Sheila writes:-

We hiked the Rainbow Lake Trail January 29th.  Nine of us put our trust in the weather forecast and started out at the trailhead at 9am; after driving from North Vancouver starting at 7am. The light snow started 2 hours earlier that predicted so no sun shining on the mountain tops as I had hoped, but still a beautiful hike. We spiked to our lunch spot just past the Gin and Tonic bridge, which was dismantled for the winter season, to where the Gin and Tonic creek meandered through a flat meadow. It happened to be 2 of our members’ birthdays so we celebrated with chocolate cupcakes, complete with a candle for the birthday lady and gent, and a small glass of wine. Trip was around 14km return with an elevation gain of 750m.

We crossed 2 smaller bridges covered in snow, a medium sized wooded bridge and a cable bridge. There was a short, open crossing where remnants of a small avalanche could be seen. We followed the upper trail that we had flagged a few days previously.

Rob and Alexander brought shovels to carve out steps on the icy, packed snow on the cable bridge deck located at the 4.3km mark which made the crossing a lot easier. 

We arrived back at the vehicles around 3:45pm in plenty of time to drive back in daylight.

Several of the hikers would like to do this trip in the summer to compare the trail and cross the Gin and Tonic bridge. I’ll put it on my trip list.

See the route here from Iain’s Garmin GPSMAP66sr