A wet overnighter at Joffre lakes

You don’t give up a booking on Joffre lakes because of rain, do you? 😄 Here’s some info about the campground, more rain-camping insights and a sketchy 2-or-maybe-3-lakes viewpoint hike story.

Trail info

• Location: Joffre lakes trail, Joffre Lakes Provincial Park, BC, Canada
• Elevation of the Upper Joffre lake camp: ~1570m
• Why I wanted to go there: well, Joffre lakes with their vivid turquoise water are a popular hiking destination for a reason. Camping there was on my bucket list for a long time.
• Was it my first time on the trail: no.
• Would I recommend this trail: sure worth visiting at least once - the lakes are gorgeous. It’s very crowded though. So camping there provides an opportunity to experience the area during the less crowded hours.
• When I went: July 6-7, 2021, with my partner.
• Trail length (roundtrip): ~7.7 km (AllTrails) 
• Trail elevation gain: ~500m (AllTrails).
• Trail quality: pretty well maintained until the upper lake, although not as broad and even as Garibaldi lake trail, for example. The last km between the first upper lake viewpoint and the campground - pretty annoying, especially with an overnight pack - many boulders, rocks & roots.
• Cellular coverage: no service at all in the park. Highly recommend having a satellite communication device like Zoleo or similar, in case of emergency or to let your family know you're fine.
• My ascent time (with overnight backpack): my parents came for a day hike with us, so we moved at their pace. I would say 2 hours of net moving time would be a reasonable approximation for averagely fit hiker.
• My descent time: 2.3 hours with stops for snack and photos.
• Water sources: couple small waterfalls between the first and the second lakes, then plenty afterwards - streams, lake.

The trail to the campground is significantly less groomed than the trail until the upper lake. You can’t really move at a fast pace there while carrying the overnight pack. Poles are highly recommended. We laughed at the sign saying campground is 1 km and 0.5 hour away, but it turned out to be pretty accurate.

Then, the tent spots. They are pretty small, although I did see a couple that has accommodated 2 tents side by side. Also ours wasn’t so even - the middle was kinda sagging, so the rain water got under the tent despite my footprint being fully covered by the tent. I didn’t see any wood tent pads there either.

Also note that not all of them have trees around - we did need the trees to hang the tarp.

The toilet is a small hike away from the campground - the path is filled with boulders, and you need to cross a stream - which is quite inconvenient. The toilet itself is filthy - although yeah, the only clean “backcountry” toilets I’ve seen were at lake O’Hara campground and they were cleaned daily. But this one was nearly un-sit-able 😕 That being said, I did use it and do encourage everyone to do the same instead of going to the bush. There aren’t much bushes there anyway, and most of them are between the tent pads, so will create odor in the campground. Aaand if you do go in some bush, please remember to bring a doggy bag or something to pack out the toilet paper, or bury it thoroughly in the ground, so it doesn’t get washed out with the next rain.

For the amenities - there are both hangers for food bags and a bear locker, so pretty convenient. Plenty of drinking water in the lake. No gray water pit - I think the best is to dispose the gray water from washing the dishes and brushing teeth somewhere in the rocks near the food cache area - away from tent pads and water sources. 

There’s no shelter or any picnic tables either, so come prepared if there’s rain in the forecast.

The rain

We knew it’s going to rain, but decided to go anyway, as you can guess how hard it would be to book another date at Joffre lakes 🙄 Also wanted to take my parents there while they’re visiting Canada.

This time I did a better job than on Berg lake in not putting my backpack in a puddle when taking it off, so the stuff inside was dry.

I brought the rain tarp I bought before the trip to the Berg lake trail - the simplest blue poly, 167 x 221 cm in size (I got the 6' x 8' from Home Depot, a link to similar in MEC), and 4 pieces of 5-meter cord.

My plan was to hang it over the tent so the rain won’t get inside when getting in and out of the tent, but also cover some area near the tent where we can cook. 

While setting the camp we quickly realized the tarp was actually too small for all of this, so we moved it a bit forward, and the tent - a bit backwards, leaving the tent exposed to the rain.

