Skywalk North

If you’re thinking, “didn’t she just post her 10 favourite hikes last week?” You are correct, I did. But I have a severe backlog of trails to post about, so Part III featured my favourite trails from 2019-2020, while this post focuses on my 2021-2022 era. Part III was my “covid era”, so it featured a lot of trails closer to Vancouver. In my opinion, Part IV has some really scenic hikes because post-covid, all I wanted to do was hike and I discovered some real gems! Check out Part I, Part II, and Part III.

#10 Hut Lake – Let’s start off with a really obscure hike. The snow pack was insanely high in 2022, which postponed my alpine hiking season. In our desperation to find somewhere low elevation to camp, we stumbled upon Levette and Hut Lake outside Squamish. Levette is well known by the locals, but if you continue past Levette, you’ll eventually come to the much less popular Hut Lake Rec Site. It seems to be mostly used by the 4×4 community, but we had it to ourselves on a weekend in mid-July. The hike is entirely in the forest and it’s not the most memorable lake, but I still had the best time swimming in the insanely warm water and recommend it as a good Spring hike or rainy day trail. (8km, 500m elevation gain, 4 hours)

#9 Bedwell Lake – Bedwell Lake is a popular trail in Strathcona Provincial Park. It’s located at the back of the park and ease of access can depend on the current state of the road. When we visited, a normal AWD SUV would access it fine, but I’ve heard sometimes you need 4WD or high clearance. Parts of the trail are a bit technical, with some ladder sections, but you’re rewarded with beautiful views of the lake and surrounding mountains. We wanted to continue on to Cream Lake, but unfortunately we got rained out on our visit. I’m keen to return to see it in the sun! (10km, 600m elevation gain, 6 hours)

#8 Slesse Memorial Trail – There are some real gems in Chilliwack Valley. Slesse is a challenging one to get to as you definitely need 4WD and high clearance. It’s a bit of a somber hike because it’s the location of a plane crash, but it also has gorgeous views of Chilliwack Provincial Park and across the border. With over 1000m of elevation gain, it is a slog to get to the top and the views are relatively limited until the summit. But once you hit the ridgeline, there’s a glacier in front of you and a wall of mountains behind you, so you really get a pay-off. (15km, 1100m elevation gain, 9 hours)

#7 Barnet Trail – One of the things I love about living near Vancouver is that you don’t have to go way into the wilderness to hike and the Barnet Trail on Burnaby Mountain has become one of my favourite semi-urban hikes. We hike here regularly with Sadie and I love the views from Burnaby Mountain Park and through the forest. We always start at Burnaby Mountain Park, and I have to admit, the best view of the hike is at the trailhead, but it’s the perfect hike to get your body moving when you don’t want to drive anywhere or have limited time. (9km, 300m elevation, 3 hours)

#6 Myra Falls – I debated for a long time about whether to put this on this list or not. At 1.5km, it barely qualifies as a hike and is definitely more of a walk, but it’s such a beautiful waterfall! It’s also located in Strathcona Provincial Park and it’s so beautiful Brandon and I had to visit it twice! It’s an easy walk down to the Falls from the parking lot and then you can explore around the area. Definitely exercise caution as there are some steep sections, but after swimming in the waterfall, Brandon and I hiked down over the rocks to also swim in Buttle Lake. (1.5km, 50m elevation gain, 1 hour)

#5 Seed Peak – I did this trail in the late Fall of 2021 and even before I finished, I knew I’d have to return some day. There was already snow on the ground when we visited and I was having a rough day physically, so we didn’t even finish the hike, but I was still astounded by the views. Access is a bit tricky for this one as it’s way off the beaten track outside Squamish and I’d recommend 4WD and high clearance. Part of the trail is actually located in the far north end of Pinecone Burke Park (which starts in Coquitlam) and there are gorgeous views of the backcountry everywhere you look. We only made it to the base of Seed Peak, but I definitely need to return for the rest of the hike! (13km, 800m elevation gain, 8 hours)

