14 Free Backcountry Campsites in BC

July 27, 2025July 15, 2025 / Maria / 1 Comment

Welcome back to the second part of my 2-part series to help you get camping with minimal advance planning, in any season! Part 1 focused on permitted campsites (that don’t require reservations) and Part 2 focuses on unpermitted (free) campsites!

Camping is incredibly popular in BC, especially near Vancouver. The popular campsites require reservations that release 4 months out and being coordinated to plan so far in advance can be a real challenge for people. It might seem like all the good campsites are booked, but there are lots of great options that don’t require advance bookings!

Why do some campsites require a permit and others are free?

The simple answer is that a lot of free campsites are located on crown land or in BC recreation sites (also considered crown land). The land doesn’t have park status, so it generally receives limited maintenance or it is maintained by users and volunteers. As a result, free campsites are often more rustic than traditional permitted campsites. There are lots of campsites located on crown land that are privately managed, either by for-profit or non-profit groups, and those campsites will usually have a campsite fee to go towards ongoing maintenance, though some non-profits will fundraise for the upkeep of facilities, like on the Sunshine Coast Trail.

That said, there are still some free campsites located in provincial parks, especially the further you get from the lower mainland. I don’t know the exact reason why some campsites have permits and others don’t, but I think it’s likely related to the popularity of a park and how much maintenance the park gets. For example, I visited South Chilcotin Provincial Park last year for 6 nights and didn’t pay any camping fees, but the park is very remote, has limited infrastructure, and several of the places we camped were considered wild camping (no outhouse or bear cache). When sites become more popular, permits will often be introduced.

If you are visiting a free campsite that does not have bear cache facilities or an outhouse, it is absolutely essential to practice bear safety and leave no trace practices. You must hang your food or bring a bear bin. In addition, you must be prepared to dig catholes or use a wag-bag, and pack out your toilet paper, pads, and tampons. It is not acceptable to poop in the woods without burying it, or to leave your toilet paper around the backcountry. We are so lucky to have access to incredible backcountry in Canada and we need to respect it.

Campsites Near Vancouver

Hanging Lake

Hanging Lake is located in Whistler, sharing a trailhead with the Rainbow Lake trail on Alta Lake Road. Rainbow Lake is Whistler’s water supply, and as such, it’s a protected watershed area, so you’re not allowed to camp there. But if you hike a few more kilometres over Rainbow Pass to Hanging Lake, you can enjoy a nice view from the pass and a relaxing night at the lake. It’s a 10km trail to the lake, but the real challenge comes from climbing 800m of elevation along the way. There’s a fair bit of space for tents at Hanging Lake and there is an outhouse and a bear cache. You can also access this trail from the Rainbow Madeley trailhead near Madeley Lake.

Tikwalus

In my opinion, Tikwalus Heritage Trail is an underrated trail along the Fraser Canyon. To access it, you take Highway 1 past Hope until you pass Alexandria Bridge Provincial Park. The Tikwalus Heritage Trail has been used by indigenous peoples for generations, and in more recent history, it was used by fur traders. It’s only 6km along a semi-loop trail to the campsite, but you’ll climb almost 800m in elevation, so it’s steeper than Hanging Lake. Most of the trail is in the trees, but there are some beautiful mountain views from the campsite. There’s lots of space for tents, as well as an outhouse and a bear cache. There’s no water source directly at the campsite, so fill up at the creeks on the way up to save yourself having to backtrack.

Brunswick Lake / Deeks Lake

Deeks Lake and Brunswick Lake are both located on the Howe Sound Crest Trail, but are accessible from the northern trailhead at Porteau Cove if you’re not doing the 30km thru hike from Cypress Mountain. Both lakes are beautiful and offer an easier alternative to the strenuous Howe Sound Crest Trail. It’s 6.5km to Deeks Lake (which is the smaller site) and 10km to Brunswick Lake, however there’s almost 1200m of elevation gain along the way. Most of the elevation gain is in the first 6.5km to Deeks Lake, making this part of the trail the steepest on my list. Of the two lakes, Brunswick is the most scenic and has more room for camping. It’s also important to note there are no facilities at either site, so be prepared to hang your food and dig catholes.

