Marriott Basin, British Columbia

If you love nature, and enjoy going out into wilderness areas, it helps if you live in Vancouver. Leaving Vancouver and driving the Sea-to-Sky highway to Lilooet and the Coastal Mountains of British Columbia is a breeze. There, adventure awaits. You plan to drive on from Lilooet to the Marriott Basin. You've been there before, and you've liked it. So a return is in order.




You take care, because you're embarking on a backpacking week-end, to consider what you plan to take along. As little as you can get away with. You'll want a lightweight tent, enough to accommodate one person to sleep comfortably. A sleeping bag, food, a small stove, fuel, pot, change of clothing; socks and underwear at the very least.




Whatever else 'extra' you decide to take along, a small camping towel, soap, toothbrush, mug, platter, and candle-lamp, you know you will have to carry it in on your back. The more ambitious your hike into the mountains, the more prudent you are in selecting what to take with. A small set of binoculars? An efficient, small water-filter. Up to you; how's your back for carrying a load for a prolonged period of time, over challenging terrain?




Once at your base camp, you'll set up your tent. Good thing you thought to take along a small blue tarp and ropes; they'll come in handy. The view over the lake is spectacular, and just look at that sky; looks like a storm approaching. Up, up and away, there's an eagle coasting on the wind. And what's that peering around that rock? Oh, a pica.



You'll prepare a rudimentary but satisfying meal for your first night out. A good cup of hot soup or tea finishes that off nicely. Let's hear it for freeze-dried food. Night draws a dark curtain over the landscape pretty quickly in the mountains. The atmosphere is fresh and cool and there's a brisk wind rippling the lake. It laps gently while you sleep, a good, exhausted sleep.



And in the morning you look around again, wait for the sun to come up; at least for dawn to begin to filter light through the mountains. You look out over your lake and the silence and the mountains beyond embrace you. After breakfast you begin a climb, planning a day-hike further along, secure in the certainty that no one will disturb your camp site. It will be there, intact, on your return, waiting for you.



You want to get a good close look at that glacier you remember, wonder if it'll have that same rose-coloured bloom on it. And that lake nestled high above, that blue-green glacial lake that looks ready to spill over the cleft in the mountain onto the landscape below. Oh right, it does do that; it falls over the rock in a prolonged, long and resounding spill, to fill another lake down below.



Photographs courtesy of J.S. Rosenfeld