Hiking the Alta Via 1: Lago Braies to Fanes

January 3, 2026January 2, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

The Alta Via 1 is a premier hut to hut hiking trail located in the Dolomite mountains in northern Italy. Europe is well known for its hut to hut hiking. Unlike Canada, the mountains in Europe are very developed, with lots of infrastructure and roads scattered throughout, making hiking trails extremely accessible. One of the most popular hut to hut hiking routes is the Tour du Mont Blanc, which hikes through the Alps in France, Switzerland, and Italy. The Alta Via 1 is located further east in Italy, and is one of a series of “Alta Via’s” or “high routes” that traverse the region from North to South. The most popular route is the Alta Via 1, which if hiked in full, extends 120km from Lago di Braies to the town of Belluno.

If I’m being honest, I’d never heard of the Alta Via 1 until my friend Kristine approached me about hiking it with her. I was keen on the opportunity to go hiking in Europe, so I said yes, even though me and Kristine didn’t know each other very well. We had only met once in real life when we decided to go to Italy together, but fortunately, I didn’t end up with any regrets about the trip!

I flew into Venice in mid-September and we met in Cortina, spending 2 days together before starting the hike. Similar to Canada, bookings for popular hiking trails can be hard to get. Because the mountains are so developed, there are limited opportunities for camping along the Alta Via 1, meaning that most people stay in mountain rifugios. These are basically hostels, providing room and board for hikers, and they can book up far in advance. I’m familiar with my local booking platform, but it’s intimidating to try and tackle a whole new system (especially since the Alta Via 1 doesn’t have a consolidated platform and you have to book each hut separately), so we opted to use a third party.

I’m sure there are some good third party sites out there, but we went through a company called Mac’s Adventures, and they were really terrible. I wouldn’t recommended them for a ton of reasons that I don’t really want to get into, but at a high level, they sold us an itinerary that they couldn’t deliver and then tried to cancel our trip rather than attempt to fix it. We ended up resolving the logistical challenges ourselves to stop the trip from being cancelled, for which we received no discount. I’m pretty good at logistics, so if I had my time back, I would have just done the work myself, because Mac’s demonstrated no critical thinking or problem solving skills and I ended up doing the work anyways.

The rifugios usually release early in the year, around January, so you should be prepared to book pretty early. There are lots of options, but if you want to stay in one of the really popular huts (like Rifugio Lagazuoi), then you need to book right away. The entire hike is 120km, but lots of people (us included) just hike a portion of the trail. We ended up hiking 100km, approximately 80km of which was on the traditional Alta Via 1 trail. In hindsight, I wish I’d done the whole thing, but I still had a great time on the section of trail we chose.

Our base point for the trip was in Cortina, but the trail actually starts at Lago di Braies. We caught the 445 bus from Cortina to Dobbiaco in the early morning, followed by the 442 bus to Lago di Braies. Both are city buses that leave fairly frequently, but can get very busy. We were able to buy our ticket in advance for the 445, but since we started late in the season, we couldn’t buy it in advance for the 442. We managed to get on board, but it was very full and some people were denied entrance, so you should book this one in advance too, if possible.

As a Canadian, Lago di Braies reminded me a lot of Lake Louise. It’s a very popular lake, and there’s no hiking required to visit it. They run a very expensive boat rental if you want to canoe on the lake, which many people do, so it’s always very busy. I started my hike by grabbing a sandwich from one of the stalls for later and then we began our trek, walking around the eastern shore of the lake. It had poured while we were on the bus, but it stopped raining right when we arrived at the Lake, and we were surprised to see the sun come out so quickly. I was really keen to swim in as many lakes as possible, so I took a quick dip at the back of the lake. I did google whether this was allowed before I went, but I’ve heard since that you’re not supposed to swim in the lake, so I’m not sure if I was in the wrong. The water is quite cold, so it was a very short lived dip.

Once you get to the back of the lake, the trail starts a very long ascent up to the alpine. It feels as though you’re hiking straight uphill as you tackle ~1000m of elevation gain in just over 4.5km. Despite it being late September, it was quite warm and there was limited shade, so it was a bit of a struggle up to the top. The first part of the trail is more or less in a boulder field. There are a few benches along the way, but the trail feels like it just keeps getting steeper the further up you go. There is a small section with some ropes in the middle of the trail before you hit the alpine, but it’s not overly technical.

