Heather Trail Backpacking Trip: Kicking Horse

October 3, 2026September 25, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

E.C. Manning Provincial Park is my favourite park in BC, so I’ve written about it a lot. I first day hiked to 3 Brothers Mountain in 2016, after which I backpacked the entire Heather Trail from Blackwall Road to Cayuse Flats. In 2022, I camped for two nights at Buckhorn Campsite with my Girl Guides and in 2026, I returned to spend one night at Kicking Horse Campground with my friends.

These campsites used to be first-come, first-served, but the trail has gotten so popular in the last few years that BC Parks introduced a reservation system. I think this was a good decision, given how crowded it can get, but I do wish they didn’t release all the sites so far in advance. In this case, we did not pre-reserve our campsites, but when another trip got interrupted by wildfires, we were able to snag two sites at Kicking Horse Campground at the last minute.

3 Brothers Mountain is located on the first half of the Heather Trail. Most people only hike as far as 3 Brothers, but if you continue on, you’ll arrive at both Kicking Horse and Nicomen Lake. The trail officially ends at Nicomen Lake, where you can turn around and hike back, or if you have two cars, continue on to Grainger Creek and Cayuse Flats (which is what I did on my 2018 trip). The most popular option for overnight trips is to camp at Buckhorn and day hike to 3 Brothers. There’s an impressive display of wildflowers in late July and early August along this section of the trail.

The trailhead starts at the top of Blackwall Road, so hikers can skip most of the elevation gain in the car. If you just want to see the wildflowers, you can do a short loop hike on the Paintbrush Trail, or you can hike downhill to Buckhorn Camp, followed by a short uphill through the forest to reach some truly breaktaking sub-alpine meadows. Like I said, I first hiked this trail in 2016, but I keep returning every couple of years because it’s just so damn scenic!

On this visit, I hiked with my girlfriends, Adriana and Amy. We arrived at the trailhead in time to eat lunch and then started the 13km hike to Kicking Horse Camp. The first 5km are mostly in the trees, but even in the forest, there are tons of wildflowers to steal your attention. It didn’t take us long to get to Buckhorn Camp, which is a huge site with a gorgeous cooking shelter and lots of tent pads. It is a bit of a slog through the forest after Buckhorn, but it’s quickly forgotten when you reach the meadows.

The rest of the trail boasts fantastic views of the backcountry. You hike through meadow after meadow until you reach the junction for 3 Brothers Peak. The peak is the most challenging part of the hike, with a steep uphill to the ridge, after which you get to meander along the ridgeline to the summit. We opted to skip the summit on the way in, instead continuing all the way to camp, determined to return and hike to the top the following day.

It was my 4th time doing 3 Brothers, but it was only my second time continuing past the junction. In my opinion, some of the most scenic meadows on the trail are between the junction and Kicking Horse. The trail is fairly easy through this section and it was mostly downhill to camp, but it still took us a while to hike because we stopped so frequently for photos. We took a long break in one of the meadows before strolling into camp shortly after 6pm.

Compared to the rest of the hike, the campsite isn’t particularly scenic. The last time I camped there, there were no reservations and I ended up with a pretty terrible overflow campsite, so having the reservation helped a lot. We found a nice tent pad near one of the meadows to settle in for the evening. There is a small view of some of the surrounding mountains, but overall, most of the sites are in the trees. Buckhorn Campsite was definitely recently upgraded, but in my opinion, Kicking Horse could use a facelift. The outhouse was getting very full, but at least there was a bear cache. Unfortunately the water source isn’t great. It’s just a small creek and it gets fairly low in the summer. We were still able to get water, but the creek at Buckhorn is much nicer.

We had a fun evening hanging out and making dinner, but it was very buggy. I find the mosquitoes usually don’t like me that much and if I set up my thermacell they’ll usually leave me alone. But Amy was another case entirely. I’ve never seen someone attract so many mosquitoes as Amy. It felt like the thermacell wasn’t working at all, but whenever Amy would leave, the mosquitoes would too, so I think the lure of her blood was just so compelling that it overpowered the thermacell.

Amy and Adriana shared a tent, leaving me to sleep by myself. Normally I wouldn’t mind, but it did get very cold overnight and I could have used a second body in the tent, but Amy and Adriana were both cold too. When I camped at Kicking Horse overnight in 2018, our water froze, so I don’t think it matters what time of year you visit, it’s always cold there. We did experience a very weird phenomenon while camping here though. Overnight it seemed that all of the sound was reversed around the tents. When someone would get up, we would hear them on the opposite side of the tent to where they actually were. It was kind of freaky and we recently learned that Manning Park is supposedly haunted, so maybe this was related (ooo, spooky!).

