Landslide Lake

Welcome to the final post in my dog walking series! My last two posts focused on dog friendly hiking trails, both easy trails and epic (not so easy) trails. For this blog, I want to highlight some trail options for backpacking with your dog. There’s a mix of trails on this list, some of which are easy and some of which are more challenging. Remember, when camping with your dog, be prepared to meet all of their needs, as well as your own. Please make sure to follow all park rules, including keeping your dog on leash and picking up after them. Dog poo is not natural and carries lots of harmful bacteria that has been proven to lead to e.coli in waterways.

Here’s some of my favourite backpacking trails to do with my dog!

Three Brothers Mountain / Heather Trail

Location: E.C. Manning Park (East of Hope)
Season: July – September
Terrain: 3 Brothers (21km, 500m gain), Heather Trail (40km, 850m gain)
Leash rules: on-leash
Permits: Reservation required. $25pp, per night from camping.bcparks.ca. Book 3 months in advance.
Description: This is a great trail for 1-night or multi-night trips. If you’re just doing 3 brothers mountain, stay at Buckhorn Campsite for a night. If you want to do the entire Heather Trail, stay at Kicking Horse or Nicomen Lake Campsites.

Poland Lake

Location: E.C. Manning Park (East of Hope)
Season: July – September
Terrain: 16km, 500m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Permits: Registration required. $5pp, per night from camping.bcparks.ca. Book 2 weeks in advance.
Description: I’ve only hiked this trail in the winter, but it’s a great camping option year round and is one of the less popular trails in Manning Park. Park at Strawberry Flats for this hike. In the winter you will need to hike up along the edge of the ski resort, as you’re not allowed to hike across it.

Lightning Lakes Chain Trail

Location: E.C. Manning Park
Season: May – October
Terrain: 14km, flat (22km if you go all the way to Thunder Lake)
Leash rules: on-leash
Permits: Registration required. $5pp, per night from camping.bcparks.ca. Book 2 weeks in advance.
Description: This would be a fairly easy trail since it’s mostly flat, but it’s not well maintained and there is a lot of blowdown. Be prepared to be climbing over trees fairly regularly. The campsite is located just past Strike Lake at 7km. It can be busy in the Spring and Summer, but there are a lot of tent pads and room for overflow camping. Continue another 4km to visit Thunder Lake, which is the end of the trail.

Falls Lake

Location: Coquihalla Summit Rec area
Season: year-round, but snowshoes are required in the winter
Terrain: summer (2km, 70m gain); winter (4km, 100m gain)
Leash rules: on-leash
Permit: None required
Description: This is a short trail that can be completed in the winter with snowshoes. However, the access road is not plowed in the winter, making the approach twice as long. There is a small campsite located on the back of the lake.

Tikwalus Heritage Trail

Location: North of Hope, off Highway 1
Season: May – October
Terrain: 12km, 750m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Permit: None required
Description: Tikwalus Heritage Trail is an easy but steep trail located just past Hells Gate on Highway 1. Most of the hike is in the forest, but there’s a nice view from the campsite.

HBC Heritage Trail

Location: Hope to Tulameen
Season: July – September
Terrain: 80km, over 3000m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Permits: None required
Description: This is an advanced trail for advanced hikers and dogs. This is not a trail that you try backpacking on and your dog should have lots of backpacking experience before attempting this trail as well. If you regularly hike challenging trails together, this is a great multi-day thru hike option. There are very few hikers are this trail and you’ll likely have it all to yourself. There are several campsites along the trail that you can choose from.

Lindeman Lake / Greendrop Lake

Location: Chilliwack Park (Chilliwack)
Season: year-round to Lindeman Lake, spikes are needed in the winter
Terrain: Lindeman (4km, 200m gain); Greendrop (12km, 400m gain)
Leash rules: on-leash
Permits: Registration required. $5pp, per night from camping.bcparks.ca. Book 2 weeks in advance.
Description: This is a short but steep trail to a beautiful lake and campground. It is very busy year-round and the parking lot has been targeted for theft, so plan accordingly. If you want to continue on to Greendrop, it is a much longer hike and the view from the campsite isn’t as nice, but there will be less people.

Viewpoint Beach / Half Moon Beach

Location: Golden Ears Provincial Park
Season: June – October
Terrain: Viewpoint Beach (9km, 150m gain); Half Moon (20km, 350m gain)
Leash rules: on-leash
Permits: Reservation required. $25pp, per night from camping.bcparks.ca. Book 3 months in advance.
Description: This is a popular trail near Vancouver with lots of space for camping. The trail to Viewpoint Beach is fairly easy, but the trail to Half Moon Beach is much more technical, so be prepared for a longer hike.

Semaphore Lakes

Location: Semaphore Lakes Rec Area (west of Pemberton Meadows)
Season: July – September
Terrain: 5km, 350m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Permits: None required
Description: This is a short hike, but it is fairly steep. The trail has become very popular in recent years for its easy access to beautiful alpine landscapes and two lakes. The trail is primarily in the forest until you reach the lakes, from there you can explore further around the surrounding alpine. I believe this site has an outhouse, but I’m not sure if it has a bear cache, so plan accordingly.