After the rope section, you reach the alpine and there’s another uphill slog to the top of Forcella sora Forno, which was the highest point of elevation for us on our first day. From there, you can continue to hike up to Croda del Becco, which is a popular viewpoint looking down on Lago di Braies, but it’s another 400m of uphill and it’s a more technical scramble, so we opted to skip it. The views from the Forcella (pass) are beautiful though. You can look down on the first rifugio of the trail, Rifugio Biella. It wasn’t our final destination, but Kristine had a pretty rough ascent up the trail, so we were enthusiastic about stopping for a break.

It was hot on the trail, but windy on the Forcella, so we quickly cooled down at Biella. We had our first sweet treat of the trek, a fruit encrusted cheesecake. We still had another 3.5km of hiking to get to our first rifugio, but it was easy walking in comparison to the climb up. The clouds moved back in and we had a gentle walk down a mountain road before crossing the barren alpine. It didn’t take us too long to arrive at Rifugio Sennes and Kristine was thrilled to see lots of cows hanging around the hotel (she’s a big livestock enthusiast). In total, we hiked 9.5km on day 1, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it was paired with 950m of elevation gain, so it still felt like a big day.

We didn’t know it at the time, but Rifugio Sennes would be once of the fanciest huts on our trip! We lucked out with our assigned room, which slept 4, but never ended up filling up. So we had the room to ourselves and were able to get a hot shower before dinner. Supper and breakfast were included at all our rifugios and I had a very yummy meat stew for dinner, along with a glass of wine. I mentioned in my post about hiking Tre Cime that the Italian Dolomites are more German influenced than Italian, which was especially reflected in the food, but there was plenty of good Italian wine to go around!

We had very nice neighbours at Sennes and we quickly be-friended a guy from the UK who was starting what sounded like a pretty amazing gap year, as well as a newly married couple from Calgary! The British guy was hiking way faster than us, so we never saw him again after Sennes, but we caught up with our Calgarian friends again the next day for lunch. We also had the luxury of wifi at the huts, so we were able to check in with our families every evening.

On day 2, we’d be hiking a similar distance to day 1, 10.5km, but with half the elevation gain, so it felt much easier. It was cloudy and cool when we set off from the rifugio in the morning, but we enjoyed that the trail was much less busy than the previous day. We started by hiking through the forest to nearby Rifugio Fedaro Vedla, which is a great alternative option to Sennes. Since it was still early in the day, we didn’t stop for a break and instead continued hiking on to the next hut, Rifugio Pederu.

The trail continues down over the mountain towards Pederu, which is accessible by car. The Alta Via 1 is an interesting experience because almost all of the huts are accessible by vehicle in some way or another (that’s how they transport supplies), it’s just that many of the roads are 4×4 or closed to the public. Pederu itself is accessible by bus and you can even pay to have your backpack shuttled between Sennes and Pederu.

The hike down to Pederu runs along the gravel mountain road that connects Pederu to Fodara Vedla. It’s an easy trek if you’re hiking down, but I didn’t envy those who had to hike up it. We lost 300m of elevation in less than 2km, so it was quite steep! We had to redo that elevation loss after lunch, but fortunately it was a more gentle climb. We arrived at Pederu before the lunch service had started, so we had some snacks with our new friends. Kristine had her daily cappuccino and I had my homemade iced tea (since I don’t drink coffee). It became a bit of a ritual for us: coffee and iced tea in the morning, and then every evening Kristine would have a coke zero and I would have a glass of wine. Plus we both indulged in a sweet treat whenever available!

We started the afternoon with another climb, but we fared much better than the previous day. The nice thing about doing this hike in late September was that I’d already done over 400km of hiking earlier in the year, so I was feeling very strong. We also have the benefit of living in the mountains year-round, so we’re used to the elevation gain. Even so, we couldn’t keep up with the Europeans, who seem to be on another level of fitness entirely, running up and down hills like it’s nothing!

Some of the tourists from less mountainous parts of the world were definitely struggling. Hut to hut hiking may sound cushy (which it is compared to the wilderness style of backpacking I do in Canada), but the Alta Via 1 covers some serious elevation over the course of your trek. We rarely hiked along flat terrain and would sometimes do 2 or 3 passes in a single day. We passed a group from Ontario in the afternoon who were finding the constant uphill very challenging. My advice would be to still pack light on these hut to hut hikes. The weight of extra clothes and snacks can really add up, so keep your packing list simple.