Flatiron

Keeping in theme with the previous trails, the trail to Flatiron is just as steep, climbing over 800m in ~5.5km, with most of the elevation gain in the first 3.5km. It’s located in the Coquihalla Summit Recreation Area off Highway 5 and shares a trailhead with Needle Peak. The first section of the trail is a huge slog through the forest, but the views are incredibly rewarding. Once you pass the junction for Needle Peak, there’s a small lake where you can camp. You can also camp at the summit of Flatiron, but there’s no water source up there. There are no facilities at either site, so be prepared to hang your food and dig catholes.

Brew Lake

Brew Lake is less steep than some of the other trails on this list, but still a big hike, covering 900m of elevation gain over 8.5km. However, if you have access to a 4×4 vehicle, you can reduce some of that distance along forestry roads. We parked along Brew Creek FSR, at the entrance to Branch 50, and hiked the entire trail from there, including 3.5km along other FSRs. This isn’t a very popular site, so it’s a nice place to go to escape the crowds. There are no facilities, so be prepared to hang your food and dig catholes.

Fairview Bay / Manzanita Bluffs

We have finally arrived at some options that are not super steep! Both of these sites are located on the Sunshine Coast Trail, which has lots of possibilities for backpacking trips. The whole trail is 180km long, but there are lots of sections that can be done over a day or two. The campsite at Manzanita Bluffs, located on the north end of the trail, is especially beautiful. I also really like the campsites at Fairview Bay and Rainy Day Lake, located on the south end of the trail. All campsites along the trail have outhouses and most of them have bear caches or huts. They do not all have water sources, so plan accordingly. While these sites are free, I do recommend a donation to qPAWS if you opt to stay in one of the huts.

Campsites Accessible by 4×4 Vehicle

Tricouni Meadows

Tricouni Meadows is a popular campsite located northwest of Squamish. The trailhead is located on Branch 200, off of Squamish River FSR. If you can make it all the way to the trailhead, the hike to the campsite is just over 3km, with 250m of elevation. However, there was a large wash-out on Branch 200 when I did this hike in 2022. If you park at the wash-out, it adds 3km to the trail. In 2022, some vehicles could get through, but I’ve heard it’s gotten worse, so play it safe. There are 3 lakes near the meadows, with the campsite located at the middle lake: Spearhead Lake. It’s not a large campsite, so I recommend getting there early. There are no facilities, so be prepared to hang your food and dig catholes.

Blanca Lake

Blanca Lake is another campsite located northwest of Squamish. In general, I would say this road is in better shape than the road to Tricouni, but it’s further away. The trailhead is located off E300 on the Elaho Mainline. The trail is 4.5km, with almost 500m of elevation gain. It starts off pretty steep, but then levels out along the middle. The view from Blanca Lake is incredible and there is tons of space for camping. Give yourself extra time to explore around the alpine once you get to the lake. There are no facilities, so be prepared to hang your food and dig catholes.

Conglomerate Flats / Manson Ridge

Both of these campsites are located on the HBC Heritage Trail that runs 70km between Hope and Tulameen. Manson’s Campsite is located on the Hope end of the trail (off Peers Creek Road), so you don’t need 4×4 to access this site, but if you want to access Conglomerate Flats for a night, then you need 4×4 to get the trailhead at Jacobson Lake Rec Site (off Tulameen FSR). Both sites are beautiful, though Conglomerate Flats is the more stunning of the two. It’s 6.5km and 600m of elevation gain to Manson’s Camp from the southern trailhead, and 2.5km and 150m of elevation gain to Conglomerate Flats from Jacobson Lake. Both campsites have outhouses and bear caches.

Winter Campsites

Falls Lake / Zoa Subpeak

Both of these sites are located in the Coquihalla Summit Rec Area off highway 5. Falls Lake is a great site for beginners because you only have to snowshoe 1km along the road (which isn’t plowed in the winter) and 1km to the lake. Zoa subpeak is a bit more challenging as it’s 550m of elevation gain over 4km. Both trails are located in simple terrain, but make sure to stop at Zoa Subpeak – if you try and snowshoe all the way to the true peak, you will be entering challenging avalanche terrain. I’ve never actually been to Falls Lake, but I believe there is an outhouse. There are no facilities at Zoa Subpeak.

