Was I glad I didn't do this trail in the summer: can't imagine the number of scrapes and bruises I would have had hiking in shorts! Unquestionably the most deadfall I encountered on a hike thus far.
The two of us ladies started from the Alexandra Lodge trailhead around 10:20. Aside from the short route up the creek bed at the very beginning, the trail is dry and snow-free until the view point which we reached in under an hour.
Soon after, we encountered frequent patches of ice on the trail and had to either navigate around or carefully inch our way across; wish I had taken my microspikes!
At the junction, we proceeded along the 1948 trail until coming out onto the open bump littered with burnt-out trees; at that point the flagging tape disappeared. As if all the walking along logs wasn't enough, we decided to climb another bump to the east in hopes of unobstructed views. Not satisfied with the views and being in an adventurous mood, we proceeded log-jumping to the next ridge to the east: same story there. Returned to the 1st bump and found rare flagging north of it.
Flagging tape seemed to be abundant everywhere except for the very places it was needed the most - along the burn sites where the trail bed was not visible. At the campsite with the picnic table, we took the Bluffs trail: a more interesting easy scrambling return option with glimpses of the Fraser river to the west. Unfortunately, also full of deadfall. The whole trail took us 7.5 hours, with a lot of time spent slowly crossing the icy spots, wandering around the deadfall and hiking up the nearby ridges in search of unobstructed views.
Feb 20, 2010
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