Lightning Lakes Backpacking Trip

July 11, 2026July 8, 2026 / Maria / 2 Comments

Last week I wrote about Keats Island, which was the first in a slew of backpacking trips I did in late Spring. Many people are familiar with Lightning Lakes, which is a popular location for day trippers in Manning Park. I’ve done a lot of backpacking and car camping in Manning Park and I love spending a day relaxing at the lake in the summer. At this point, I think I’ve hiked the majority of the popular trails in Manning Park, including many times hiking around Lightning Lakes, but I’ve never done the Lightning Lakes Chain Trail. I’ve been wanting to do it for years and I finally made it happen in early June.

Lightning Lakes Chain Trail starts at the main parking lot and includes hiking around the first two lakes before continuing 11km into the backcountry, passing 3 more lakes along the way. It’s a good hike for early in the season because the trail follows the river through the valley and has minimal elevation gain. So even though the hike starts at a pretty high elevation (1200m), all the snow melts at once, meaning the trail is usually completely clear by June. I first became aware of this hike in 2018 when I did the Skyline II Trail from Strawberry Flats to Mowich Camp. That trail hikes up to the top of the mountain and then follows the ridge through Despair Pass and up to Snow Camp Mountain. From there, you can see Thunder Lake, which is the final lake on the Lightning Lakes Chain Trail, located in the valley below.

On this occasion, I left my house on Saturday morning with my dog, Sadie, to meet my friend in the park. I haven’t seen very much online or on social media about this trail, so I wasn’t expecting it to be busy. We met at noon and started hiking around 1pm. It was a pretty hot day for early-June, especially in Manning Park, which can be cold. I find that you never know what you’re going to get in Manning – you’ll either get beautiful sunny weather, or it will be cloudy and absolutely freezing (more common) – but it feels like there’s no in between.

So I was thrilled to get warm weather. Even though it had been nice in the city for weeks, Lightning Lakes was my first real mountain hike of the summer and I felt a giddy anticipation for the season to come. This was enhanced by the fact that the trail was filled with wildflowers! I can’t ever recall seeing wildflowers in June before, but we saw common paintbrush, lupin, arnica, columbine, valerian sitka, spreading phlox, pentstemon, and violet (among others I couldn’t identify).

It was busy along the first Lightning Lake, but the crowds tapered off when we hit the second Lightning Lake. We stopped for a snack at the end of the second lake, before continuing along the rest of the chain trail. From that point onwards, we saw very few people, I can only recall passing one or two groups of day hikers. The trail continues to Flash Lake and Strike Lake, with the campsite located just past Strike Lake. The challenge is that this trail doesn’t see a lot of trail maintenance and there is a fair amount of blowdown, so we did a lot of crawling over and under trees and my legs got pretty scratched up.

I wanted to swim in all the new lakes I’d never been to before, but Flash Lake wasn’t particularly nice. It’s a bit scummy and I couldn’t see anywhere nice to enter the water, so I ended up skipping it. Strike Lake was a little bit better, but there’s still not a lot of good places for swimming. Close to the end of the lake, we found a decent spot and took another break. Colin had a snack while I went for a swim. The water was cold, which it always is in Manning, but surprisingly, I didn’t find it too bad. We were pretty sweaty from the humidity, so it was a nice break to cool off.

The campsite is just a few hundred metres past the lake, but what I wasn’t prepared for was how busy it was at the campsite considering the trail had been empty. It is a fairly large campsite, with several tent pads spread out along the river and through the forest, but they were all full. There was a school group that had hiked in on Friday that was taking up a large portion of the sites near the river, but even excluding them, there were still a lot of hiking groups. I do wonder if this campground is busy all summer long, or just in Spring/early Summer, since it’s a lower elevation hike. Either way, we couldn’t get a tent pad and wandered around for a while looking for empty space before squeezing in among the trees near the river. We had Sadie with us and there was another dog on the other side of the campground, so we mostly tried to avoid them. I think it ended up working out.