I really enjoyed the afternoon on Day 2. The sun came out and once we got over the initial climb, we meandered through the alpine with beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. We passed by a small cafe and stopped to admire the cows, before arriving at our destination, Rifugio Fanes, in the mid-afternoon. We didn’t get so lucky with our room assignment at Fanes, as we ended up in an 11-person dorm room, but we were the first people there, so we got first pick of the beds. Despite sharing the room with so many people, it was surprisingly quiet and I ended up enjoying the experience more than some of the smaller rooms we stayed in at other rifugios.

This was probably because it was still a very nice rifugio. It served one of the best meals we had on the trip (eclipsed only by Rifugio Averau) and Kristine was very enthused about the resident cat, Minka, that she was able to befriend. Kristine is a cat person and I am a dog person. I feel like this is reflected a little bit in our personalities, but we made it work!

Before dinner, we decided to visit neighbouring Rifugio Lavarella. Fanes and Lavarella are located less than 1km apart, near a small alpine lake. The sun came out in full, so I went for a quick dip in the lake, which was extremely cold, but refreshing, before we stopped by Lavarella for a beer. This is an important pit stop on the trail (whether you’re staying in one of the huts or not) because Lavarella is actually home to the highest altitude micro-brewery in Europe! We each enjoyed a beer before heading back to Fanes.

We made more new friends at Fanes, primarily Americans this time. There was a friendly female professor who was visiting for a conference, as well as several trail runners, who made us feel particularly slow by doubling our mileage every day. Overall, we had a really nice stay at Fanes and enjoyed using their patio telescope to spy on some alpine ibex on the nearby mountain meadows. Tune in next week for more on the trail!

Cathedral Park Backpacking Trip: Rim Trail

December 6, 2025November 20, 2025 / Maria / Leave a comment

Cathedral Park has been on my bucket list for a long time. I was supposed to visit the park in 2018, but my trip was cancelled due to a nearby forest fire. Fortunately, the fire never did reach the park, but I missed out on the opportunity. Even more unfortunately, another forest fire in 2023 (the Crater Creek fire) did breach the boundary of the park, doing a lot more damage to the area. The fire tore up the valley along Ashnola Road, burning everything in its wake and then continuing up towards the core area of the park.

Fortunately, the fire was contained before it burned everything, but a good chunk of the east part of the park was decimated, including 2 campgrounds and the access road. Parts of the core area of the park were saved, including the lodge (honestly, I think we have the lodge to thank that it didn’t all burn down, as I suspect they water bombed it). The park has been closed, but it was partially re-opened this summer. There used to be 3 campgrounds, but Lake-of-the-Woods and Pyramid Lake both burned down, leaving only the Quinescoe Campground.

The lodge did not burn down, but it’s not open due to the loss of the access road bridge. The road closure had a big impact on park usage in 2025. While it is possible to hike into the park, the access trail is 15km long and climbs 1400m in elevation, so it’s a big hike. Historically, most people have paid to use the lodge shuttle to access the park, even if they were camping, in order to avoid the challenging access trail. It appears that the bridge repair is almost complete, so I suspect the road will re-open in 2026, but for 2025, hiking was the only way to access the park.

When I saw the re-opening announcement, I impulsively booked permits for the Labour Day long weekend. Carolyn and I has planned to spend the weekend together and I thought Cathedral would be a nice option. In the past, it’s been hard to get permits for Cathedral because of its popularity, but with the road closure in 2025, it wasn’t a problem. Carolyn wasn’t really sold on the idea, but when she learned park usage was low due to the closed road – and that there were 5 lakes in the core park area – she quickly got on board with the idea. We decided to meet at the trailhead on Thursday night before the long weekend to spend 3 nights camping at Quinescoe Lake.

If you’ve been following along my previous posts, you’ll know that I was already on a road trip with Seth, so we all met up at the Lakeview Trailhead on Thursday evening. Accessing the park is a bit tricky as it’s not close to any cities. From Vancouver, it’s a 5-hour drive through Manning Park until you reach Keremeos. From there, you take Ashnola Road to the Park entrance. Ashnola Road is a gravel road, so it’s a bit slow going, but it’s in good shape and you can drive it in any vehicle. It was humbling to see all the damage from the forest fire on the way. Everything along the road has burned down, leaving many rec sites exposed. It’s a very fresh burn scar and it’s honestly hard to witness.

