Jul 25, 2020
The road in is in pretty good shape until just before the last branch point, when there starts to be more and more ruts, rocks embedded in the road and alder closing in. You definitely need high clearance and 4wd is an asset past this. We drove between 500m-1km down the last branch until we found a decent spot to park, but in hindsight we probably could have made it to the lake in our 4runner, and there were several trucks and SUV's that were parked at Cabin Lake once we had hiked there. The road took us about an hour to hike and then we set up camp for the night. Bugs were pretty bad at the lake, but that was only a sign of things to come.
We set off the next morning just after 7 am. We couldn't find a definite gps track but had a few pictures of routes from others to piece together a plan. We actually managed to find a bit of old road and single track trail on the way up to the ridge, and just followed a dry creek bed on the way down. Once up on the ridge and headed to the peak, the route finding is pretty easy and there are bits of flagging and trail along the way to reassure you that you're headed the right direction.
One bit I will mention is that just after the little lake/tarn along the ridge, there is a steep slope to ascend. On going up, we went up the left side of the talus which quickly turned into loose dirt and was not that fun to hike up. On the way down, we took a route more around the East which required a bit of bushwhacking but was much more gradual and easy-going.
As I mentioned before, bugs were bad at the lake, and actually got worse as we hiked up into the alpine. They were pretty miserable right until the summit. Luckily, once we took a break at the top the wind picked up a bit and kept the numbers down for most of our descent. Hopefully they won't be as much of an issue if you go later in the year.
I have attached our GPS track to give an idea if anyone wants it, but I would rely on your own route finding and judgement as you go and don't rely to heavily on it. I would recommend taking map or gps or both, but it wasn't that difficult to find the way and the hike isn't all that strenuous.
Views from the top were amazing and unique. I don't think I've had such a wide-ranging view, with being able to see the coquihalla mountains, Outram, Mt Baker, Cheam Range, Golden Ears, Robie Reid, Mount Urquhart, Mount Garibaldi and plenty of mountains stretching up to Pemberton and Lillooet that I don't know the name of. Definitely worth doing if you want to get away from the crowds and want a little adventure. :)
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