We arrived around 3:30pm, meaning it took us approximately 2.5 hours to hike in, including the swimming and snack breaks. I was keen to continue hiking to Thunder Lake, so once we set up camp, we packed supper with us and hiked another 3km to the final lake. Trail maintenance definitely didn’t improve after the campground. There was still a good number of trees blown across the trail, but what was more annoying was that some sections of the trail were very overgrown with shrubs, and in one area, a very prickly plant. I’m not sure what it was, but we quickly noticed it stinging us as we were walking through it, so shorts weren’t a great idea. It was probably only along 5 minutes of the trail, so we just suffered through it, but we both changed into pants on the way back.

As far as the trail goes, Thunder Lake is a bit of an anticlimactic way to end. It’s a beautiful lake, but it’s really hard to access. As you approach the lake, the trail goes through a very steep boulder field, with the river flowing along underneath. You end up getting pretty high above the lake and the area doesn’t look entirely stable, so it’s not a great place to stop. Eventually you reach the treeline at the edge of the lake and there’s a sign saying that it’s dangerous to go further. We did go a little bit past the sign and I can confirm that it’s not worth it. The trail got steeper and was very dicey with loose rock overhead, so I don’t recommend it. It’s too steep to get down to the water, so we backtracked to the sign.

It’s frustrating to be so close to the lake, but unable to access it. We did find a small side trail leading down to the edge of the water, but there’s limited space to hang out. Fortunately there weren’t many other people around because it was late in the day, so we managed to go for a quick swim and had an awkward time cooking supper along the slope. I couldn’t even set up my camp chair because there was nowhere flat enough. So if you hike all the way to the lake, don’t assume you’ll be able to get down to the water, and if you try, definitely be very careful. I think it could be easy to get into trouble here or cause a small rockslide. I did not feel comfortable when we were bumbling around in the forest trying to find a way down, which is why we came back.

Otherwise it was a pretty chill trip. We hiked back to the campsite, arriving around 8pm and hanging out for an hour before going to bed. There is an outhouse and a bear cache, though the outhouse is a bit hidden in the trees. When you arrive at the main sign, it’s up through the trees to the right. I spent some time reading before bed and slept well with the sound of the river next to my tent.

It took us another 2.5 hours to hike back to the parking lot the following day. I would have liked to go for a swim at Lightning Lake before driving home, but I had Sadie with me and she’s a lot to manage when there’s people around, so we opted to skip it. Overall, I did enjoy the trail, in spite of the blowdown. The hike is primarily in the trees and not one of the more breathtaking hikes in Manning Park, so I probably wouldn’t choose to do it in the middle of the summer, but it was a perfect early season hike! Manning is still my favourite provincial park in BC and I love any time I get to recreate there.

Keats Island Backpacking Trip

July 4, 2026June 25, 2026 / Maria / 1 Comment

Now that it’s July, we’re firmly into backpacking season, which is by far my favourite time of the year! Usually I spend most of the Spring kayaking, but I wasn’t able to do that much this year because Seth hasn’t been available on the weekends, so instead, I spent most of June exploring some new low elevation backpacking trails that I’d never done before. Keats Island was particularly special because I went there with my Girl Guide unit!

Keats Island is a small island in Howe Sound, located between Bowen Island and the Sunshine Coast. In order to get there, you have to take the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale, followed by a water taxi to Keats Island. Plumper Cove Marine Park is located on the north side of Keats Island, with a large campground, that we thought sounded like a promising trip for beginner, teenage backpackers. I think the campground is most popularly used by boaters in the summer, but we opted to follow the 2.5km trail from Keats Landing instead.

After a thrilling ride on the ferry and the water taxi, we arrived at the north end of the island. The water taxi leaves from a dock right next to the Langdale ferry, but they only take cash payment or coupons, which can be purchased in Horseshoe Bay. The coupons are discounted, but they can only be purchased in a pack of 10 (convenient for a group like us, but maybe not if you’re traveling solo). It was a beautiful day at the very end of May when we went on our trip.