Once you reach the park entrance, there are two rec sites along the road, one is at the Lakeview Trailhead, and the other is a few kilometres away, called Buckhorn. We camped at Lakeview since that’s where we were leaving Carolyn’s car, but it only has a single walk-in site and no outhouse, so I wouldn’t recommend it. We ended up camping in the parking lot since we were the only ones there. I didn’t drive down to Buckhorn, but from the map, it looks like a more traditional rec site and I would recommend that one if you’re doing a similar trip.

There are actually 3 trails that hike into the core area of the park, but the Ewart Creek trail on the east side of the park is still closed because it completely burned. The most common access to the park (for the limited number of people who actually hike in) is the Lakeview Trail, which runs parallel to the backcountry road. In any other scenario, we would have hiked in and out on that trail. But because Seth was still with us and heading back to Vancouver the next day, we had the unique opportunity to do a thru hike. There’s a third trail, the Centennial Trail, that you can access from the west side of the park. At 16.5km and 1200m gain, it’s slightly longer and has slightly less gain than the Lakeview Trail. It’s another hour of driving to get to the trailhead, but Seth was nice enough to drop us off. So we left Carolyn’s car at Lakeview, with the intent to finish the trail there.

It was calling for a very hot weekend, so we got an early start. It’s a pretty steady incline for the first 8km of the trail. You get a reprieve when you reach the alpine, followed by another climb up to the Rim Trail, before you head down to the Quinescoe Lake Campground. We kept a steady pace on the initial uphill hike, which was forested, but after a few kms, we entered a burn scar. Because we knew the lodge hadn’t burned down, we thought the damage from the Crater Creek fire had been limited to the east half of the park, so we were disappointed to see the burned trunk. It looked like the damage along the Centennial Trail may have been from another fire, because it didn’t seem as recent, but I couldn’t confirm online.

In any case, it was exposed and hot along the trail, with no tree cover. We were wrong in assuming we’d have shade in the morning, so we ended up slogging through the first 8kms. Eventually we reached a plateau and found a small section of unburned forest where we were able to enjoy lunch. We both brought our helinox camping chairs, so we had a really nice break in the shade before setting off again. Fortunately, it got cloudier in the afternoon, so we had some relief from the heat by the time we reached the alpine. We hiked through nice meadows before starting the ascent up to the top of the Rim Trail.

The Rim Trail is one of many defining features in the park. There’s a cluster of lakes that are surrounded by a towering alpine ridge. It’s a very rocky park and it’s aptly named “Cathedral” because of all the stone monuments found along the Rim Trail, which encircles the core area in a 16km loop. We had to hike up to the ridge to connect with the Rim Trail at Scout Mountain before heading down to the lakes. It’s very exposed along the ridge and some dark clouds rolled in while we were hiking up to the pass. We were a little bit concerned about possible thundershowers while we were exposed, but fortunately the rain held off until we got to camp.

As we started hiking down, we could see a few larch trees that hadn’t burned, but we very quickly entered a complete burn zone. It was very eerie and sad to experience. It felt like there was a heaviness over the park the entire time we were there to the extent that I felt like we were almost grieving with the park. There’s a thick layer of black ash over everything and it was really dusty to hike through the burn scar. There’s absolutely no shelter and the only sign of life was the fireweed that had started to pop up. I lament the fact that we’ll never get to experience the park pre-fire. There are still some sections of unburned larch forest that were beautiful to witness – I can only imagine what it was like before.

It was a Friday night, so we didn’t expect the campsite to be very busy, but we were surprised to discover that we were the only people there, leaving 29 campsites empty. 2 girls did show up just before dark, so a total of 2 groups at this once popular site. More groups showed up on Saturday, but I think there were probably a total of only ~8 sites in use the entire long weekend.

We enjoyed the solitude on our first evening and went for a swim in the lake before watching the sunset. It’s an interesting campsite because, while bears are always a concern, mountain goats seem to be the bigger issue. Signs advise not to leave anything out that might entice the goats, and to only pee in the outhouse, as they are attracted to salt (so they will lick your pee off the ground). There are cages where you can put things you don’t want the goats to get, and of course, still a traditional bear hang (don’t use the goat cages for food!). We did see a mama and baby goat hanging around the campsite, which made a reappearance every day that we were there, as well as a few deer.

