Training Log Archive: bensmith

Lovely loop around Lightning Lake in Manning Park. Nice varied trails, with gentle undulations and a mixture of trail surfaces and technicalities. It was very quiet at this time of day.

I'd been camping at Hampton campground for the last couple of nights. It's pleasant (hot showers!) but right by the highway. I didn't find it at all relaxing to be at my site, with the constant drone of highway traffic in the background. It seems the same case for all the other campgrounds except Lightning Lake. (One of my little exploratory walks that I didn't bother logging went via Coldstream campground, and the highway traffic there can be heard over the nearby creek).

I think I'd only camp at Hampton etc again if I just needed to be there for one night to get an early start on a hike the next day.

Kettle Valley Railway from Princeton towards Coalmont.

This was very pretty along a canyon, with a tunnel and a couple of bridges. There are a few rocky sections where landslides have covered the trail, but otherwise it's very easy gravel riding.

I'd initially planned to go further, but didn't take any food with me and I suddenly got extremely hungry so decided to turn around and head back to the car.

Mt Frosty loop in Manning Park.

The ascent from Lightning Lake is superb, and a contender for my favourite hike in Manning (along with Skyline; Heather is a distant third). You do about half the climb, then plateau for a few km to recover a bit before the final push. There's only 1 creek on the trail, so be sure to fill up at the Frosty Camp.

Just before the final climb, you pass through some of the oldest trees in Canada (2000+ years old) which are deciduous conifers. Apparently this looks spectacular in the fall when all the needles turn gold.

After that, there's a bit of a scramble up to the intersection with the trail from Windy Joe, which has some exposure and loose rocks. It was quite windy the day I did it, and I felt a bit uneasy at times. I would definitely not want to do it in the wet. I initially thought the final section from the intersection to the summit was going to be even worse, but the ridge is deceiving from a distance, and is actually much safer and easier than the previous scramble. Delightful views from the top.

I made it into a loop hike, and went down via the trail that connects to Windy Joe and the PCT. I didn't find this particularly interesting, and would just do an out-and-back from Lightning Lake next time I think.

I went 5 hours without seeing another person. I didn't know this was possible in Manning. Mid-week on strenuous hikes FTW!

I only had a couple of days in the Chilcotins, as the guidebook suggested my options were limited with a city car, and I also wanted to get down to Manning Park for a few nights, which had very limited availability. So I set off down the Fraser Canyon for the first time, stopping in pretty much every village and park to look around.

There's an "air tram" at Hell's Gate which takes you down from the highway to the river below. This costs $30 and is currently closed. There is a also a trail / service road which takes you down to the same bridge, which costs $0 and is open. Unfortunately the bridge itself is also closed at the moment, but you can still see the river and canyon.

5 minutes down the highway is another bridge across the river (in Alexandra Bridge Provincial Park), which is always open and gives you the same experience of looking down on to the river. Seems like a similar situation to Capilano Suspension Bridge vs Lynn Valley Suspension Bridge.

On the plus side, I did feel quite safe on the trail thanks to the warnings telling other trail users not to throw rocks at me:

Oof, my legs hurt. I'd done lots of running in the build-up to my vacation, but not enough elevation work, so various muscles were hurting more than I expected. I'd originally planned another hike, but bailed on that idea to do some valley exploration by car and bike instead.

Checked out the 2 towns in the area (Gold Bridge and Bralorne, population ~40 each). Gold Bridge has a store (closed), bakery (permanently closed) and an unmanned gas station (open). Bralorne has a pub (closed). Definitely stock up on everything you need in Pemberton or Lillooet!

My ride took me from the pretty Gun Lake to a gravel airstrip that seems to be quite well maintained. No landings, but one plane parked up. There were some lovely sandy mountain bike trails through pine trees, which reminded me of some areas near Whitehorse. I'd planned to do a bigger loop, but a bridge was completely out, and I didn't fancy a slippery river crossing with my bike.

South Chilcotins - up High Trail to Camel Pass, over to Eldorado Pass, up Nea Peak, back to Camel Pass, along Ridge-o-Rama, then back down High Trail.

High Trail is the easiest trailhead to get to, and is an old mining track. Unfortunately it is open to ATVs, but there were only 2 the day I went up. After leaving the main track, I only saw 2 other people the whole day.

The ascent from Eldorado Pass to Nea Peak isn't on a trail, but is described well in the Trail Ventures guidebook. Quite a bit of scree makes it tough work, but great views from up there.

Ridge-o-Rama is described as a trail-less route in the guidebook, but has a well-established trail now (presumably since it was added to Trailforks).

The descent down High Trail was a bit of a slog, especially in the 32C heat. But doing a loop would have added another 5km to the route, which I didn't think my body could deal with. It seems High Trail is one of the quicker ways into the alpine, but it's definitely not an interesting trail, and I'd choose another trailhead next time.

Camel Pass:


Summit view:

C • Chilcotins 1