Pump Peak Backpacking Trip

July 18, 2026July 8, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

Considering how long I’ve lived in Vancouver, it’s a bit shocking that this was my first time hiking to Pump Peak though it’s not been for lack of effort. Back in 2019, I tried to hike via Pump Peak on my way to Elsay Lake, but I ended up on the wrong trail and because of the time crunch to get to Elsay Lake, I ended up skipping Pump Peak entirely. I’ve also made several attempts to visit Pump Peak in the winter, but I always find myself completely exhausted by the time I reach Brockton Point and I’ve abandoned Pump Peak on more than one occasion.

I had to cancel a trip at the last minute in mid-June of this year, but I still wanted to get outside and do something, so I decided to make another attempt at Pump Peak, this time as an overnight objective. I was solo hiking with my dog, Sadie, so I thought Pump Peak would be a good option since it’s popular and so close to the city. I ended up having the best time, I can’t believe I waited so long to hike there!

I did this hike over the summer solstice and I had lots of daylight, so I didn’t end up leaving my house in Coquitlam until 5pm. Me and Sadie were ready to start hiking at 6pm and by 7:30pm, we were at the top. I knew it was a short hike, but I was still astounded at how quickly I went from my house to the summit. It’s a very achievable objective if you make a last minute decision to go backpacking.

For those who aren’t familiar. Pump Peak is located in Mount Seymour Provincial Park in North Vancouver. It’s very popular in all seasons because of its proximity to the city. In the summer, you can park in the main ski resort lot, unless you’re going overnight, in which case you need to park in Lot 2. In the winter, you need to park in the lot along the road (also known as Lot 1) since the ski resort is in operation. You also need to get a day use permit from BC Parks in the winter. These release 2 days in advance of your trip, at 7am. They are free, but they sell out fast. No permits are required in the summer.

The hike involves climbing the trail along the edge of the ski resort, or in the summer, you do have the option to walk right up the ski trails. I opted to take the side trail since there is more shade. The trail goes to Brockton Point, which also has great views of the city. In the summer, it took me an hour to get to Brockton Point, but in the winter, it takes me closer to 90 minutes. It’s approximately 2.5km and 250m of elevation gain, closer to 3km in the winter since the parking lot is farther away.

After Brockton Point, the trail continues for another 1.5km and 150m in elevation gain to the top of Pump Peak, also known as 1st Peak. In the summer, this took me another 30 minutes, but I’d budget for another hour in the winter. It is the steepest part of the trail as it winds along the back of the peak. There were a lot of mosquitoes in the summer, so be prepared with fly spray and a thermacell. Please be aware that in the winter, the portion of the trail between Brockton and Pump Peak is in challenging avalanche terrain. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security by the crowds, you should have AST1 training and travel with the appropriate equipment in this area in the winter.

While Pump Peak is very popular for camping, please be aware that there is no campground and it is considered wild camping. This means there is no outhouse or bear cache. You should be prepared to dig a cathole if you need to poop, and you should bring a bear bin or bear bag for your food. There are not many trees, so it’s not really possible to do a bear hang. My sense was that most people camping in the area were not practicing proper bear safety and it’s important that we do, otherwise the area will become dangerous to bears and humans.

Finding somewhere to pitch your tent can be a little bit challenging because there are no established tent pads. Most likely you will be pitching your tent on bare rock. However, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be because there is so much space available to chose from. There were quite a few people camping, but everyone was very spread out and I didn’t have too much trouble finding somewhere to set up my tent that wasn’t crowded. I opted to set up near some of the trees so that I would have privacy when I needed to pee.

There is nowhere to set up on the actual summit and it will be crowded with people, so do not attempt to pitch your tent up there. Be aware that there is also no water source. There were a few small tarns around, which was helpful to Sadie, but I would not recommend trying to drink or even filter that water. Just hike up all the water you need for your trip, including for your dog.

It’s a beautiful place to camp though. There are incredible views of both the city and the backcountry. From the peak, you can enjoy a 360 degree view in all directions. We arrived well before sunset, so after setting up the tent, me and Sadie went up to the peak before looking for solitude underneath, in which to enjoy the sunset. Because it was the solstice, it was a particularly long sunset and the wind kept the mosquitoes away.

What was really annoying was that the summit is also a popular destination for sunrise enthusiasts. This would be fine, but on this particular day, a group a very noisy boys decided to hike up to the summit at 4:30am and were not shy about yelling and laughing very loudly. Sound travels really well in the alpine, so everyone on the mountain was privy to their conversation and it was very annoying. I had a similar experience when I did Golden Ears last year and it’s always men who act this way, so please try and have a little consideration that at 4:30am, most of the people in the nearby tents might be trying to sleep and they can definitely hear you.

My thermacell was definitely essential to enjoy breakfast the following morning as the mosquitoes returned in full force with the sun. A lot of people packed up their tents quickly to escape them, but me and Sadie were able to hang out for a little bit before heading back down the mountain.

What I really loved about this trip was the ability to start hiking late (I wouldn’t recommend going too early because the mosquitoes will drive you crazy) and the ability to arrive home early the following day. I felt like this trip enabled me to have a fun night outside while still leaving most of my weekend available to relax or pursue other interests. I’m used to driving so far away for my backpacking trips and having them take up the entire weekend, it was nice to still have lots of time to myself with this trip.