Carolyn had a very rough first night in the tent. Immediately after lying down, she commented that her sleeping pad had a leak. She found it very quickly and patched it up with tenacious tape, only to lie down again and immediately put another hole in it. We found a very sharp rock under the tent that had clearly put both holes in her pad. She patched that one up with tape too, but it caused her trouble all night. She’d get an hour of sleep, only for the tape to give out. We dug out some duct tape to try and fix it up and she had so many layers of tape on it. We didn’t want to waste our patch kit on a mediocre fix in the dark, so she suffered through the night on minimal sleep. The next day we fixed it with the patch kit, and fortunately, that solved the problem.

We got up early again to hike the Rim Trail. There’s lot of ways to customize this hike as there are several connector trails that come down at each lake. But I recommend just doing the whole thing because the connector trails are very steep and exposed. The highlight of the park is seeing Smokey the Bear (pictured above) and the Giant Cleft (pictured below), so we decided to do the trail clockwise to hit these highlights first. We ended up hiking the entire day without seeing a single other person, so it was a pretty special experience.

We started by hiking to Pyramid Lake and then climbed up through the trees to Ladyslipper Lake. Everything is burned to Pyramid Lake, but there’s still a small larch forest between Pyramid and Ladyslipper. It was early when we arrived at Ladyslipper, but we wanted to swim in all 5 lakes, so we stopped for a quick skinny dip. Ladyslipper Lake is really beautiful and I recommend hiking there even if you’re not doing the Rim Trail. At the end of the trip, Carolyn decided Ladyslipper Lake was her favourite lake in the park, but it was second on my list.

Once you leave Ladyslipper, be prepared to be in exposed terrain for the rest of the day. There’s a big climb after you leave the lake and the trail is not easy to follow (though it’s still hard to get lost). It’s obvious where you’re headed and it’s open terrain, so it’s a bit of a choose your own adventure up to the first plateau. You get a great view of the Giant Cleft as you hike up, and eventually the trail levels out briefly before you start a second steep climb to the top. This was probably the worst part of the hike, it’s a narrow exposed trail with lots of scree, so choose your path carefully. You’ll know you’re at the top when you see the junction and the sign for stone city.

It is a big day to do the entire Rim Trail. It took us almost 10 hours, but one of mine and Carolyn’s favourite things to do in the wilderness is film tiktok dances, so we stopped a lot to eat, film, and dance! Some people will just hike up to see the stone city and Smokey the Bear, returning the way they came. We had a quick break in the shade at the junction and then decided to do the 1km detour to see the rock features before lunch. I’m not really sure about the geological history of the park and how all of these stone formations came to be, but they have made it a special place for indigenous peoples and modern day visitors.

The first highlight is the stone city, which is a compilation of large scattered rocks, after which you arrive at Smokey the Bear. You can climb up to the top of Smokey, which we did, and then continue onto the Giant Cleft. This is exactly what it sounds like – a big gap in the cliffside. More adventurous hikers will scramble up Grimface Mountain, but we opted to turn around after the Giant Cleft, returning to the junction to eat lunch.

The rest of the hike is pretty straightforward as you circle around the top of the rim, but it is still surprisingly challenging. Like any ridge walk, while the net gain around the rim is minimal, there is a lot of up and downhill from peak to peak. Our first ascent was up to the Devils Woodpile, next to Pyramid Mountain, which has a great view of Ladyslipper Lake. The terrain is still really interesting because there’s a lot of rock, but over time, its become arranged into what looks like big waves of rock. I don’t know how this happens, but guessed it might be related to snowmelt, creating riverlike features. If I have any geologist readers, I’d love an opinion!

Our next milestone was hiking down to a lookout over Glacier Lake, before hiking up to the top of Quinescoe Mountain. Like I said, the trail isn’t always easy to follow and we got off it a few times throughout the day, but it’s always very obvious where you’re going, so we didn’t worry. The climb up Quinescoe Mountain wasn’t too bad, but we had one more ascent left on Red Mountain. It looked like a shorter and easier climb than Quinescoe, so we weren’t too worried about it, but it ended up being the worst one of the day.

