Eva Lake

We wanted to go up to Hermit Meadows over the long weekend to have a look at the Swiss Peaks or something. In the end the so-so forecast, time, and frankly our motivation, lead us to change our destination en route and we decided instead to hike into Eva Lake in Revelstoke Park.

We got the expected reaction from the nice folks at the park gate, at 4 o'clock, as it started to rain:

"You want to go where? But no one's been in there this year. It's still full winter conditions. I'll need to call my supervisor! You'll never find the trail!! You'll die!!!".

Okay no one actually said we'd die, I just threw that one in for Bruno's benefit, but they were pretty alarmed. We filled in endless forms, payed additional fees for the privilege of overnighting in a national park, and repeatedly assured them that we knew what we were getting into.

Then we then promptly lost the trail.



Okay there are absolutely no trail markings to Eva Lake. None. To be honest if we hadn't been there before I don't think we would have found the way. I mean it's not that serious of a place to get a bit lost but we didn't want to get completely turned around.

There were occasional sections where the snow had melted enough for us to see a hint of the gravel trail, but more often than not we would just aim in roughly the right direction and then trudge for several hundred meters on the snow. We would then pull out the altimeter, guess whether or not we were too high or too low, and then make a bee line straight up (or down) across the contour hoping to find a bit of the trail.

We got there in the end. Originally we had envisioned pitching the tent near the lake. Of course when we got there the lake was still frozen and the ground was still covered in a meter or more of snow. What to do. Dig? Or stay in the old log shelter?



No contest!



And we felt even better for our choice as the rain hammered down on the roof throughout the night. We woke to a misty damp morning that made us think of our little hut as one of Scottish bothies written about so romantically in "Mountain Days and Bothy Nights".



We followed our tracks on the return journey and arrived back at the car by early afternoon.