The Black Tusk in a day

My boyfriend, two of our friends and I woke up at the crack of dawn.... correction, before the crack of dawn last Sunday to accomplish something that was referred to as "crazy" by many people. We decided to hike the Black Tusk, a popular and challenging BC hike, in one day. This grueling trek is normally completed in two days, with the first day being devoted to climbing the steep switchbacks to Garibaldi Lake and camping overnight. And then the next day covering the way up Taylor Meadows to summit the Black Tusk itself. Here is my personal experience of this adventure:

When the alarm clock went off at 4:04 am that morning I couldn't help but let out a pathetic little groan of pain. I had felt like I had just fallen asleep. In fact, I had, a mere 3 or 4 hours ago. I cleaned myself up, shoved my contacts into my blood-shot eyes, looked at myself in the mirror and thought, "Oh shit, why did I suggest this trip?"

My boyfriend Matt and our friend Justin had slept over to keep the morning commuting to a minimum. We were just waiting for our buddy (and driver) Chris to meet up with us. As usual he was dead on time: 4:45 am. We piled into Chris's car with our day packs and headed on the road, but not without a stop for a strong cup of coffee first!

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed all ready to go!

We arrived at our destination at just a little past 7:00 am. By the time we were done stretching and loading ourselves up with our day packs, it was about 7:15 am. So off we went!

Just a little back sweat, no biggie!

The hard stuff started as soon as we were en route. No sugar-coating for the Garibaldi trail, just straight up steep switchbacks right off the bat! As I waited and waited for my heart rate and breathing to adjust to my hiking pace, I gave up on catching up with Chris and Justin who seemed to have effortlessly left me and Matt in the dust. "Are you okay?" Matt asked when the only sound he could hear was my panting breath (even though I was trying to disguise it since after all, I'm the personal trainer, so I shouldn't be out of breath on a little hike!) "I'm fine! Just need my breathing to regulate, that's all," I replied between deep sighs.

We finally caught up to Chris and Justin at the 6 km mark which also happened to be a way finding junction. Garibaldi Lake in one direction, Black Tusk hike in the other. We had a quick bite of our trail mix and proceeded onward.

This COULD be a cross-stitch pattern.

Matt and Justin resting their legs

We made it up to Taylor Meadows and stopped for a quick pee break and to rest our already aching muscles. At this point we had hiked about 9 km already. From here the view changed! Instead of a dusty trail surrounded by tall, skinny trees, we found ourselves on an open landscape that looked like something Bob Ross would have been inspired to paint! Taylor Meadows! What a beautiful site! Wild flowers to our left and right, creeks with glacier fresh, crystal clear water, and the sound of bees busily buzzing in the foliage.

The view ahead was of what we were about to conquer. It didn't seem so bad from the nice and fairly flat ground we were walking on. Little did we know that our physical and mental strength was about to get tested!

Perfect overcast weather for our hike!

The meadows were a bit deceiving, and by a bit, I mean I was just as out of breath, if not more so because I was already exhausted, as I was when hiking up the switchbacks! The last bit of this portion of the hike had me really testing my will power. There was a constant dialogue in my head. It went a little something like this:

"Why the HELL did you ever suggest doing this two day hike in a day? Are you crazy?"

"MY LEGS HURT!"

"I'm so tired... I might die. On the bright side... HELLO buns! I'm feelin' the burn, alright!"

"Okay, now is the time you find that zen, that acceptance, that yoga shit you've been working on! Get through this, you know you can. There are people out there without limbs who would love to experience what you're bitching about right now! Suck it up Princess, you have no other choice but to finish the hike!"

So then I took a look to my right, and I saw this:

Postcard worthy!

And very momentarily the ache in my legs subsided, I took a deep breath and remembered why I put myself in these positions (because this isn't the first big hike I've done). I sent out a little pray of gratitude for having such a beautiful location just a short drive way and proceeded to try to catch up with the guys.

My reaction: Oh SHIT.

After what seemed like forever we finally made it to the base of the part of the trail that gets extremely frustrating and challenging. In other words, the loose shale, rocky part. We stopped here for a quick break to scarf down some calories and to enjoy the view. The photo to the right shows what we were up against. And even this doesn't do it justice! The angle was probably around 45-50 degrees but it felt like 90. The loose rock resulted in a sort of two-steps-forward-one-step-back sort of gait. It was incredibly frustrating and most of all, exhausting. It felt as though the distance to the top was never ending.

We took a rest right at the very base of the actual protruding tusk before making our way to the chimney. We met several groups of fellow hikers who were all very friendly and it was nice to chat with them while we mustered up the courage to proceed further. Below are a series of photos of our surroundings.

The aftermath of scrambling up loose rock.

Happy hikers!

Of course as soon as we started climbing, the
clouds rolled in...

Matt's making it look easy!

Our view to the right...

Our view to the left....

We are going THAT way!

It's a long way down! And we aren't even
at the top yet!

So then we got to the chimney... and it looked a little something like this:

One way to get over your fear of heights...

I started climbing, and suddenly I remember, "Oh shit... I'm not actually a rock climber!" I've gone bouldering once or twice and rock climbed a handful of times as well, but how could I possibly think I was ready to scale this thing? You had to double check every holding point that it didn't slip out of the rock face and hit the people below you. So what did I do when this realization hit me? I froze. I started panicking and I was only about 2 feet off the ground! "I can't do it!" I yelled to Matt who was right below me. "I'm going to have an anxiety attack, I can't do this! I'm coming down, I'm done!" And my sweet, loving boyfriend who had endured 14 km of hiking with me over the past 4 hours said, "You're not quitting now. You've made it this far, you are going up that thing!" I looked up, then momentarily closed my eyes to shake the horrible thoughts of me plummeting to my own death out of my head. I took a deep breath and listened to Matt's instructions on where to place my feet. With my entire body shaking and my breath shallow from fear, I somehow managed to make it to the top!!! We all did!

Matt, myself, Justin, and Chris on top of the world (or at least the Black Tusk)!

I can't even begin to describe the feeling of accomplishment I felt the moment I had stable footing on top of this mountain. I felt proud of myself for pushing this hard physically and mentally. I felt grateful for the three crazy guys who accompanied me on this adventure. I felt satisfied at the thought that I can tick off another task on my 30 Before 30 list. I couldn't stop grinning when I got to the top! All that hard work was worth these feelings.

One more group photo before our lunch stop.

We began our ascend back down to where the meadow meets the shale to enjoy our lunches. A sandwich has never tasted this amazing before! As we finished our lunches, we had a good amount of time to take in the beautiful view.

Even with the clouds hanging over, Garibaldi is a site to see!

The hike back down was as challenging as the hike up but in a different way. Instead of our cardiovascular systems being tested, our knees, ankles, and hips were tested. The steep switchbacks down to Garibaldi proved to be rough on the quads, hamstrings, and glutes as we resisted against the pull of gravity. We alternated between gently trotting down the steep bits and carefully walking down the less steep bits until we finally reached our last stop before the parking lot: Garibaldi Lake. Only Justin was brave enough (or crazy enough?) to jump into the Kool Aid blue water!

Perfectly clear water.

The definition of serenity.

Beautiful British Columbia's landscape.

We made it back to the car by 4:00 pm. At this point we were so exhausted we couldn't even hold a conversation alive. With a quick sock change, definitely not enough leg stretches, and a huge sigh of relief, we piled back into Chris's car and headed out for well deserved celebratory dinner and beers. What a day!