We returned to summit 3 Brothers the following day. It was hot, so it was a bit of a slog getting back to the junction as there is limited shade along the trail and several uphill sections on the way back. But saving the summit for Sunday was a good idea. I think a lot of day hikers stay in the frontcountry sites on Friday and Saturday night and it felt much less busy on the trail on Sunday. We dumped a bunch of our gear at the junction to lighten our packs for the climb, but we made sure to take all of our food and smellies with us so as not to attract bears. A lot of people just leave their entire backpack at the junction. Please don’t do this as we don’t want to attract bears to the area.

It’s only ~1km to the summit, but it is steep and exposed, so it was a bit tiring. There’s a little bit of light scrambling through a few sections of rock, but it’s pretty easy and I would say it barely counts as scrambling. We had lunch at the summit, but the enjoyment was interrupted by the mosquitoes. Eventually Amy gave up and started hiking back down the ridge and me and Adriana were able to get a small respite.

The hike out was as enjoyable as the hike in. The sad aspect of the hike was that with the uninterrupted view of the mountains, we could see several wildfires burning nearby. I expected to see water bombers attending to the fires, but unfortunately we didn’t see any. When I got home, I looked up the fires to see where they were and determined that all of the fires that were visible were actually burning across the border in Washington State. At the time, Trump was going on about how Canada needs to control its wildfire smoke, so it was particularly galling to see so many fires being left to burn near the border. This was in mid-July and several of these fires did end up crossing the border where they burned through kilometres of Manning’s forest. It’s been heartbreaking for me to watch, especially since I love this park so much. I feel like I’ve been grieving trees all summer.

We returned to the car in the mid-afternoon and treated ourselves to burgers in Hope before returning home. Unfortunately, we hit the Sunday evening rush back to the city and sat for far too long on Highway 1, but it was always be worth it to explore the little piece of paradise that is the Heather Trail!

Alouette Lake Kayak Trip

September 5, 2026August 21, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

It’s been an interesting summer for kayaking. Usually we do a lot of kayaking in the Spring, focusing mostly on day trips, and one multi-night trip before the end of the season. This Spring, we barely did any kayaking aside from a long weekend trip to Pitt Lake. Seth’s been in school, so it’s hard to accommodate his schedule, but I wanted to do a second trip and we opted to visit Alouette Lake in Golden Ears Park in mid-July. I really wanted to rush up to the lake after work on Friday so that we could spend 2 nights on the lake, but Seth had too much school work, so instead, we drove to the lake early on Saturday morning.

Alouette Lake is a well known destination in the lower mainland. It’s located in Golden Ears Provincial Park, one of the easiest to access locations for frontcountry camping. As a result, the lake is always very busy on the weekends. It’s hard to get frontcountry campsites and you need a free day pass just to enter the park. It used to be easier to backcountry camp in the park, but they’ve recently brought in a reservation system for Viewpoint Beach and Panorama Ridge, so now you have to plan in advance if you want to go backpacking.

Fortunately, it’s still easy to plan marine camping. There are several marine campsites located on the lake and they are all first-come-first-serve. You do need a permit to camp there, but they’re available at camping.bcparks.ca for $5 per person, per night, 2 weeks before your trip. I’m not sure how popular the campsites are in mid-summer. Even though we visited in the middle of July, it rained on and off on Saturday morning, likely deterring some people and meaning that it wasn’t busy. There’s not that many campsites and not a lot of room for overflow, so finding a site could be a problem on a nice weekend.

Alouette Lake is one big, long lake, but it almost feels like two lakes because it gets so narrow at the midpoint of the lake that it gives the illusion of two lakes. Even from South Beach, you can see all the way up the lake to what is known as “the narrows”. There are 3 marine campsites on the lake, as well as East Beach Campsite, which I don’t include because it’s located at the south end of the lake and is accessible by vehicle. I believe it has its own booking website, but the other sites are all FCFS.

The first site is called Moyer Creek. It’s located roughly 10km from South Beach, approximately 1km before the narrows. The second site is located in the narrows and is aptly called, The Narrows. The final site is called Alouette River and is located at the very back of the lake, roughly 18km from South Beach. My ideal trip would have been to paddle to Moyer Creek, camp two nights, and day trip to Alouette River in between. But since we only had one night, we just paddled to Moyer Creek.