Ottomite Peak

Ottomite Peak is also located in the Coquihalla Summit Rec Area off highway 5. The trailhead is at the Zopkios Rest Area. It’s a 4.5km trail with 300m of elevation gain to get to the summit. It was completely empty when I camped there, but the general area is popular among ski tourers, so you may see people along the trails for the day. The trail is in simple terrain, but always exercise caution – in general, I always recommend taking an AST1 course. It’s not a challenging trail, but there are no facilities.

Water Access Campsites

Widgeon Creek

Widgeon Creek is located near the lower mainland and is extremely popular on summer weekends. It’s a ~5 paddle across the Pitt River and up Widgeon Creek to get to the campsite. You can rent canoes or kayaks at Pitt Lake. There are lots of campsites and great facilities, including a large bear cache and 2 outhouses. But I recommend getting their early on a nice weekend to beat the crowds. From the campsite, you can do a day hike to Widgeon Falls.

Twin Islands / Granite Falls

Twin Islands and Granite Falls are two campsites located in Indian Arm, so they are very accessible from the lower mainland. As a result, they are very popular on summer weekends, attracting paddle boats and motorized boats. You can rent kayaks from Deep Cove. It’s only 5km to paddle to Twin Islands, so this is the easier campsite to access. You’re only allowed to camp on the north island, but it has an outhouse (no bear cache since it’s an island). Granite Falls is at the far end of Indian Arm and is an 18km paddle from Deep Cove, so you should be an experienced paddler if you want to do this trip. It has 2 outhouses and a bear cache, but it’s severely undersized. Be prepared for northern afternoon winds.

Nine Mile Point / Kunechin Point

A photo from Kunechin Point in Sechelt Inlet on a kayaking trip, with the water and mountains in the background on the Sunshine Coast in BC.

Nine Mile Point Beach and Kunechin Point Campsite are both located in Sechelt Inlet on the Sunshine Coast. There’s a kayak rental place at the end of Sechelt Inlet Road, where you can launch from. It’s ~6km to paddle to Nine Mile Beach and ~10km to paddle to Kunechin Point, but the latter involves crossing the arm of the inlet, which can get windy. Both are beautiful sites and have outhouses, but no bear caches.

Favourite Hikes in Southwestern BC: Part V

December 4, 2024November 15, 2024 / Maria / 1 Comment

It’s been over 10 years since I moved to British Columbia, so every 2 years I compile a list of my favourite hikes from the past 2 years. You can view my other favourite hikes in Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. This collection is my favourite trails that I hiked in 2023 and 2024. It’s always a mix of day hikes and backpacking trips!

Two hikers lay on Starvation Lake on floating pads with the mountains and forest in the background on a warm, sunny day in Summer, near Squamish, BC.

#10 Starvation Lake

This hike is super easy and accessible, but chances are, you’ve never heard of it. The alpine snow was pretty slow to melt in the summer of 2024, so one day in July we decided to check out some of the lesser known trails in Squamish. We wanted to stay at a low elevation and take advantage of lake swimming season. We had Brunch at Fergie’s and then continued to the end of Paradise Valley Road to start this hike. The trail follows the Cheakamus River before a gentle hike uphill on the Sea to Sky Trail. We hiked as far as the Starvation Lake Rec Site and spent several hours lounging around and swimming in the warm water. You can continue hiking further to connect with the Sea to Sky highway (if you have two cars), but we enjoyed a round trip from the lake. (6km roundtrip, 130m elevation gain)

A group of snowshoers head downhill in winter on a snowy mountain with snow covered trees and a view of Vancouver city in the background from Brockton Point in Seymour Mountain Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada.

#9 Brockton Point

Brockton Point is well known among the skiing and snowshoeing crowd. It’s a hike I’ve done several times, but I only started to appreciate it in the past few years. I recommend doing it in the winter, just make sure to book a free parking pass for Mount Seymour Backcountry or you’ll be denied access. Recently I’ve been ski touring up to Brockton Point and then skiing back down through the resort trails, but it’s also a really nice snowshoeing trail. The trail starts at the back of the parking lot and hikes parallel to the ski run. Most users continue past Brockton Point to Pump Peak, but this takes you into avalanche terrain, so don’t go further without the proper gear and training. I always stop at Brockton because the view is great there anyways! (6km roundtrip, 270m elevation gain)

A photo of a tent in a meadow just before sunrise, as the sun turns the surrounding mountains orange on a clear sky day overlooking the alpine and forest around Jade Lake in Mount Revelstoke National Park in BC.

