Just Natoya

We woke up on Sunday,September 18th and decided… Hey! let’s go to Joffre’s Lake.We packed a couple of lunches, filled our water bottles and grabbed our sweaters. Running a behind we left a little late in the day around 10am. Later we  arrived in Pemberton at a just past noon. I was beyond excited to get to Joffre’s Lake because let’s be honest…everyone’s instagram pics of Joffre Lake is on fleek. After finding parking which was extremely HARD on a busy Sunday!  We headed down to the first lake. I thought to myself ….Well this is lack luster where is the real lake?

Note:  I didn’t do my research! I thought we could just walk up to this lake.

I took a look at the park map and it outlined what looks like a moderate hike to Middle Joffre Lake and Upper Joffre Lake. My partner, myself and my six-year-old son headed up the hill to the middle lake. It quickly became apparent that.

“Girl, you aint ready!!!”

The first kilometre is a series of straight aways , some steady incline and moderate decline.  But you could  feel yourself slowly getting winded.  The second Kilometre and there after, is all incline. Just up, up, up! I found myself thinking well lets just forget it. I didn’t sign up for this. But in fact I did, The map had indicated the elevation from the parking lot to the top is just over 450 meters. But somehow, my brain hadn’t processed that until my knees were burning, my lungs was filling with stale air and my leg muscles were spasming

While I’m slowly dying and contemplating why I had set out on this ill-fated adventure. My six-year-old is scampering up the mountain eating a muffin and go on about Star Wars vs. Clone Wars and something about Minecraft. It all became muffled sounds…doesn’t this boy see I’m fighting for my life! He seemed completely unscathed by the difficulty of the trail. Young bones, I tell ya! I would occasionally stop to survey how great a distance we had walked and take in the wonderful beauty of the Pemberton back country. As we continued we occasionally ran into to hikers on their way down motivating us.

“You’re doing so well! “Just a little more of a push and you’re there.”

I had given up by then and just didn’t want to look bad in front of my six-year-old who by now is talking about the different levels of Super Mario.  And just when I thought well this is it. I’m dead…I turned a corner and it was like something out of the movies. It was one of beautiful places I have ever  seen. The water casted hues of the most indescribable turquoise blue. And suddenly it was all worth it. The death hike quickly became a distant memory. We fed the Whiskey Jack’s at the top and marvelled at the fact that they would swoop down and eat right out of your hand. Amazing!

We regrouped, gained our breath and let the boy decide whether to go to the Upper Lake. I’m glad we did. This was the fun part. Crawling on your hands up rock, precariously  sliding down rocks and WOW! a waterfall! I had no idea.

I gained my second wind and was started rushing up to the Upper Lake. It was not as spectacular as the middle lake but we stopped here and had our lunch and took in the cool glacier air! I finally got my well deserved photographs.

which you can find on instagram:
@studionatoyaista
@natoyaisya

If you’re thinking of going to Joffre’s Lake, I suggest you mentally train yourself for the hike and don’t go about it blindly as I had done. But this is one of the most striking beautiful places to see in B.C. and you must go!

Thanks for reading.

~Natoya