It can get very windy on Alouette Lake, so I always advise to paddle early. The wind is almost always blowing north, meaning it should be an easy paddle up the lake and a challenging paddle on the way back. We’ve done day trips on the lake a few times, going as far as Gold Creek and North Beach, which is a 5km paddle from South Beach, but we’d never been further. It was raining when we left South Beach at 9am, but the water was relatively calm as we paddled to Gold Creek. We took a snack break at the entrance to Gold Creek before continuing on towards Moyer Creek.

Unfortunately, it was at this point in the trip that the wind picked up, earlier than we expected, and just our luck, it was blowing south. This meant that we had a pretty rough headwind for the last 5km to Moyer Creek. It wasn’t so windy that it was unsafe, but it was windy enough that it wasn’t a comfortable paddle and it required a lot more energy to battle the wind. We put our heads down and paddled hard until we got to the back of the lake.

The campsite is a little bit confusing upon first visit. There’s not really one central place to camp, it’s more a series of small beaches with campsites cut out of the woods. There was only one person camping there when we arrived, so we had first pick of the rest of the campsites and we got a nice spot at the back of a small beach. A lot of the sites are in the trees, so make sure to pull your boat ashore and walk through the woods when looking for a site. There is a more central area where several of the campsites are, but there are more located around the corner if you don’t see any available. The challenge is that, depending where you camp, it may make it difficult to access the outhouse, bear cache, or creek, which are all located around the main area. The bear cache looked brand new.

Fortunately, the rain stopped by the time we arrived at camp, but we set up our tarp and tent and hoped it wouldn’t return. The sun looked like it might try to make an appearance, so we set up on the beach to have lunch and enjoyed a few hours of solitude while the wind blew whitecaps around the middle of the lake. Eventually, a few other groups arrived in canoes, but in total, there were only 4 groups that stayed overnight.

The wind died down in the afternoon, so we decided to go for another paddle while the weather was calm. I’d been on the fence about if we should stay at Moyer Creek or The Narrows, and I wanted to see the other campsite. I picked Moyer Creek because I figured it would have a better view down the lake. We paddled towards the narrows to check out that site and concluded that we made the right choice staying at Moyer Creek. There’s a nice view from the Narrows, but I think that site is more popular among power boaters and day trippers. There was a large group having a BBQ next to their beached motorboat. I’m sure they had a great time, but they were very loud and it wasn’t the vibe Seth and I envisioned for the weekend, so we were glad that we stayed at Moyer Creek.

We paddled through the narrows into the second part of the lake, but it was too far to go to the back of the lake. The clouds cleared and the sun finally made an appearance. The water was dead calm as we paddled, a rarity for mid-afternoon, and with the sun out, it got pretty hot. Eventually we turned around and paddled back to Moyer Creek to go for a swim. The water was cold, but not so cold you couldn’t hang out in it. Alouette Lake is interesting because it’s a reservoir, meaning that at some point, the river valley was flooded. It’s obvious by the many tree trunks either poking out of the water or submerged just below the surface. You need to watch where you paddle, but it made for a fun swim, with lots of tree trunks to stand on.

We went to bed fairly early and the wind picked up again. It made for a noisy night as I could hear the wind blowing through the trees. I got up to pee around 2am and almost had a heart attack when I shined my headlamp around camp to find a stag staring at me from no more than 10 feet away. It definitely gave credence to the phrase “a deer in headlights”, because it did not move and we both stared at each other as I peed on the other side of the campsite. It was a beautiful animal with gorgeous antlers, but a little too close for comfort. I’m glad I saw it though because I heard it blundering around in the woods the rest of the night and if I hadn’t seen it, I definitely would have thought it was a bear.

We got up early the next morning to get ahead of the wind on our way back to South Beach. The forecast was still calling for a south facing wind, but I was skeptical we’d be lucky enough to get a tailwind. I was right to doubt because despite our early rise, it was very windy and it was definitely a north facing wind. This means we had to paddle against a headwind in both directions – just our luck! I was hesitant to go out in the wind because I could see white caps forming towards the middle of the lake, but we decided to try since it was only calling for more wind later.