#8 Jade Lake

In line with my other posts, I’m not afraid to stretch the boundaries of what is considered “southwestern BC”. Jade Lake is located 6 hours away from Vancouver in Mount Revelstoke National Park, so it’s definitely a bit of a stretch to include it in this list, but it’s a great hike! Eva and Jade Lake can be done as either a backpacking trip, or a long day trip. It’s a little over 20km round trip if you want to do both lakes in a day, so I opted to visit overnight. The hike starts from the top of Mount Revelstoke and meanders through beautiful alpine meadows. After Eva Lake, the hike climbs up the pass for a beautiful view of Jade Lake. Most people stop at the Pass, but it’s definitely worth it to add the extra 2km down to Jade Lake, which is a gorgeous alpine lake that receives limited visitors compared to the rest of the park. (20km roundtrip, 525m elevation gain)

A hiker stands on the edge of a rock next to Widgeon Creek with the forest and mountains in the background on a sunny day

#7 Widgeon Falls

Widgeon Falls is a really unique hike because it’s only accessible by boat! In the summer, you can rent canoes from Pitt Lake and paddle across the Pitt River and up Widgeon Creek to the Widgeon Campsite (~1.5 hour paddle). It’s a pretty safe paddle, but you definitely want to be prepared if you’ve never canoed before. The Pitt River is tidally influenced and can become pretty fast moving, so research the current conditions before visiting. I think the best time to go is early spring or early summer. Avoid freshet, which causes high flows in the river, but also avoid late summer because then the flows in the creek can get too low. From the campsite, you can hike through the forest and along the river to Widgeon Falls. It’s an easy hike, but makes for a great adventure! (9km roundtrip paddle, 6km roundtrip hike)

A photo of Palmers Pond on a summer day, with the green meadows, forest, and mountains in the background, on the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC Trail) near Hope in British Columbia, Canada.

#6 HBC Heritage Trail

If you know me well, you might be surprised to see this hike on the list. I did not have a great time on this hike. It’s 80km long and me and Carolyn completed the entire trail in 3 days, resulting in a foot injury. I was quite miserable along a lot of the trail, but it was definitely a type 2 kind of fun because I still think about this trail all the time. Like the name suggests, it’s a heritage trail that connects Hope to Tulameen and was used during the fur trade and by First Nations. The trail has a lot of forest walking and is not for the faint of heart after the 2021 flood caused a lot of blowdowns and washouts. Most of the trail has now been repaired by amazing volunteers, but the real reason you do this hike is for the solitude. We encountered a lot of people when we passed through Lodestone Lake Rec Site, but otherwise, we didn’t see a single person on the trail in the entire 3 day weekend we were hiking. Despite the challenges, I think this is a really special trail and you will be rewarded with views at Conglomerate Flats and Palmer’s Pond. It’s a great option if you like a challenge! (80km, 3300m elevation gain, 4-6 days)

A female hiker stands next to a fence, looking out at the fast moving water of Sechelt Inlet near Skookumchuck Narrows, with the mountains in the background on a sunny, summer day, on the Sunshine Coast, BC.

#5 Skookumchuck Narrows

This is a small and easy trail on the Sunshine Coast, but I really enjoyed visiting it. After you take the ferry to Langdale, drive all the way north to Earls Cove and take the turn off to Egmont. It’s a relatively easy hike, so make a day of it and visit the small village of Egmont and go for a swim in Waugh Lake on the way back. There’s a tiny cafe along the trail, so you can reward yourself with a little treat. The trail hikes through the woods to a series of viewpoints at the Sechelt Rapids. The main reason to visit is to see the series of rapids that develop during tide change, which are popular among kayakers and whitewater enthusiasts. The views of Sechelt Inlet are gorgeous, and it’s really fun to watch the thrill seekers playing in the rapids! (9km roundtrip, 150m elevation gain)

A female hiker floats in an alpine lake while swimming at Blanca Lake, with the mountains in the background on a blue sky, sunny day, north of Squamish, BC