It’s a short hike, but it’s not flat. Once you get dropped at the dock, you start by hiking uphill along the road, followed by more uphill through the forest. There are a lot of small offshoot trails that I’ve heard can be confusing if you try and follow google maps, but it is very well signed, so follow the signs or a proper trail app like Gaia. The girls were in good spirits, but they did have fairly heavy packs and were happy when we reached the halfway point, because after that the trail was all downhill. There’s not really any views along the trail, but it is at least in the shade.

Overall it took us 1 hour, as a group of 8 people, to reach the campsite. The park is gorgeous and much larger than I was expecting. There’s a large dock where boats can tie up and some people paddle ashore. There’s a large sloping green field heading down towards the beach and a central water pump. There was only one other group of campers when we arrived, so we had premium choice for our campsites and selected the two sites closest to the main beach. I was surprised at how large the campground was, there were 20 campsites and lots of room for overflow, though there is a ranger located on site, so I’m not sure if overflow camping is allowed. A few more people showed up by boat later in the day, but the campground was still less than half full.

I was keen to do a little day hike as there are lots of short trails from the campground, including a trail to a lookout, but the girl guides were not interested in hiking further and we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon enjoying the beach. It was relatively quiet in the afternoon and the girls had fun looking for beach glass at low tide.

If you’re hiking in, rather than boating, there are a few extra things you should consider. There was a bear on the island when we visited and there is no bear cache. I assume most of the marine users store their food on their boats, but we had to do a bear hang. We brought a full pulley system with us to practice, which we put to good use! In addition, there’s no running water source, only the pump. Groundwater is not as good quality as stream water and it had a boil water order in effect, so we ended up filtering and boiling it. It was a good decision because there was quite a lot of grit in the water and filtering alone won’t remove viruses, so we boiled it too, which did require a lot of fuel.

We didn’t do a lot at the campsite, but the weather was so nice and the views so beautiful that no one minded! The girls had a lot of fun hanging out at the beach and since it was early in the season, we were able to have a campfire in the evening. You also need cash to pay the ranger for the campsite, which doesn’t have any reservations, it’s all first-come-first-serve, pay on site. We also got the firewood from the ranger, which is sold for $10 a bundle.

The final highlight of the evening was that once it got dark, we went out on the dock to drag a stick through the water and we were able to see bioluminescence! It wasn’t the strongest bioluminescence I’ve ever seen, but still a very cool experience and it should be a lot stronger later in the summer. We did see a coyote hanging around at dusk, so be cautious if you have a dog with you.

The following day we packed up all our gear to head back to the water taxi. BC Ferries does post a schedule for the water taxi, however, it only runs by request. So make sure you call them in the morning and tell them you want a pick-up, because otherwise they may not come. We returned to Langdale and had some time to kill, so we enjoyed our lunch on the beach before taking the ferry back to Horseshoe Bay. It’s an easy trip and it made for a very enjoyable weekend. I’m keen to go back and camp with my kayak one day!

Pitt Lake Kayaking Trip

June 13, 2026June 8, 2026 / Maria / 2 Comments

We spent 3 days kayaking on Pitt Lake in late April 2026 and I am so excited to write about it. I live in Coquitlam, so Pitt Lake is only a 30 minute drive from my house and it’s only within the last 3-4 years that I’ve started to explore this area. If you live in Pitt Meadows or Maple Ridge, you’re probably already aware that there’s lots of great hiking in the wetland area south of the lake. There’s a huge dike network along the Pitt River and throughout the wetlands. It’s completely flat, so it’s great for running and dog walking.

More recently, we’ve spent more time paddling along Widgeon Creek. I was intimidated by this trip for years because I was afraid of crossing the Pitt River, which can have fast currents. Access to Widgeon is located at the mouth of Pitt Lake, so you have to park at the lake and paddle across the Pitt River to access Widgeon Marsh. I’ve done the trip 4-5 times in the past two years and I’ve written about it as a day trip and an overnight experience. But despite so many trips to Widgeon, I’d still hadn’t paddled Pitt Lake.