It was definitely not my favourite paddle. It was choppy the entire way back to Gold Creek. We didn’t encounter too many problems, but it wasn’t enjoyable and it was definitely more effort. We stopped at North Beach for a snack and then powered our way back to South Beach. I always hate paddling back to South Beach because you can see your final destination the entire time, so it feels like it takes forever to get there. It was really busy at South Beach and we had a challenge to land and load our kayaks around all of the people.

So overall, it was a fun, but somewhat challenging trip. It felt too short and I would like to go back in the future to do two nights. The real benefit of the trip is that it’s so close to home and unlike Widgeon Creek, the campground isn’t that busy. It’s a good option for a weekend trip and I think in the future, I may try to visit in the Spring. We had a lot of fun at Pitt Lake in late April, and generally, I think it’s a good time to camp and paddle before it gets really busy in the summer.

10 Paddling Trips near Vancouver

August 29, 2026August 21, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

A few weeks ago I shared a list of 10 Easy Day Paddles near Vancouver. In keeping with the paddling theme, I’d like to highlight 10 Paddling Trips near Vancouver! We’re lucky to have easy access to excellent paddling routes in Southwest BC and these are a few of my favourite overnight and multi-day trips. Please be aware that overnight tripping does add complexity to the activity and you should make sure that your skills and experience match that complexity. I highly recommend taking a paddling course from Paddle Canada before attempting any of these trips as you want to ensure you know how to self-rescue and are familiar with the basic paddle strokes. Despite canoeing being very popular in Canada, I do think it is more challenging than kayaking.

Twin Islands

A kayaker paddles towards Jug Island on a sunny day with calm waters in Indian Arm. Jug Island is located near Belcarra Regional Park in Vancouver, BC.

Twin Islands also made my list of day trips and it’s a popular overnight location for a reason. It’s only a 5km paddle from Deep Cove to Twin Islands and there are several tent pads located on the north island (camping is not permitted on the south island). While you can access Twin Islands from either Belcarra or Deep Cove, there is no overnight parking at Belcarra. Kayak rentals are available from Deep Cove and Cates Park and there is no overnight camping fee. Due to the proximity to the lower mainland, this campsite can get extremely busy. If you’re going on a weekend, I recommend leaving early, or avoid altogether by going on a week day. There is an outhouse on the island and please make sure to back out all your garbage and be respectful of other paddlers.

Granite Falls

Two kayakers paddle up the still waters of Indian Arm, with the mountains in the background and a steep cliff extending into the water near Vancouver, BC.

If you want a more ambitious trip than Twin Islands, continue north up Indian Arm to Bishop Creek or Granite Falls, where there are two more free campsites. Bishop Creek is approximately 14km from Deep Cove, while Granite Falls is 18km. Granite Falls is beautiful, with a large cascading waterfall, but it’s extremely popular among both paddlers and power boaters. I think this is a great trip, but honestly, the atmosphere on a busy weekend is not great. It attracts more of a party scene, meaning that it’s very crowded, noisy, and very few people practice bear safety. There are outhouses and bear caches, but the caches are undersized for the amount of people that visit the site. I recommend doing this trip on a week day, or consider staying at Bishop Creek instead. Some people like to do this as a multi-night trip, staying at Twin Islands on the way there or back. Leave early to return to Deep Cove as the wind gets high in the afternoon. Kayak rentals are available from Deep Cove and Cates Park.

Widgeon Creek

Widgeon Creek is a very popular summer paddling destination in Pitt Meadows. It was also on my list of day trips and it is a great option for an overnight trip for beginners. Park at the main lot on Pitt Lake and paddle across the Pitt River to Widgeon Creek, which is a leisurely 6km paddle to the campsite. From there you can do a day hike to Widgeon Falls. This area is very busy in the summer, but head out in April or May to avoid the crowds. Be careful crossing the Pitt River, which can have strong currents, and leave early to avoid the wind. Flows in the creek can be very low later in the summer, meaning you may have to walk your boat in some sections, especially at low tide. You can rent boats from Katzie in the summer, or through independent operators that deliver the boats to the lot. There is a bear cache and outhouse at the campsite and there is no fee to camp, but you do have to pay for parking at Pitt Lake in the summer.

Pitt Lake

Pitt Lake is located in Pitt Meadows and is a trip I recommend for slightly more experienced paddlers, only because it can get very windy on the lake. There are two BC Parks campsites located on the east side of the lake, in Golden Ears Park. Raven Campground is located approximately 9km from the boat launch and Osprey Campground is another 8km from Raven. Paddle to the far east side of the lake along the dike before following the coastline up to the campsite. There are some shallow areas along the edge of the lake that may require you to paddle out into the lake to avoid getting stuck in the mud flats. This is a tidally influenced lake, so make sure you set up camp above the high tide line. A permit is required to camp at these sites, it’s $5 per person, per night, from camping.bcparks.ca. There is an outhouse, but no bear cache.