#4 Blanca Lake

Blanca Lake is still a relatively little known hike, but it is quickly becoming popular. It’s located really far down the Squamish River FSR, off the Elaho Mainline on E300 line. 4WD is required to get to the trailhead. You could try taking a car partway up the E300, but it’s 10km long and completely exposed. We picked up a few hitchhikers who were getting ready to quit from the heat. If you make it to the trailhead, it’s a short but steep hike up to the alpine. There’s a steep climb in the first 1.5km, but then the incline is more gentle for the remaining 3km up to the lake. You can visit as a day hike or an overnight. We stayed one night and there is a lot of space for tents. If you have the time, stay 2 nights to explore the surrounding alpine area. There’s no trails, but there’s lots of terrain to explore! (9km roundtrip, 500m elevation gain)

A landscape photo of the trees, mountains, and ponds, from the top of Mount Steele in Tetrahedron Provincial Park on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada.

#3 Tetrahedron Park

Tetrahedron Park is located on the lower Sunshine Coast and has an amazing hut system that can be utilized all year round. Drive to Sechelt and take Sechelt Inlet Road out to the Gray Creek FSR. A normal car will get you to the lower parking lot, or with 4WD, you can save 1km extra and drive to the upper lot. You can visit Tetrahedron as a day trip, but I really recommend overnight to take advantage of the huts (great for beginners). There’s ~30km of hiking and 4 huts. Batchelor Cabin is best for families, Edwards Cabin is a good base camp for day hikes, and the cabins at Mount Steele and McNair Lake are great for more adventurous hikers. I highly recommend summiting Mount Steele, but exercise caution in the winter and watch for avalanche terrain.

A photo of the hiking trail in South Chilcotin Provincial Park that runs to Lorna Pass. The trail is covered in yellow wildflowers in the middle of the forest, with the mountains peaking out in the background on a cloudy day in British Columbia.

#2 South Chilcotin Provincial Park

South Chilcotin is a huge park with so many options for hiking. It’s definitely not a trip you can do for a day, unless you’re a mountain biker, but it’s great for multi day backpacking trips. I visited the park in mid-summer and did a 90km loop around the core area of the park, from Tyaughton Creek, over Deer Pass, to Spruce Lake. Other trip options include exploring the park via the Castle Creek trail or through adjacent Big Creek Park. For a price, you can take a float plane into the core area of the park and stay at fancy mountain lodges with full catering. What’s really nice about this park is the limited number of people and we had the backcountry sites to ourselves most nights.

A photo of Russet Lake with the grassy meadows and the mountains in the background on a smoky summer day in Garibaldi Provincial Park near Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.

#1 Russet Lake

I decided on Russet Lake as my favourite hike of the last two years. It’s a popular hike in the Garibaldi backcountry, but due to trail length and campsite maximums, it’s hard to do as a day hike and not as busy as other trails in the park. You can access the lake via the Singing Pass Trail (free from Whistler base), or take the gondola and peak chair up to the top of the mountain and hike via the Musical Bumps trail (this is what I did). There’s a lot of up and down along this trail, but you’re in the alpine the entire time and it’s absolutely breathtaking! Once you reach the lake, you can pay more to stay in the very beautiful Kees and Claire Hut, or you can stay in the BC Parks campsite at the lake. Stay an extra day if you want to explore the surrounding area. (24km roundtrip, 550m elevation gain)

HBC Trail Backpacking Trip Part III

August 30, 2023August 13, 2024 / Maria / 3 Comments

This is the final saga of my experience on the HBC Heritage Trail. See Part I and Part II for the full story.

It was such a relief on Monday morning to look out the tent and see an overcast sky! I love the sun, but it was so hot on this trip and with the general fatigue from the previous 2 days, I was looking for a bit of relief.

Carolyn was anxious to get going early in hopes of getting home a bit earlier, so we were quick in having breakfast and packing down the tent. My foot was generally feeling better, but I was still getting arch pain when putting my full weight on my right foot – not as pronounced as the previous day, but I wasn’t sure what 22km of walking would do to it.

We were finished with the bulk of the trail, but arguably, we had some of the toughest sections ahead. We left the campsite at around 7:30am and started with almost 800m of elevation loss over 5km. It was pretty steep in parts, but I wasn’t feeling too bad and we were having good conversation, so we flew through the first section to Sowaqua River. Sowaqua River was our last river crossing of the trip and even though the trail was relatively flat for the next 7km between Sowaqua and Colville Camp, we knew we were going to encounter some blowdown.

