trails to them, and some do not. Learn to use a compass, map and GPS and you gain the freedom of our hills, the freedom to explore without a trail. The wild rewards our efforts with solitude, silence and wonders of the natural world.
