Pavilion Lake Weekend

As weekends generally are for us, this was another busy and good one. Our friend’s 35th birthday was last week and for the last month or so a group of us have been planning a surprise weekend away at another friend’s cabin at Pavilion Lake, which is between Lillooet and Cache Creek.

We picked up a friend and headed up there Friday after work. We made a quick stop in Whistler to grab dinner and watch the last few minutes of the hockey game (Go Pens!) and were at the cabin by 10:30pm. I was exhausted and didn’t know how late I could stay up. As well, Graeme and I had planned to be out riding at 6am the next day. Well the next car and the car with the birthday boy didn’t arrive until after midnight and bedtime didn’t come until 2:15am, after a number of drinks so we changed the morning plans.

Still I was awake not much after 6, though I slept on and off until around 7am. We got up, ate and were out the door by just after 8am. It was a beautiful morning and was going to be a HOT day. Highs in the lows 30s/mid 90s for you Americans. I was a bit hungover and out of it when we left and forgot to put my Garmin on bike so I had no idea how far or long we had ridden or what my speed was. The fist half of the ride into Cache Creek felt like it was all downhill and I was really not looking forward to the ride back, especially with the day heating up. I told Graeme that I would probably be crying going home.

We got to Cache Creek 1.5 hours and 45 km into the ride and stopped at a gas station to fill up the bottles. Heading back I kept waiting for it to get bad. Now, that’s not say there weren’t hills, but it really was not bad. Yes, there spots where the cliffs blocked any small amount of breeze and the hills felt long and hot, but only one hill felt hard in any way. I have to say I have never felt better at 90km into a ride and I would have gone longer, but Graeme was really not feeling it, likely because he had not eaten well the past few days. Plus the lake really did look inviting!

We spent the rest of the day hanging out on the dock and the boat and inside once the rain and thunder came. I had planned on swimming later in the afternoon with my new wetsuit, but the storm stopped that from happening.

Sunday was a lazy lazy morning but before noon we wetsuited up for a swim in the glacierly cold lake. It took a few times, but I was finally able to swim properly at least around the edge of the lake. When I swam toward the middle of the lake where the water was a lot colder, I still had that take my breathe away feeling and was not able to breathe properly. I think it had less to do with the distance to shore and more to do with how cold the lake is. It’s unlikely I’ll be doing any races in as cold as a lake though. But still while progress was made, more is definitely needed!

After the swim we headed home along a different route. This time going through Cache Creek and along the Fraser Canyon. BC is such a beautiful and diverse place landscape wise and that may need its own post.

The lake


Riding back at the tip of the lake

At the junction to Cache Creek