Brew Lake and Mount Brew
Hiking into this wasteland of erratics reveals an amazing paradise of small, island forests, cute streams and endless worlds within worlds to explore. You find yourself wandering along like a kid mesmerized at what you will find next. Brew Lake itself doesn't come close in wow factor to the postcard-perfect alpine lakes such as Wedgemount Lake, Joffre Lakes, Cheakamus Lake or Garibaldi Lake, but I does beat these lakes in other aspects. Because Brew Lake is outside of Garibaldi Provincial Park few people have heard of it. More often than not you will have both the lake and entire valley to yourself. An increasingly rare occurrence elsewhere that gives the place a quiet calm and that strange and satisfying feeling that there are no other humans for quite some distance.
Try swimming in Wedgemount, Joffre, Russet, Cirque, Cheakamus or Garibaldi Lake for any length of time and you will be shivering cold. You can manage a minute or two swimming in these lakes, but certainly not 20 or 30 minutes as you can in Brew Lake. There are even some massive, flat topped erratics in the lake to swim to and lounge on. The sun makes them amazingly warm on a sunny day. The edge of the lake surrounded by grass A third aspect of Brew Lake that beats the local, alpine lake competition is the hike itself. It is amazing. Comparable in difficulty to the Wedgemount Lake trail, though two kilometres shorter and packed with things to see. From the dozen or so amazing viewpoints on various plateaus steps from the trail to the endless gnarled, weather-beaten, yet captivating forests of twisted, mangled, huge and bewildering trees. Over and over along the 5 kilometre trail you stop and stare in wonder at how a huge tree, 30 metres tall can have an absurd, sideways L-shape in its trunk big enough to stand in. You see it over and over until eventually you work out that when these trees are young they spend most of the year under metres of snow. Over the years they grow at an unusual looking right angle, as if growing sideways.
Once again, you eventually work out the reason for such unusual little places in the otherwise lush forest. These places exist on relatively recently deposited, house sized boulders. Centuries have smoothed the surrounding areas over into lush forests, but some of these bulges are too high in the ground. The soil is thin and any trees that take root have to survive on what become like small desert islands. Dry and hot all summer and only the hardiest of trees survive. Twisted, gnarled krummholz occupy these eerie and numerous, dry plateaus.
Brew Lake in the past was often reached by starting at Brandywine Falls Provincial Park and hiking along train tracks for a couple kilometres before reaching a barely marked Brew Lake trailhead at the edge of the train tracks. This access is long and tedious, parking is a big problem, and of course walking along the train tracks is illegal. There is a better and shorter access point further up the Brew Lake Trail, accessible from the Brew Main Road and seems to currently be the shortest summer hiking route (as of September 2013). This area is home to the Whistler RV Park and Campground, and despite the logging road leading to the unmarked trailhead to Brew Lake, it is not too difficult to find. From the Sea to Sky Highway (16 kilometres south of Whistler Village at Village Gate Boulevard), turn right onto Brew Creek Road. See the map below for detailed directions and parking and trailhead locations. This route is considerably shorter than the longer, train track trespassing route that has been used in the past. Brew Lake Parking, Hiking & Camping Details
The trail is well marked with orange tape, yellow tree reflectors, older worn out silver tree reflectors and rock cairns almost every dozen metres. This is well needed though as the trail is at times extremely steep, for the most part overgrown and never in a straight line as it winds its way through wonderfully deep forest. You gain elevation very fast and there are dozens of fantastic viewpoints. Black Tusk and Mount Garibaldi are clearly visible across the valley as well as Wedge Mountain in the distance.
Keep this in mind on the boulder sections. You will always see rock cairns to guide you so if you don't see any indications of a trail, cairn, worn path or other markers, then don't continue for more than 30 metres. You definitely want to have a map of the trail in your pocket and/or a gps or smartphone/tablet with a gps and map of the area for peace of mind and safety. Having a flashlight/headlamp on this trail is essential for safety as well. When the sun gets low in the sky in the evening the trail markers get very hard to spot. If you do weather the difficult hike you will arrive at a beautiful, secluded backcountry paradise. Beautiful alpine hills and green meadows everywhere you look. There is even a hut available to use further up toward Mount Brew that is usable by anyone. It is easy to find. From the shore of Brew Lake look up and you will see a distinct trail disappearing into the distance across the lake. Follow this trail for about 45 minutes and you will arrive at the hut. By way of comparison to other hiking trails in the Whistler area, Brew Lake ranks as very difficult. Overall the elevation gain is considerable as you gain 745 metres in just 5 kilometres! Almost equal to the notoriously challenging Wedgemount Lake trail which gains 1220 metres in just 7k. Or the nearby Cirque Lake trail which gains 300 metres in just 2 kilometres The trail length is quite short compared to most other trails around Whistler. The Brew Lake trail is just 5 kilometres long, one way. Compare that to the Wedgemount Lake trail at 7k, the Garibaldi Lake trail at 9k, Black Tusk at 13.5k and Panorama Ridge at 15k!
Brew Lake Trail Map & Trailhead Directions
From the Sea to Sky Highway (16 kilometres south of Whistler Village at Village Gate Boulevard), turn right onto Brew Creek Road(the next turnoff after the Callaghan Valley turnoff to Whistler Olympic Park). Use this map to find the trailhead as there are no signs and the trail is not visible from the logging road. This route is considerably shorter than the longer, train track trespassing route that has been used in the past. If you are driving from Vancouver, Brew Creek Road is the first left after Brandywine Falls Provincial Park.
|