#4 Tricouni Meadows – My apologies for including so many 4WD access hikes on this list, this is the last one, but I couldn’t leave it off! Tricouni Meadows is located way up in the wilderness north of Squamish Valley. It’s a slog to get to the trailhead and another slog to get to the lake, but you are rewarded once you get there. There are several lakes at the base of Tricouni Peak and it’s a bit technical travelling between them, but there’s space for several campsites. We visited Pendant Lake (my favourite), Spearpoint Lake, and Reflection Lake. From reflection Lake, you can continue up to the top of Tricouni Peak, which I didn’t do, but would like to return and complete as a backpacking trip. It’s a surprisingly busy campsite for such challenging access, so get there early! (8km, 500m elevation gain, 8 hours)

#3 Skywalk North – This hike is north of Whistler and better known as Iceberg Lake. It’s a popular hike, but most people only hike to the lake and back. It’s a bit longer, but I recommend turning it into a loop hike by doing with the Skywalk North or South trail. We chose the North Trail, it’s longer, but more scenic. It’s a long hike through the trees, but once you hit the lake, you continue hiking up to another summit above the lake with incredible views looking back. From there you continue through several meadows before arriving at Screaming Cat Lake and returning through the trees. Pay special attention to the trail stats though, this is a rewarding, but challenging hike. (22km, 1200m elevation gain, 10 hours)

#2 Opal Cone/Mamquam Lake – If you go back to my previous posts, you’ll find Elfin Lakes on my first list. Elfin Lakes remains one of my favourite hikes to this day, but I can finally add Opal Cone and Mamquam Lake to the list! This are both continuation hikes from Elfin Lakes and are not intended to be done in a day. Camp at the lake and do either one or both of these as a day hike. Personally, I like Opal Cone better, which is in peak alpine terrain, but it was rewarding to finally make it to Mamquam Lake after a failed attempt back in 2018. (14-22km, 1000m elevation gain, 9 hours)

#1 Sunshine Coast Trail – No other trail had any chance of the number one spot with the Sunshine Coast Trail in the mix. I hiked this entire 180km trail in 2022 and I’m in love with every inch of it! You don’t need to hike the whole thing, there are so many highlights on this trail and lots of them are accessible as day hikes or 2-3 day trips. The backcountry huts are what make this trail so special, but my favourite sections include Tin Hat, Walt Hill, Manzanita Bluff, Sarah Point, Appleton Canyon, Inland Lake, Rainy Day Lake, and Fairview Bay – basically the entire trail. (180km, 7-12 days)

Continue on to Part V.

Last week I said Tricouni Meadows might be my favourite hike of the season… then I did Skywalk North and now I can’t decide! After such a successful hike at Tricouni, I was enthusiastic to try another day hike. This time we decided on the Skywalk North Trail in Whistler – it doesn’t require any off-roading, but is a much longer trail with much more elevation gain.

I’ve heard of the Iceberg Lake hike, which is quite popular, but I hadn’t heard much about the Skywalk trails, which I found in the 105 Hikes book by Stephen Hui. There’s a ton of hiking trails in the area and many mountain bike paths – the Skywalk trails consist of 2 loops with a shared middle section. The South Trail leaves from Alpine Way and the North Trail leaves from Mountain View Drive (both in Whistler). The South Trail is a bit shorter, but if you want to visit Iceberg Lake, they’re both probably about the same length because it’s a branch to visit the lake on the South Trail, whereas the North Trail goes right past it.

So both trails are ~20km including the lake, though we tracked 22km on GPS, and over 1000m in elevation gain, so it is definitely a big hike and you should give yourself enough time to complete it. We started just before 10am and didn’t finish until just after 7pm. For the most part it’s not a very technical hike and it has a lot of flat sections, but this just means it does a lot of gain in a short distance, so it is steep.

