There are a few ways to do this trip, all using the same logging road.
1 - walk from the gate (18km round trip)
2 - drive as far as a you can with a mid clearance car (17-14km)
3 - Take a decent 4X4 and good driver (less than 13km)
This is because the gate referred to 103 hikes is damaged beyond repair and aside from a few water bars, the road is in excellent condition. We did #2 and cannot imagine hiking that whole logging road (it would be boring). This is an ok hike if you cut of as much of the logging road as possible.
My GPS actually had most of the "road' we used up until it becomes trail, (last 20%), but after a certain point the "road" is more trail-like. The rest of the trail is extremely well marked now, including giant yellow plastic circles with arrows, but there is still snow at the very top (easily walkable, low risk, just pay attention to where you walk over the little creek). The mosquitoes were out (not horrible, but bad enough).
An important note is the 103 hikes 5th edition is no longer valid (6th is). We even saw a torn up 103 5th edition page on the trail (frustrated hikers!?).
Views at the top were 360 degrees but only at the very top did you really get to see them. Golden Ears, Stave Lake, Robbie Reid, and on an even better day, the city would be viewable. Pretty good pay-off, but wait for a clear day for sure.
Jul 10, 2010
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