Rivers are a central cause of problems in a flood, so we weren’t surprised to encounter a lot of blowdown immediately after the river. This was probably the most concentrated area of blowdown across the entire trail, but fortunately it wasn’t too long. The trail was tricky to follow in some parts, but after the first kilometre, it got a lot easier. Had I not been experiencing foot problems, I think this would have been an enjoyable trail walk, but the monotony of the flat sections turned out to be the most challenging on my foot.

When we finally got home I was able to diagnose the problem as plantar fasciitis, which was confirmed by an ER doctor and in my case was caused by putting too much stress on my foot. Plantar fasca is the connective tissue that runs along the length of your foot and I triggered the problem generally by pushing too far without proper training. So I definitely learned my lesson. But unfortunately, the longer I hiked on it, the more painful it got, and flat sections were the hardest because it was harder to distribute my weight to other parts of my foot and there was nothing else to distract from the pain. It also started to rain a little bit, but honestly it was a nice relief from the sun and it wasn’t enough to actually get wet, except for our feet, which had no hope with all the wet blowdown anyways.

So my pace definitely slowed down towards Colville Camp and I was relieved when we finally got there for lunch around noon. Colville Camp was a pretty cool forest campsite, but it had a lot of blowdown and pretty limited campsites, so it probably wouldn’t be one of my first picks for where to stay. We took a break for about an hour, which actually helped my foot a lot, before continuing on to the hardest part of the day.

We had a 3km climb up to the top of Manson’s Ridge, but it was also ~550m of elevation gain, so it was a bit of a slog. The first part of the climb isn’t too bad until you hit Fool’s Pass, which is a small relief in terms of elevation gain, but a mental slog! There were a few big trees down in the pass and there’s a few small declines you know you’ll have to ascend again, so it was pretty torturous at this point in the day. The last part of the climb up to Manson’s Ridge is really steep, but I honestly preferred it because it distracted from my foot pain. I was pretty slow, but eventually we made it to the top and it was all downhill from there. Unfortunately there’s no view unless you do an extra 400m to the summit, which normally I would do, but on this day I just didn’t have it in me.

The section between Manson’s Ridge and Manson’s Camp is only 2kms, but you undo all of the previous 500m of elevation gain and there were several huge trees down on the path, so it was also a slow descent. We knew the trail had been cleared by volunteers after Manson’s Camp, so our focus was solely on that reward.

We made it to Manson’s Camp shortly after 4pm. Manson’s Camp is really nice! It’s not very big – pretty much just a small plateau with enough space for a few tents – but it has a really nice view of the surrounding mountains. We will thrilled to sit down on the benches and planned a short stop before the last 6km. I was definitely hurting, but feeling in better spirits knowing we were approaching the end.

Unfortunately we still had a few roadblocks standing between us and the trailhead, we just didn’t know that yet. This was one section of trail where we should have done a bit more research, but in our defense, when I did the research after, it was still very difficult to access the right information.

I rely heavily on GaiaGPS when in the wilderness and my Gaia showed two options for finishing the trail: the “new route” and the “old route”. Pretty self explanatory, but we knew from the facebook group that the route had been cleared and we were confused when we could not find the entrance to the new route (where indicated on Gaia). Carolyn bushwacked through some trees and then found some flagging tape in the woods, but it was definitely not cleared and we were getting a funny feeling about it, so we returned to the campsite.

The “old route” is very obvious and leaves from the back of the campsite, so we decided to take our chances on that. To be honest, it didn’t really look cleared either because there was a lot of shrubbery growing into the trail, but there was no blowdown, so it could have been a lot worse. A couple hundred metres into the “old route” we came across a sign pointing down into the woods for the new trail “to be completed in 2022”. In my opinion, this is the biggest shortcoming on the entire trail. The “to be completed” was very foreboding to me and I can’t guess why anyone would install an official looking sign before actually finishing the trial. Our guess was that the trail never actually got finished because of the 2021 flood and we decided to stick with the “old route”. This was the right call and was exactly the case. The new trail was flooded before it was completed and they are still working to re-establish it, so please please please, someone take this sign down!