On VancouverTrails, it says it’s 7.5km to the lake, but my GPS tracked 9km and 900m of elevation gain, but I didn’t find this part of the trail difficult at all. The trail starts with a steep climb, then flattens as you walk through the trees along the river and past some waterfalls. Then you climb again up to the meadows where you meet the junction for the Skywalk South Trail. There’s an outhouse and a gorgeous view up to the glacier. It’s another 1km to the lake, which is the most technical part of the hike. You have to hike up through the boulder field to the base of the glacier. This was one of my favourite parts of the hike though because there were lots of wildflowers growing around the streams coming down from the glacier and it was very scenic!

It took us about 3 hours to get up to Iceberg Lake. We barely saw anyone on the hike up to the meadows and once we left the lake, but it was fairly busy from the meadows to the lake. It was strangely cold on the day we visited though. Vancouver had been nursing a steady heatwave since mid July, but on the weekend we went, we got a brief cold spell and we had to layer up with fleeces and windbreakers at the lake. But not before I went for a swim!

I pride myself on almost always going for a swim, no matter how cold the water is and this was no exception. I knew I was going to get cold fast once I stopped moving and my sweat cooled, so I stripped down to my swimsuit immediately. It was definitely some of the coldest water I’ve been in and I didn’t stay in for more than a minute. By the time I crawled out my body was already starting to go numb, but it was cool to briefly swim with all the bergy bits – that was a first for me!

We hung out at the lake for a bit before continuing on. If you’re doing the South trail, you’ll have to hike back to the meadows, but the North trail climbs up over the pass on the right side of the mountain to continue into the sub-alpine. Unless you’re doing the shortest route (up and back on the Iceberg Lake Trail), I’d really recommend Skywalk North (though I haven’t done the South Trail yet). The hike up the pass was my favourite part of the whole hike because you get to look down on the lake and the glacier, which is a cooler vantage point than looking up on it.

Once you get to the top of the pass, the trail flattens out again and you spend a lot of time hiking through meadow after meadow. We stopped at the top for a bit of a photoshoot and then took our time hiking down. What I liked about the North trail is that you get to spend a lot more time in the sub-alpine than if you just did the Iceberg Lake trail. There’s a great view looking out towards Whistler-Blackcomb, Wedgemount, and Pemberton and the alpine meadows were all in bloom with yellow arnica, purple lupins, white sitka valeria, and pink mountain heather. Plus by doing a loop you get to experience all new terrain!

This part of the hike did take us a bit longer than anticipated. The down side to Berg Lake is that you eat your lunch when you haven’t done half of the trail, so it does make for a long afternoon. We hit Screaming Cat Lake around 4pm, which is a large lake before you start the downhill. I decided to go for a swim again and I was thrilled because Screaming Cat is not a glacial lake and is much warmer, so you can actually go for an enjoyable swim. It was still pretty cold, but once you got in, it was actually warmer in the water than out of it and we stayed in for a while, with both Lien and Brandon joining me.

The rest of the hike was pretty painful for me. It’s been a while since I’ve done so much elevation gain in one day and my knees were starting to bother me. After Cat Lake you have to do about 850m of downhill, which gets progressively steeper. It’s still a very nice hike – the trees aren’t tightly packed, so the forest had a very sunny feeling, but my knees were both killing me. I got slower and slower and pretty much crawled down the last 2km. We added a bit more distance to take the less steep routes where possible to save my knees. Even still, it was just after 7pm when we exited the trail, which I thought was pretty good all things considered!

We drove back to Squamish and had a delicious meal before heading back to Vancouver. I don’t think I got home until 11pm, so it was a very long day, but I really loved the hike! It’s a lot of work, but high reward and a lot of time spent in the alpine! Definitely recommend for those long summer days. Though I’d be wary of going on a really hot day – a lot of the hike is exposed and it’s a lot of climbing to do with no shade.