Sunshine Coast Trail

Location: Upper Sunshine Coast Trail
Season: June – October
Terrain: 180km, thousands of metres of gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Permits: None required
Description: This trail is easy than the HBC Heritage Trail, but substantially longer. This trail is for experienced backpackers and dogs only. Dogs do not have the same endurance as humans to hike day after day, so training is essential. However, there are lots of options to do shorter sections of the trail with your dog, such as the fairview loop or Manzanita Bluffs. Dogs are not permitted in the huts, so bring a tent.

Landslide Lake

Location: Strathcona Provincial Park (Vancouver Island)
Season: July – September
Terrain: 10km, 500m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Permits: Registration required. $5pp, per night from camping.bcparks.ca. Book 2 weeks in advance.
Description: This is a nice forested hike up to a beautiful alpine lake. You cannot camp at the lake, but there are two campsites along the way, Butterwort Flats and Upper Gravel Bar.

San Josef Bay

Location: Cape Scott Park (Vancouver Island)
Season: year-round
Terrain: 6km, flat
Leash rules: on-leash, highly recommended due to the presence of wolves
Permits: Registration required. $5pp, per night from camping.bcparks.ca. Book 2 weeks in advance.
Description: This is the only part of Cape Scott Trail where dogs are permitted. It’s a short flat walk to the beach where you can camp or explore the sea stacks. Check the tides and visit at high tide to walk around the sea stacks to the second beach. It’s a beautiful place to camp and you can tent right on the beach.

I didn’t know much about Strathcona Provincial Park before we decided to visit, but after a google search I quickly arrived at the conclusion that Landslide Lake is one of the most popular hikes in the park. Vancouver Island isn’t really known for its mountains. Even though I know the island has mountains, it’s always the coastal hikes that come to mind when I think of the island, so I was keen to do Landslide Lake and explore some of the more mountainous regions.

We spent the first night car camping and got up early to hit the Landslide Lake trail. It’s right off the highway on the way to Gold River. It was a weekday in mid September, so there were a lot more cars in the parking lot than we were expecting. It seemed several large groups had camped up there overnight, but most of them were exiting the trail as we were hiking in.

It’s not a challenging trail. It starts with a short uphill climb before leveling out along Elk River. It is mostly uphill, with some slightly technical sections, but overall not a difficult trail. It just feels long. It’s around 7km to the first campsite at Butterwort Flats, which is located next to the river but primarily in the trees, then it’s another 3km to Upper Gravel Bar Campsite, which is where we were planning to stay. It took us around 3 hours at a pretty brisk pace to reach the campsite.

There was no one there when we arrived, so we set up our tent along the river and had lunch. It’s another 3km to Landslide Lake, but you’re not allowed to camp there, so people just day hike up and back from the campsite. It’s steeper heading up to the lake and the trail can be a little bit confusing at times. There’s a lot of uphill over bare rock and while it’s really obvious which direction you want to go (due to the valley), it’s easy to lose the trail, so watch for the cairns. It took a bit longer than we were expecting due to the heat, but there’s a nice waterfall on the way up and eventually we made it to the lake. There were a few day hikers there, but they soon took off and we went for a swim in the cold water and had a snack.

We probably should have called it a day there, but both of us were keen to check out Foster Lake (aka Iceberg Lake) while we were up there. It’s only about 1.5km to the next lake, but there’s no official trail and it’s a bit of a bushwack at times to get there. We didn’t really have trouble following the trail, but it’s really technical with lots of brush and ups and downs, so we were cursing and swearing pretty much the whole way there. It’s very forested around the back of Landslide Lake and then once you get to the end of the lake, you follow the creek bed for a bit before climbing up over scree and boulder fields. To be honest, some of the best views of Landslide Lake are from the boulder field at Foster Lake, because the angle of the afternoon sun from the base makes it hard to get any good photos.

We strongly debating throwing in the towel and turning around, but we’d come so far and knew we were unlikely to come back, so we kept going while we grumbled. I am glad we persevered, but my advice to others would be to either give yourself an entire day for it (2 nights at the campsite), or skip it. I can’t deny Foster Lake is pretty cool, it’s definitely alpine terrain and there’s a glacier at the back of the lake that you can explore if the conditions are right. If we had a whole day for it I wouldn’t mind exploring around the area a bit more, but we had less daylight because it was September and we were tired from the hike in. We enjoyed the view for 15-20 mins before turning around and heading back to make supper. The trail was just as annoying on the return trip and by the time we made it back to camp, we’d clocked in almost 20km for the day.

I liked the campsite because there was only us and 2 other groups, but I’d guess it gets pretty busy in the summer. That said, there is a lot of room for tents along the river and in the trees, so I wouldn’t be deterred from going on a weekend. It is a bit dark in the forest, but at least there’s an outhouse and bear cache. We had one of my leftover SCT meals for dinner and Brandon made us some soup to go with it. It was the time of year where it’s hot in the day, but can get quite cold overnight. I didn’t have any trouble sleeping, but it was damn cold getting out of the tent in the morning!

We didn’t waste too much time making breakfast and packed up to start our hike out. I’d got it in my mind that we could drive into Gold River for a nice lunch, so we made quick time hiking back down the trail. We only stopped briefly to chat with two guys who were also hiking out and we quickly identified each other as Newfoundlanders, so we had a good chat about life on the west coast vs. the east coast. We made it to the parking lot around 12:30pm and changed into some clean clothes before heading into Gold River for a rewarding cafe lunch!