Alouette Lake

Alouette Lake in Golden Ears Park is a popular location for day trippers in the summer, with lots of people exploring Gold Creek. However, there are also 3 BC Parks campsites on this long lake, two are located approximately 10km from South Beach, Moyer Creek and The Narrows, and a third, Alouette River, is located at the far north end of the lake, another 8km from Moyer Creek. Similar to other lakes, Alouette can get very windy in the afternoon. A permit is required to camp at these sites, it’s $5 per person, per night, from camping.bcparks.ca. There is an outhouse and bear cache at Moyer Creek, I’m not sure about the other campsites. You can usually rent canoes from South Beach in the summer.

Plumper Cove

Plumper Cove also made my list of day trips under the title of Keats Island. It’s the shortest paddle on this list and a great option for beginners because it’s only 3km from Gibsons. You can rent kayaks from Alpha Adventures at the marina and paddle across the channel to Keats Island, following the coastline north until you reach Plumper Cove Provincial Park. This park is primarily marine access and attracts a lot of power boaters. It’s a huge site with lots of space for camping. It is first-come-first-serve, and you’ll need to bring cash to pay the on-site ranger. Since there is a water crossing from Gibsons to Keats, pay close attention to the wind and do not attempt to cross if it is a windy day.

Sechelt Inlet

Sechelt Inlet is located just north of Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast. It’s a great option for multi-day trips and offers a more remote experience than some of the other trips on this list. There are more than a half dozen campsites located throughout the inlet, with some of my favourites at Nine Mile Beach, Kunechin Point, and Halfway Beach. The boat launch is located at Lamb’s Bay and you can rent boats from Pedals and Paddles. The campsites are all free and most of them have outhouses, though I’m not sure if they have bear caches. I recommend staying for at least two nights on this trip. As usual, beware of wind in the afternoon.

Gulf Islands

There are lots of options available for paddling in the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, located just east of Vancouver Island (Salt Spring, Pender, Saturna, Mayne Island, etc). Plan your trip around where you want to visit. I’ve done trips out of both Pender Island and Sidney. Pender is a safe option because you don’t have to do any open water crossings, whereas some of the other sites require water crossings out of Sidney, which are more appropriate for experienced paddlers. There’s a great first-come-first-serve campsite at Rum Island and another at D’arcy Island. Beaumont Campground on Pender Island has closed, but you can still make reservations at Shingle Bay. In addition, there’s a frontcountry site at Sidney Spit. Some sites require reservations from reservation.pc.gc.ca, but the others are pay on site, so bring cash. You can rent boats from Blue Dog Kayaking in Sidney or Pender Island Adventures on Pender Island.

Copeland Islands

A female kayaker smiles at the camera from her yellow Boreal Storm kayak while the sun sets over the water and leaves a pink glow over everything in the Copeland Islands Provincial Park on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia, Canada.

The Copeland Islands are located north of Powell River on the Sunshine Coast and can be accessed from Lund. There are several campsites located throughout the collection of islands and it’s approximately 10km from Lund to the North Campground. I believe the campsites can get pretty busy in the summer, but the water is super warm in this area, so it’s a great option to visit in May or September. It’s free to camp and there is an outhouse. This is a great 1-night trip, or you could extend it to paddle into Desolation Sound for a few more nights. I’m not aware of any boat rentals in Lund.

Desolation Sound

Finally, Desolation Sound is a beautiful provincial park reserve north of Powell River on the Sunshine Coast. You can access it from either Lund (via the Copeland Islands) or Okeover Arm. It’s a large area that warrants at least a few days to properly explore. The most popular campsites are on the Curme Islands, but these can get very busy in the summer with both paddlers and power boaters, so the campsites at Bold Head and Tenedos Bay are good alternatives. You do have to do an open water crossing to access the Curme Islands, so it’s not recommended for beginners. There is no freshwater, so make sure you bring enough for your entire trip. Permits are required from camping.bcparks.ca and cost $5 per person, per night. All campgrounds have outhouses and some of the mainland sites have bear caches. You can rent boats from Powell River Sea Kayak near Okeover.