Considering how easy it is to access Pitt Lake, it’s a surprisingly challenging lake to explore. I think it’s well known in power boating communities, but not frequently used by the general public. There are no walking trails around the lake, save for the dike trail at the foot. I was interested to learn that there is a pretty big cabin network spread out around the lake and the cabin owners seem to be some of the biggest users of the lake.

However, if you’re not lucky enough to own a cabin on the lake or a motorized boat, you can still explore the lake the old fashioned hand-powered way. Seth and I do most of our kayaking in the Spring, so this year, we decided to drive up to the lake after work on Friday to do a 2-night camping trip. Even though it was late April, we had fantastic weather and because it was so early in the season, we were the only people at the campsite both nights!

But first, let’s talk about getting there. The east side of Pitt Lake is actually located in Golden Ears Provincial Park, which means that there are two FCFS marine-accessible campgrounds on the east side of the lake; Raven Creek and Osprey Creek. These sites can be booked through camping.bcparks.ca (backcountry registration, not reservation). Camping permits are available 2 weeks before your trip and it’s $5 per person, per night. There is no limit on the number of permits sold.

It’s ~9km of paddling to get to Raven Creek and another ~7-8km to Osprey Creek. Since we were paddling after work, our plan was to spend both nights at Raven Creek and explore further up the lake as a day trip on Saturday. We arrived at the parking lot around 4:30pm and launched our boats shortly after 5pm. In the summer, you have to pay for parking, but the parking fees were not in effect when we visited. There were lots of people launching powerboats from the boat launch at the same time we were packing our kayaks, but we were the only paddlers. None of the people in powerboats were heading to Raven Creek, so I assume they all had cabins on the lake.

The trick with Pitt Lake is that it’s a tidally influenced lake. The water quality at Raven Creek is freshwater, but because the Pitt River connects to the Fraser River, which connects to the ocean, the tides influence the water level. For the most part, this is a concern for powerboats rather than paddleboats, but because the tide was super low when we started kayaking, it did impact us as well. The southern part of the lake is extremely shallow, so if you’re in a motorized boat, you have to follow the navigation channel. Our plan was to paddle the dike to the east side of the lake, and then follow the shoreline up to the campsite.

If you check on a GPS or marine map, you can see that the navigation channel goes right up the middle of the lake almost the entire way to Raven Creek. We didn’t want to get stuck paddling in the middle of the lake, so we planned to follow the shore, but you can see on my GPS image below that there is a lot of shallow wetland in this area as well, so we were forced to follow the navigation channel, until we could cross over the shallower section to get to deeper water along the shore. The tide was much higher on the way back, so you can see from my GPS track that we didn’t have any issues with water depth on the way back.

The fact that this area is so shallow did help us on Friday evening. Most of the lakes in this region have a reputation for getting pretty windy in the afternoon. This has been my experience in Indian Arm as well, so I’m used to windy conditions between noon and 6pm. However, after 6pm, the wind usually dies down, which is what I was hoping for at Pitt Lake. Unfortunately, Pitt Lake stayed windy pretty much until sunset. It did get calmer overnight, but there was a decent amount of wind on the lake when we started paddling. The shallow water helped to kill some of the wind, though we did enjoy having a tailwind to push us up to the campsite.

It took us 2 hours and 10 minutes to paddle to the campsite on Friday night and 1 hour and 45 minutes to paddle back on Sunday morning in dead flat conditions. Unfortunately, there’s not really anywhere to take a break along this entire stretch. It’s a common complaint that I have about paddling when there’s so much private property. I know you can’t own the beach, but it still feels awkward landing your boat on someone’s front lawn, even though that’s the only option available sometimes. On Pitt Lake, there’s not many properties between the dike and Raven Creek, so be prepared to just paddle the whole way to Raven Creek.