The trail was the hardest to follow as Red Mountain was one big boulder field. You have to hop your way around the giant rocks up to the top, and then once there, the descent is even worse. My GPS track looks like we more or less followed the trail back down the mountain, but it sure didn’t feel like it! It was very steep and I felt unsure of myself in several areas because the boulders were so large. I was concerned about taking a wrong step and kicking up loose rocks. Fortunately, we made it to the bottom almost without incident, except that Carolyn’s bottle of electrolytes opened in her bag and coated everything in sticky, sugary liquid. Not her finest moment!

Eventually we reconnected with the Centennial Trail to follow our path from yesterday. We saw a few more deer on the way down, but were happy when we finally stumbled back to the campsite. There were a few more groups when we arrived, but overall, not very busy. We went for another swim before making supper for the evening. Tune back in next week to hear about the second half of the trip!

Taylor Creek Backpacking Trip: Ridge-o-rama

November 15, 2025November 20, 2025 / Maria / 1 Comment

Following up on my post from last week, our last day in the Taylor Basin area of South Chilcotin was incredibly scenic but really challenging. We could have hiked out the same way we came in along the old forestry road, which would have been an easy hike back to the car, but I really wanted to hike up to Camel Pass and check out the Ridge-o-rama trail. Our campsite was very close to Camel Pass, so I kind of wish we’d gone up the previous evening to explore it a bit more, but we hiked up in the shade of the early morning instead. The whole way up I was like, “the rocks really don’t look like a camel”, but when you get to the actual pass, the angles line up and it is easy to see the camel. But as soon as you continue further, it disappears again, so hang around the pass for a little while to enjoy the views and the camel, it’s a cool feature!

If you continue down the other side of the Pass, you rejoin the High Trail, which connects with Windy Pass on the west and back down to the Gun Creek Trailhead on the east. I think this is the most common way to visit Camel Pass and I know some people do it as a day hike. We didn’t want to do this trail because it would take us too far away from our parked car. Instead, I wanted to attempt the Ridge-o-rama trail. It’s shown on the Chilcotin paper map, but I still had a hard time finding any information about it. It’s primarily a mountain bike trail and bikers only use it to go down.

I did find one trip report online from someone who had backpacked it, and I was happy to see part of the trail included in Stephen Hui’s new 105 Hikes book that came out not long before we did the trail. Stephen calls it the North Cinnabar Trail. Both trip reports note that the trail is very steep and has eroded tracks in it from extensive mountain bike use. I’m pretty sure it was constructed as a mountain bike trail, so I tried not to be too mad about it. We had to hike ~14km, about half of which was along exposed alpine ridges. I love ridge walking and was sad when we skipped the ridge walk the previous day, so I was keen to do this trail, even though I was concerned about the exposure.

It’s only a short hike up from our campsite to Camel Pass, but we had to continue up to the top of another sub-peak beneath Taylor Peak. This was one of my favourite parts of the day because the views were phenomenal! You can see all around the park and all the little meadows, it’s very idyllic. It wasn’t too hot when we reached the sub-peak, which at 2250m, was our highest elevation of the day. After that, we had a nice downhill along the ridge. What really makes ridge hiking challenging is the variation in terrain. You’re constantly going up and down small peaks. They don’t look like too much on the map but repeating it over and over is tiring. It didn’t take long for the temperature to heat up, and Seth was having a rough time.

My biggest word of caution if you’re doing this trail is that it doesn’t have any water sources. Or at least, they were all dried up when we hiked it in August. We would have had enough water for just me and Seth, but there were no creeks for Sadie to drink out of (unlike the previous 2 days), so we had to share our water with her too. Seth and Sadie both drank a lot, and we had to conserve water for our last 3-4km of hiking, which I hate having to do. So, err on the side of caution if you’re doing this trail and bring lots of water. Although, if you take the North Cinnabar branch instead of the Ridge-o-rama East branch, there is a lake down in the basin (more on that later).

We slogged our way along the ridge, taking breaks in the shade when we could find it. I think my other error with this trail was that I tried to do the ridge too quickly. I wanted to get off the ridge before it got really hot in the early afternoon, so I did rush our breaks, which ultimately wasn’t the right decision. We were slow and ended up being out in the heat anyways, so it would have been better to rest more. After ~3.5km, we reached the Cinnabar Basin, which has a branch heading down the valley called the North Cinnabar Trail. Ridge-o-rama eventually connects with that trail further down, but there’s several more kms of ridge walking first.