It ended up raining on and off all the time we spent there, so the tarp was a really good decision. I’ve yet to learn how to hang it properly - the water was gathering in the middle of the tarp and we had a spilling bucket effect every few minutes. At this point I gave up on readjusting the tarp, as I had planned to do a hike to the glacier viewpoint that day.

My main conclusion is that this tarp size is really small for what I would want it to accomplish. It was barely sufficient to cover me, Stephan and our cooking stuff and the rain was still getting inside from the side. If I was solo it was probably sufficient to use as a cooking shelter.

What I would want is a tarp that will also cover the tent. Now, I need to explain why - the tent should be waterproof and hanging the tarp above it isn’t really necessary to keep you dry inside. While the tent is assembled, and as long as you don’t get in and out too much and bring moisture inside, you’re good.

The problem arises if you want to disassemble the tent and then pitch it again in another camp for the next night. If it’s raining while you need to take it down, it obviously won’t dry. When packing, it’s virtually impossible for the inside to remain dry. At least, for my Nemo Dragonfly - as I cannot fold the inner part without removing the poles. That means that next time I pitch it, there will be moisture inside, which is a big no no with my down sleeping bag 😬.

It doesn’t matter much for the overnighters, as I said in my other blog post, Trip to Berg lake - but if I was to head to a longer backpacking trip, and wouldn’t have much room for changing the dates? For example, heading to US once the pandemic is finally over. So that’s why I’m trying to find solutions.

Another thing that happened during that night is - we found the tent floor was damp inside. Provided it’s not moisture we brought with us inside, that means the tent bottom fabric isn’t fully waterproof 😲

When I was packing the tent, I noticed the footprint was wet, too, so there's a chance this moisture was indeed propagating from outside.

As I have mentioned, our tent spot was a bit bowl-shaped, and likely rain water was flowing under the tent and accumulating there. So my theory is that the tent floor got eventually soaked and let the water in. Very weird, it’s the first time it happens to me, and I spent about 5 rainy nights in this tent out of total around 15 nights to date.

So, I will be probably looking into getting a larger tarp, which needs to be made of a lighter material - since the blue poly is pretty bulky and heavy, which is fine for the size I have, but bigger poly tarp wouldn’t be suitable for a backpacking trip.

The 2 lakes viewpoint

We decided to give it a go anyway. The terrain was pretty steep, but doable. Lots of loose rock. With occasional rain and wind gusts it wasn’t a pleasant experience. We ended up gaining about 320m elevation before stopping and deciding it would be smart to turn back - the trail wasn’t getting better, the weather - too, and it started to get darker. We didn’t want to hike this sketchy trail in the dark, despite having a lamp - it was hard enough to find the trail in the daylight and I used AllTrails many times to make sure we’re on track.

Just a note about sticking to the trail - it is really important not only for the fragile alpine vegetation, but for one’s safety (as I heard not once from SAR members commenting in hiking Facebook groups...). Would highly discourage anyone from going off trail, especially in this steep terrain where you can easily get yourself in a sketchy situation with all the cliffs around. Be safe folks.

We have managed to get the view on the 2 lakes instead of 3, which I am happy with, although it really left me craving to reach the 3-lakes viewpoint 😆 Now I have to come back!

Came here in 2023 to warn you: part of this trail to the 2/3 lakes viewpoint lays under a glacier. I currently can't say exactly which part because it was 2 years ago and I haven't come back to reach this viewpoint again. Parts of glacier regularly crack off and fall down - putting you at risk when you're wandering up there. We heard this happening while visiting there. Keep this in mind and use your best judgement. Also the rumor has it to get to the 3 lakes viewpoint you have to walk on the glacier, which is a big no-no and very dangerous without proper equipment and training. So please - no instagram photo is worth it.

I thought about coming back there in the morning, but the weather was even worse, with fog covering everything, so we ate breakfast and packed.

Couldn't pass by the opportunity to shoot some more pics of the lakes before we leave!