The old route continues through the woods for a while along a very gentle decline until you eventually pop out on a forestry road. The forestry road is now defunct because of washout from the 2021 flood, so it has a pretty unique feel of a place that’s been reclaimed by nature. The grass is growing up through the old road after 2 years of no use and it would have been a leisurely walk had my foot not been throbbing with every step.

It’s only 6km from Manson’s Camp to the end, but the road blocks continued. It’s easy walking until 3km before the end where there’s some flagging tape and a sign saying that the road is washed out and to follow the detour. We didn’t actually get to see the road washout, but I can assume it’s pretty bad because the detour takes you all the way up in the woods to navigate around the creek where the washout occurred. Fortunately this is the only detour, but it was already 6:30pm at this point and I was so done with walking. It was discouraging to have to walk way up into the forest and because we didn’t even know if we were on the correct trail (since we didn’t know the new route was still not complete), we were nervous there would be more road blocks or detours that would prevent us from finishing the trail.

There was a lot more washout after the detour, but you’re able to walk through it. It’s definitely creepy though. There’s a large uphill slope on the right side of the road and a steep embankment going down the left side. None of the banks looked particularly stable and the road is littered with giant boulder debris that was knocked down during the flood. After a very hot weekend, the sky was finally threatening rain and as the dark clouds moved in, we rushed through the landslide areas out of caution.

Within the last kilometre of trail, we tried calling a cab to come pick us up. We’d read that a lot of cars get broken into on the Hope side of the trail, so we had parked at the Hope Visitor Centre and decided to call a taxi. It took us a while to get a signal, but eventually we got through and they gave us a 30 minute wait time. It started to sprinkle as we were doing the last 500m of the trail and as we exited the trailhead, it started to absolutely pour! We were dreading having to wait in the pouring rain for 30 minutes and were ecstatic to see a shelter at the trailhead where we could stay dry while killing some time.

This was where we made our final error of the trip. We didn’t realize that the taxi’s don’t actually come all the way up to the trailhead. There’s a gravel road for ~2-3km from the highway to the trailhead that they don’t like to drive on (understandably). We were supposed to walk all the way to the road, which led to a very confused driver calling us to find out where we were. Fortunately he was a gem of a human being and drove his Prius all the way up to the end of the road to pick up 2 soaking wet, dirty, smelly hikers! We thanked him profusely and gave him a very generous tip – but please learn from our mistakes and just walk to the highway!

So overall it was almost 7:30pm when we finished the hike, resulting in another 11.5 hour day of hiking, with a total of 24.5km. All of which I suffered through with an injured foot. As I said, it turned out to be plantar fasciitis, and since then I have been out hiking again. It hurt to bear weight on it for a full week after the hike and after that I had to build up my hiking distance again. I went to physio as soon as possible and have been doing exercises twice a day ever since. It still gets tired and I’m weary not to stress it too much, but I have been able to work it up enough not to lose an entire season.

I was upset to have to cancel on my girl guides though. I was supposed to go on a 4 day trip to Garibaldi with my girl guide unit 2 weeks later that I had to bail on (though they were still able to go without me). I did a few nature walks and day hikes in early August, but I didn’t attempt any more backpacking for a month. I just went on my first backpacking trip since the injury in late August – it was only a 1 night and I hiked ~12km each day. I took precautions to take care of my foot and stopped every hour to roll it on a ball and that seemed to work, so I am going to attempt a 4 day trip very soon (with much more moderate distances than this trip).

So as usual, I learned a lot from this trip. No matter how many trips I go on, there always seems to be some kind of challenge that arises. You’d think that would be a deterrent, but I think it’s a part of what makes the trips so addicting. There’s always a large sense of accomplishment that comes with completing a particularly difficult trail. I felt a little bit invincible after solo-hiking the Sunshine Coast Trail last year, so it was a good reminder to always be re-assessing your abilities and boundaries. I think it’s important to tell yourself you can do something and build confidence, but be realistic about your abilities as not all injuries can be healed with a few days of rest.

If you’re thinking of doing this trail, I’d definitely encourage you to go for it, but be aware that the trail is in rough shape and there is a lot of uphill and downhill with relatively few views. I love forest hiking, so it was still a winner for me, but I know not everyone does and it’s a long trail for ~4km of truly scenic alpine hiking. Thrilled to finally have completed this small piece of BC’s history!