In conclusion, this is a really safe and convenient trip for those living in the lower mainland. I would definitely recommend it, but please respect the backcountry. Practice proper bear safety and leave no trace when wild camping. I did notice that people were also camping on Brockton Point and I’m not sure if that’s allowed. The BC Parks website says you can camp anywhere north of Brockton Point, but I’m not sure if that includes the Point itself.

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.

Hiking Seceda

May 2, 2026June 8, 2026 / Maria / 1 Comment

In September 2025, I spent 2.5 weeks hiking around the Dolomites in Italy. The main reason for the trip was an 8-day trek on the famous Alta Via 1 trail, but while in the region, I was keen to see as much of the highlights as possible. I hiked the Tre Cime di Lavaredo trail before I did the Alta Via 1 and then after I finished, I decided to spend a few days in the Val Gardena region. We finished our hike in Belluno, which is only ~2 hours away from Val Gardena by car, but a whole day journey by public transit, involving 5 different buses and trains.

While Cortina is directly north of Venice, Val Gardena is north of Verona, with Bolzano being the closest major train station. From there, you can bus into the valley where there are tons of attractions to explore. There are a few different towns you can stay in. I opted for Ortisei, which is the largest town along the valley. If you’re staying in a participating hotel, you can get a free bus pass for the region, which is a nice benefit.

Ortisei is very quaint and it’s a great starting point to explore a lot of the popular attractions in the area. There are dozens of cable cars connecting the towns to the mountains. In the winter, they’re used for skiing, while in the summer, you can use them to access hikes. The most popular hike in the area is Seceda, which is located at the top of the Seceda cable car in the middle of town. If you’re planning a trip to the Dolomites, chances are you’re already very familiar with Seceda. I would say Seceda is to Val Gardena what Tre Cime is to Cortina (and what Lake Louise is to Banff).

While I had amazing weather when I hiked the Alta Via 1 in late September, it started to get cold pretty much right after I finished the trail. I decided to hike Seceda on my first day in Ortisei because the weather was supposed to deteriorate later in the week. I knew it would be very busy at the top, so I got up early enough to get the first gondola. I packed my bag in advance and headed off towards the cable car, but on my way there, I noticed a fresh dusting of snow at the top of the mountain. I decided to backtrack to get my microspikes, which I had carried all the way from home. It was definitely the right decision and I’ve never felt more smug about having my microspikes than I did watching the other tourists slide around the trail!

I got unbelievably lucky with Seceda. A lot of people visit to see the rolling green hills. I did not get to experience this, but I did get to visit on the first snowfall of the year when the mountain was backed by a vibrant blue sky. It looked so beautiful, I wasn’t even a little bit sad about missing the meadows. Going early was the right call. There’s a mixture of trails that you can explore when you visit Seceda. Many people just hike up to the viewpoint and then go back, but if you have the time, I recommend planning for a loop trail. When you get off the cable car, start with the short hike up to the peak. It gives you incredible views of both the surrounding mountains and the main Seceda viewpoint. It will get busy later in the day, so do this first.

From there, continue over to the turnstiles and pay to do the extra walk along to the private viewpoint. I know these turnstiles are very controversial, but my opinion is that, as a tourist, you should just get over it. The trail is located on private farmland, so even though you’re going to be annoyed about paying a lot money for the gondola, only to pay another 5 euro to the farmers, consider it a contribution to the local economy. Sure, the government and the farmers should be working out this issue directly, but that is the point of the turnstiles – it’s a form of protest. So if you’re a visitor, just respect the farmers and pay the fee or don’t visit the viewpoint. C’est la vie.

I paid the fee and it was well worth it because it was still not very busy at the top and I had incredible views and thoroughly enjoyed my time there. From the end of the paid trail, a lot of people will just return to the gondola, but I highly recommend extending your journey. The views got better and better all day and I ended up doing a 10.5km loop trail (with 500m of elevation gain) to see more of the scenery. Just be aware, you’re starting at the top and will be hiking down, so save some energy for the return trip back up to the gondola.

Like I said, it was snowy when I visited and my microspikes helped a lot with traction. Eventually the sun warmed up the snow and it got slushy and I didn’t need the microspikes anymore, but it was really slippery at first and I was glad to have them on the downhill sections. I’ve included a map of my route above. After I did the Seceda viewpoint, I continued on to the Pieralongia hut, followed by the Regensburger-firenze hut. This was by far my favourite section of the hike. It felt like I was the only person on the trail. I didn’t stop at Pieralongia, but I look a break at Regenburger for a hot chocolate and cake.

After my snack, I continued back towards the gondola and past the Baita Troier hut. This section of trail is also quite popular as it hikes along a little ridge with fabulous views. By this point in the day it was starting to get a lot busier, but still not too bad. Once I got back to the junction with the paid trail, it was very busy and I was glad to be on my way out. I decided to take the gondola straight back down and I had lunch in town. In total, I was hiking for about 4 hours, but like I said, I did cover 500 metres in elevation gain, so it can still be a pretty strenuous hike. Since I was alone, my pace was likely faster than it would be if I hiked with a friend.

I honestly debated if I should hike Seceda at all. I thought it might be overrated since it’s so popular, but I ended up having a great time and I don’t regret going. Me and Kristine had separated by this point in the trip and I was own my own, but I still had so much fun and would absolutely return. I wasn’t there during peak season, I’m sure it’s worse in the middle of the summer, so plan accordingly. It’s a popular hike for a good reason!