Coast Mountains (2019)

This was our first backpacking trip in the Coast Mountains, so we went for the “low hanging fruit” and some of the highest impact, lower effort overnight trips. Our hikes followed a pattern of hike in, set up camp and then day hikes from there. They were brilliant.

Although, quite a number of people do various day hikes into the Garibaldi Lake area, it seemed appropriate to allow it more time. You have to book your back country camp sites in advance, even for week days during summer; it seemed that you needed to do so about 2 weeks in advance, so it is a bit of a weather crap shoot. We did fine.

We arrived at the Rubble Creek parking lot fairly early on a Monday morning and we could see the remnants of the week-end parking well down the road, but we parked at the main trail head parking lot. The trail up to Garibaldi Lake is amazingly easy, given that you gain almost 900m of elevation in about 9 km. You could almost push a shopping cart up it ( we didn't). And what a view, when you arrive at the campground. There are something like 50 camp sites at Garibaldi Lake and we ended up taking one that was furthest from the lake and could barely see any other campers. We started to go up Mt Price half-heartedly and quickly lost interest in bush-whacking so we just hung out near the lake, for the afternoon.

On the following day, we made an early start and visited beautiful Panorama Ridge. There were a handful of other people on the trail at that time of day. After lunch, I went over to Black Tusk and Sheila went for a quick dip in Garibaldi Lake. The weather forecast indicated that the following day would have rain, so the campground didn't fill up that evening. Panorama Ridge (and Black Tusk) scored high on the reward to effort ratio. Garibaldi Lake area is popular and likely a madness on nice summer week-ends. So if you expect it to be busy and go during the week, consider Lulu Lemon outfits as part of the natural environment, and watch first-time backpackers set up their camps, you are in for a treat.

We walked out in low cloud, some mist, but no need for rain coats in atmospheric conditions.

We stopped in at Whistler and wandered around for a couple of hours. It seems like Whistler is a Disney-like outdoor shopping mall; not our thing. We carried on to Pemberton for a look around and a shower at the rec centre before heading to Nairn Falls where we had reserved a campsite for 2 nights. There are some free camping sites between Whistler and Pemberton and much further along on the Duffy Lake road but we were quite happy to have a reserved a nice site with picnic table at Nairn Falls Provincial Park. The falls themselves are interesting and worth a look.

The following day, we drove back towards Whistler, to the Wedgmount Lake trail head and hiked up to the lake. The view was quite impressive but the reward/effort quotient suffered. The trail was rugged, without views, so both going up and going back down is a contrast to the manicured Rubble Creek trail to Garibaldi Lake.

We woke up to light rain the next day, so we skipped going to Joffre Lakes on our way to Lilloet and further north. I had called Tweedmsuir Air while we were in Pemberton and they indicated there was an opening to fly into Ape Lake. We had two days to reach Nimpo Lake, which we knew could be handily done in a day's drive. We had been to William's Lake in 2018, and were then a little shocked by the Save On Foods prices, so this time, we did our resupply at a Walmart Super Centre (I generally avoid Walmart), but found all that we needed including some fine artisanal bread. West of William's Lake, we headed for Farwell Canyon which was a minor detour off the main road (Highway 20). We free camped near the bridge over the Chilcotin River.

In the morning, we drove a little ways back up the hill that we had come in on, and did a couple of hours hiking through grassland, onto BC's biggest dune, looked at the hoodoos from above and saw a couple of Bighorn Sheep herds. It was better than expected.

Rather than camp, we stayed a night at Stewart's Lodge on Nimpo Lake (same owner as Tweedsmuir Air) in one of their really nice lake-side cabins. They offer a reasonably priced meals & board option, though the local taxes on top of GST do add up.

After a sumptuous breakfast at the lodge, we hopped into a Cessna float plane for the fantastic flight into Ape Lake. We pulled onto a small beach, off-loaded our bags and the plane took off. We had the whole place to ourselves and didn't see another soul for 4 days until we were picked up again. One of our options was to hike to and fly out of Jacobsen Lake (1-2 days), but I figured that there would be enough to do around Ape Lake and we could bring in extra gear (like folding chairs, base camp mattresses, beer, etc).

There is a plethora of possible tent sites in the area (so much glacial sand), but we opted to pitch our tent along the lake, behind some bushes for wind cover. Tweedsmuir Air also had an aluminium canoe left on-site at Ape Lake which simplified getting around some of the spots (avoiding going back and forth over glacial creeks). We also brought along a food canister and an Ursack to store our food in. Ape lake is just below the tree line, and there are not a lot of places to safely hang food. We didn't see any grizzly bears, but there were sporadic poops around that might have been a week or two old.