Raven Creek is located on a headland, so you can see it in the distance for most of the paddle. The campsite is located on the north side, so you will have to paddle around the entire headland to get there, but there are lots of places to take a break. Like I said, we were the only people at the campsite. Despite there being tons of spaces to land, there’s not a lot of places to camp because of the tidal influence. If the tide is low, which it was when we arrived, do not assume you can set up anywhere on the beach. Find the high tide line and make sure you set up behind it. Most of the campsites are located in the woods at the back of the beach, but we were able to find one really nice beach site since we were the people there.

Like I said, we had beautiful weather for the entire weekend. It wasn’t super hot because it was still April, but it was sunny the whole time we were out. We set up our tent and ate supper and then spent the rest of the evening on the beach, watching the sunset and then having a campfire. We brought our firewood with us, but there was a lot of dead wood around the beach as well, likely because it was so early in the season.

We got up early on Saturday to go paddling for the day, because as always, I was worried about the wind. Given how windy it had been on our paddle in, and knowing that we’d have a headwind on the way back to the campsite in the afternoon, I wanted to get most of our paddling done in the morning. We had a simple breakfast and then started paddling north along the shoreline. It was a beautiful day and the water was pretty flat, making for really enjoyable conditions. On a normal day, we probably would have decided to paddle all the way to Osprey Creek and back, but I’ve been battling a knee injury this year that makes it a little more challenging to kayak, so we decided to paddle up to Little Goose Island instead, which ended up being ~12km of paddling.

There’s no private properties along the shoreline until you get to Little Goose Island, but there still isn’t really anywhere to pull out. There’s a small beach before you reach the line of properties in the bay, 4km from Raven Creek, and we decided to stop there for a break. We weren’t sure if there would be somewhere to pull out on Goose Island, but if you go around the back side of the island, there are 2 small little coves where you can get out of the boat. We couldn’t land anywhere, but the water was shallow enough that it was fine. We were also tucked away from the houses in the little cove and we were able to go for a quick swim.

We could also walk up onto a little headland on the island that had beautiful views of the lake. I wanted to keep paddling further because the water was so calm, but I didn’t want to further injure my knee, so we decided to head back, stopping at the same beach for another break. It was an excellent decision because we got back to Raven Creek almost exactly at 1pm, which was precisely when the wind came up. It got significantly windier in the afternoon, to the point that we could see whitecaps in the middle of the lake, so I was glad that we came back when we did.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach and it was incredibly enjoyable. A few day users stopped by to hang out for a few hours, but they all disappeared back to their boats by suppertime. The trip was the same weekend that Noah Kahan released his new album, so I spent the entire afternoon listening to it on the beach while drinking iced tea. I’m pretty sure is the exact way Noah intended for an album called The Great Divide to be listened to. Usually we like to go out for a sunset paddle, but again, the wind never really died down again until sunset, so instead we just enjoyed our supper and the solitude, having another campfire as the stars came out.

We got up early again to paddle out before the wind came up and we had a really nice flat paddle with some kingfishers, who seemed to follow us the entire way back down the lake. The boat launch was much busier than when we left with day users heading over to Widgeon Creek. A lot of people rent boats to go to Widgeon, which I think is fine, but I don’t recommend this for Pitt Lake unless you know what you’re doing. There were a few canoers struggling to cross the Pitt River and we talked to the guys who rent the boats and they said that despite giving detailed instructions, a lot of people still struggle and have had to be rescued on more than one occasion. Crossing the Pitt River is the biggest challenge visiting Widgeon Creek, but the rest of the trip isn’t too challenging. Pitt Lake is a whole different beast with the wind, so I wouldn’t recommend it without prior experience.

But overall, this was a fantastic trip for us. Even though this can be a busy late, I loved the solitude that we got in April. The nice weather definitely made a big difference and I’d be willing to do the trip again. I really liked the campsite and the lake. Getting up to paddle early was probably the best decision that we made. I’d love to go back and explore as far as Osprey Creek, or even to the end of the lake. We got back to the boat launch before 11am and there were two guys launching a double kayak that were planning to go all the way to the end of the lake and back, which I thought was overly ambitious. I think next time, I’ll try to hit Osprey Creek for two nights instead. Either way, I recommend this trip for intermediate paddlers.