SUMMARY: Soon after you drive into Lions Bay, turn left to Crossing Creek road to cross Harvey Creek. It will be more than 2 hours of hiking to cross it again by a small hanging bridge. Harvey Creek is located between Mount Harvey and the Lions. The trailhead is located at 225m altitude and on the left slopes of Mount Harvey Ridge. About 23 minutes later, you come at the first junction (380m). The steep and high cliffs of Harvey is visible now. Take the right trail as we want to be in the area between Harvey and the Lions. Magnesia Creek could be audible now. Magensia Creek separates Mount Harvey and Brunswick and we will not cross it. After 45 minutes and after doing few switchbacks you come cross another junction (560m), take right. The trail then traverses slowly around Harvey Ridge without any switchbacks. You will come across other junctions, take always the right one. At about 700m of altitude, you will see Unnecessary North Peak and along its ridge is the Lions. The bridge is not too far now. Continue straight along the trail till you see on the right side a treed ridge. It is about 400m higher but looks less than that as it is round. The bridge is located just on the foothill of that ridge at altitude 780m. Once you are on the other side of the creek, the trail switches back and forth a long the east face of the ridge. At about 950m, the trail will be just outside of Unnecessary bowl. The trail direction is almost east. You will also notice the trees are intact close to the bowl as they were proctected against the blow-down caused by the storm happened few years ago. Once you get to Shoulder (~1250m), the west face of the West Lion is visible.create
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The Lions/binkert Trail
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Sep 27, 2018
Working overtime to take a day off was worth every late-night for this hike. A clear day without a cloud in sight, and hardly any people on the trail because of the weekday, I could not have asked for more ideal conditions. The parking lot in Lion’s Bay filled up shortly before 10am, and luckily most of the hikers were going up Harvey or Brunswick leaving two small parties aside from us to tackle the Lions.
The last time I came onto the trail was last year in the winter, and with knee deep snow the conditions were not ideal to travel higher into the alpine so my journey was cut short 3/4 of the way. Returning in better conditions meant I stood a better of chance of touching the mountains that are visible from many parts of Vancouver.
The trail twists up a service road, eventually narrowing to a trail where the road access is no longer needed. The fork for Brunswick comes first with Harvey’s fork occuring later on. Only on our return did we realize that the Lions have a junction of their own, with the trail continuing over a fallen log apparently leading to another trail.
It was quite the experience doing the trail without snow, certain features were familiar while others were non existent. I also remember struggling to climb over steps a lot more with the snow!
Eventually the trail becomes significantly steeper, taking an upward trajectory for the sky appearing through the trees. Once entering a rocky clearing, the views are stunning for the last stretch of the trail. Once on the ridge the bay is to the left, and an endless view of mountain ridges on the right contrasting the blue sky just made my heart sing. We were fortunate to have the area to ourselves along with a few ravens that lurked nearby and circled the peaks.
We also waved at a plane passing overhead, however, I think they were probably more fixated at admiring the views to notice two tiny blobs moving.
Note: from May to September a Residential parking permit is required if you do not manage to secure one of the ten parking spots.