The basin looks beautiful too and I think it would be a really nice place to wild camp since it has a little lake. It was tempting to hike down to the meadow, which has more shade, but overall, the trail is slightly longer than the ridge. I figured I was unlikely to ever come back to the ridge but might hike up through the basin someday to connect to the High Trail, so I opted to stick with the ridge. Unfortunately, Ridge-o-rama did end up getting more challenging after this point. We got some truly fantastic views looking down towards Carpenter Lake, and I could see on the map that we had one more sub-peak to climb. It was very steep and while it had a fantastic view, it was a rough trail to hike down.

After the sub-peak by camel pass that we’d done in the morning, this was probably my favourite view of the day. If you do the hike in Stephen’s book, this is where the day hike ends, after which you turn around. This hike would be an absolute SLOG to hike up and down, so my recommendation would be to do the whole North Cinnabar loop, either as a long day hike, or as an overnight. We had to take our time coming down the final sub-peak, but there’s a very cool part of the ridge walk after that where it slopes down on either side of the trail. It reminded me a lot of the 3 Brothers Trail in Manning Park.

Overall, this part of the ridge was the most tiring for us. It’s the most exposed section of the trail, so we kept Sadie close and leashed. It was past lunchtime, and we were both really hungry, but we wanted to get off the ridge and into the shade before taking a break, so it felt like the trail dragged on forever. You eventually come to what looks like the end of the ridge and you can see the forest directly below you, but it’s the steepest section of the trail to get from the ridge back to the woods. Plus, it’s where the bike tracks have completely eroded the trail, so it’s super hard to go down it without slipping on the loose rock. It’s a pretty brutal scramble.

Once you finally hit the trees, the trail is still very steep and rutted. I wanted to go a little bit further to get to a flatter part near the junction with North Cinnabar, but Seth was completely done, so we stopped in the shade along the steep slope to eat our lunch. We didn’t see a single person all day, but I would be careful in this section in case there are mountain bikers on the trail. It would be very hard to control your speed coming down a section like this.

The main benefit of getting off the ridge was to take advantage of the shade, but even in the trees, the sun was still exhausting. It was midday, so the sun was directly overhead; the trees were short, meaning we were often exposed either way. The lower we got in elevation, the hotter the air temperature became. We entered back into blueberry country, which pleased Seth and Sadie, but my feet were screaming at me and I desperately wanted to finish the hike so that I didn’t have to be standing anymore. This was when we realized that we were running out of water. We prioritized Sadie getting as much to drink as she wanted, but Seth tends to chug his water, so I had to share mine with both of them and he had to pace himself.

The forest walk was still steep, which is why I say it would be a slog to go up and down this trail in a day. Eventually you reach another junction. The main trail continues down towards Tyaughton Lake, but because our car was parked further up, we had to take the north branch to walk along an FSR. I thought this would probably be easier hiking, but I was worried about it being exposed with the wider road. I was right on both fronts. We had 2.5km on the FSR, followed by 1km on Tyaughton Lake Road, and we only had about 500ml of water left. It was very hot, but fortunately, it was easier walking, and we were able to hike down what was left of the trail pretty quickly. We chugged the last of the water when we got to Tyaughton Lake Road and hiked back to the car from there.

It was such a relief to get back to the car and have more water from our bladder in the trunk. It was quite warm from sitting in the car for 3 days, but water is water! Usually, I do a full outfit change when I get back to the car, but we were sweaty and gross, so we put towels down on the seat and drove straight to the Friberg Rec Site on Tyaughton Lake to go for a swim. We were the only ones there, so I set up my new pocket shower on the shore and had a nice shower with shampoo and soap! I always thought backcountry showers were a bit stupid, but now that I’ve bought one, I do love it.

We felt so much better after our swim and decided to head back to Lillooet for supper. We hit up the brewery again, for pizza this time, and then found a FCFS frontcountry campsite at BC Hydro’s Seton Lake Dam Rec Site for the night. The trip was not without challenges, but it only furthered my love for South Chilcotin Park. I’m sure I’ll be back again!