There was not much information on the area on the internet, so we relied on our eyes once on-site. After lunch on our arrival day, we paddled across Ape Lake and wandered up to the toe and edges of the Ape glacier for the afternoon. We somehow managed to dawdle about the glacier for about 4 hours which brought us back to cocktail hour and dinner in the camp. It is a magnificent place where, no matter where you stand, the views are jaw dropping.

There is an unnamed hill between Ape and & Fyles glaciers; I'll call it “Observation Peak”. That was our goal for on the second day. So once again, we paddled across the lake and then hoofed it over easy terrain (mostly dirt, moraine) to the right (NW) of the Ape glacier moraine wall and then went up through a small alpine meadow section and then up a ramp that I had seen from below up onto BC slick rock for the remainder of the hike. For sure, it took longer than expected, mainly because you can't see how far it goes up. In all, it was about 6km, and a 650m ascent (roughly 3 hours up) to 2,000m, and the views started off fantastic, then amazing and then they got better and better. Once we passed the high point, we continued on to an overlook of two merging glaciers. What a place, what a view, what a place for lunch.... There is even an obvious spot for two tents up there for someone who wouldn't mind a cold night. I WOULD NOMINATE THE HIKE TO “OBSERVATION PEAK” AS ONE OF THE BEST DAY HIKES IN BC. I have been up to Snowbird Pass (Mt Robson area), which was quite impressive but this hike was in a class of its own. There are no trails and I spotted one cairn on the descent.

The following day, we woke up to low clouds, then drizzle. Early in the day, a rainbow appeared that gave us false hope that it was clearing. It rained off and on for most of the day. However, we pushed on and headed in the direction of Fyles Lake to the north. We tried to stay up on the plateau above the creek flowing out of Ape Lake, but there were so many up and downs, that we opted to head down to the creek and we were impressed by the toe of the Fyles glacier. We then climbed up above the terminal lake, took refuge from a squall under and a boulder overhang and then walked over to the impressive outflow of the Borealis glacier and a set of falls. We would have gone up to the Borealis glacier itself, but we were discouraged by the inclement weather, and turned back to our camp. It was still an extraordinary hike.

Our last full day at Ape Lake was mostly clear. I had the notion, that we could walk along near the Ape glacier and over a small col, then down to a small lake between Ape and Jacobson glaciers, then over to the edge of the Jacobson glacier as a day trip. I thought this might be easier than bush whacking down below. Wrong. So, we ended up on some beautiful alpine meadows and then part way down the small Col towards the lake. Once we had a clear view down, we could see that it would involve some nasty bits that we could pass through but it would make for a long day, so we aborted and headed back and up onto a small hill that I'll call “Ape Lake Viewpoint”. This would be a good spot to head for if you had a half day and to combine it with checking out Ape glacier itself.

We surmised, that the best route to Jacobson glacier overlook would be to paddle across Ape Lake, then cross a number of marshy areas (and likely get wet boots) over to the small lake. That might take about 2 hours. Once at the lake, it looks like it would take another hour on open country to reach an overlook of the Jacobson glacier, making it a viable day trip from Ape lake. I also found out later that Nuk Tesli has been doing some work on the route as they take guests over it a few times a season. Therefore, I can only provide some hints on how I would do it with these photographs:

Some other visitors to Ape lake, head up to Musician Mountain. It looks like a fair amount of typical West Coast bush whacking to reach the alpine but the views would be great (though I suspect that they might not match those from “Observation Peak”).

So although, it was great day, I wished that we had another day up there and we would have tried the traditional route to a Jacobson glacier look-out as a day trip. We finished off our beers that afternoon and we awoke to clear skies on our last morning. The float plane arrived on-time (with a guide and client who were going to do the Ape Lake to Jacobson lake route) and we had a magnificent flight out. If you can get past the sticker price (of the flight in/out), it is truly amazing and scores high marks on the reward to effort ratio.

We pulled out of Ape Lake and checked the weather forecast for the upcoming week, complements of the Stewart's Lodge wifi (there is no cellular service in that part of BC) and saw a low pressure system coming in within a couple days. So, we made quick plans, bought some fresh produce at the Nimpo Lake General Store and headed north to Tweedsmuir South, just above the “hill” (where the road descends to the Bella Coola valley). We packed our backpacks for a two night trip and met a few of day hikers who had just completed the Rainbow Range Trail. I would have to say that the Rainbow Range Trail moniker is somewhat misleading, because the trail leads to a group of beautiful lakes and a range with some colours in it, but it does not provide day hikers with views of the heart (horseshoe) of the Rainbow Range. We walked in a couple of hours to the end of the Rainbow Trail at McCauley lake (7.7km, 300m gain), where there are food lockers and we set up camp there. We did see a couple of other tents that evening, but didn't see anyone over the next couple of days. Tweedmsuir is well known for its biting insects and I thought that wouldn't be the case by late August. The black flies and mosquitoes were tolerable but after a while we put our bug nets on in camp. Our base camp was quite high up (1775 m) so it was fairly cool overnight.

We didn't really understand the landscape, but we knew that we had to travel in the general northerly direction for a better view of the Rainbow Range, and mostly followed a well used informal trail, which eventually led to a fine lookout (The Molar, 2075m) which really provided a good view of South Tweedsmuir. It is all above treeline and screams to be walked on.

It was still early in the day, so we dropped down off the high point and down into some fine meadows and the de Macedo lakes, still in the direction of the Rainbow Range. As always, progress is slower than you like, but we found a good viewpoint for lunch. Then we took a different route back to the camp, going down a wide valley (upper Tusulko River) before cutting back up onto the plateau that we were camping on. It was a fine day.

Another aspect that intrigued me, would be to hike to the Octopus lakes and then figure out how to get up onto the range/ridge south of there (either via Tweedsmuir Pass) or by cross-country. There are a number of peaks and ridges that must have outstanding views of the Coast Mountains.

Overall, we found South Tweedsmuir to be quiet, pleasant, not over-whelming but it had a very distinct character. It is well suited for off-trail travel, and if it weren't for the bugs, I'd be tempted to return to wander more.

We left our camp on the last morning and made the short hike back out to the car with drizzle starting to set in. We drove eastward on Highway 20. We had stayed at Barney's Lakeside Resort (Puntzi Lake) in 2018 when we watched the fabulous Redstone Rodeo. It was Labour Day week-end, but we still got a nice lakeside campsite at Barney's. The resort has a canoe for rent, so after we set up our tent, we paddled out on the lake to a small island (about 3 or 4 km away) to observe the pelicans. Who would have thought there were American White Pelicans in BC, but about 100 of them have established a nesting site on Puntzi Lake. You are asked to keep a distance away from them but at one point, some of the pelicans swam fairly close to us. It was well worth the stopover.

It was the Sunday of the long week-end when we reached Lillooet. We filled up with gas and then headed along the Gold Bridge road, which is a really nice drive. It is mostly paved, but sections remain gravel. We reached the Mawson Pond recreation site and found an empty campsite for the night (it did fill up that evening). There was something different about the other campers; they were all mountain bikers. The South Chilcotins have now become a huge mountain biking destination attracting people from all around the world.

The next morning, we drove past Tyaughton lake to the Taylor Creek trailhead. We had picked this route into the area, because it offers easy access to the alpine on an old mining road. We weren’t the only ones to think that way. There were a number of cars there, and more were to arrive as about 15 mountain bikers passed us during our hike up. It was just under 10km to our campsite, above the Taylor Creek cabin (previously used by miners). I hiked back to the cabin and borrowed a couple of simple wooden chairs from the cabin (we returned them on the way out) to make our camp a little more comfortable. The mountain bikers were mostly day -trippers but we did meet one group of bike-packers during our stay. We spent three nights at the camp and no one else stayed there when we were there. Bike numbers dropped off, after the long weekend. After dinner, I whipped up to Camel Pass (30 minutes) to have a quick preview of the next day couple of days. It looked promising.

We had some frost overnight and then we sauntered up to Camel Pass, then eastward along Harris ridge. Rather than drop straight onto the adjoining Mt Taylor col, we followed the ridge a little ways and then made our way up to Mt Taylor (2259m) for some fine views. On our descent, we looked behind us and saw that a herd of sheep had slipped in behind us. I followed the Harris ridge over to Eldorado Pass, while Sheila took the Pearson trail to Eldorado pass (both are very nice) and back to camp.

On our second full day, we went back up to Eldorado Pass and then, made our way up to Nea Peak (2490m) for some excellent views (highly recommended). I managed to get fairly close to a bighorn sheep herd on the descent. There is a route from Nea Peak over to Windy Pass, but it is a real roller coaster, so we went back down to Eldorado Pass and took the Taylor and then High trails to Windy Pass. We then hiked back to Taylor Creek camp. It was another great day.

It was a straight forward hike out. We drove the Burley Pass road back to Pemberton. The road is considered 4WD only, but it had been graded sometime earlier in the summer and was in good condition, easily passable with a 2WD. There are a number of hikes that you can do in the area. However, there was another low pressure system due in and we pushed on to catch a ferry back to Vancouver Island. The South Chilcotins also scored high on the reward to effort ratio. It's an area that I hope to revisit.