DIRECTIONS: From Vancouver: Drive east on Hwy #1 to Chilliwack. Take exit 119 into Vedder Rd. Drive south for about 5Km till you reach the 3-way junction at the metal bridge over Chilliwack river. Turn left onto Chillwack Lake Rd. Drive 30Km towards Chilliwack lake. The logging road is located 3.5Km after Ford Correction Center or the second bridge over Chilliwack River (about 300m pass Riverside campground sign). The logging road itself crosses Chilliwack River shortly after the turn. At the fork located right after the bridge, turn right. Follow the main logging road and ignore the few smaller branches. Part of the logging road is rough but doable by 2WD to about 1/2Km off the trailhead of Slesse which is located about 5.5Km from the beginning of the logging road. The trailhead of Rexford is located 2Km after Slesse trailhead where there is fork. The left branch leads to the trail.create
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Mount Rexford Trail
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Jun 4, 2016
I'll start off with a road report for Nesakwatch FSR. Several decent sized wash-outs along the FSR that required some pretty serious 4WD action, and after not seeing any other vehicles and coming up to a pretty good trench running down the road on the hill up to the Slesse Memorial trail, decided to park back at a wide spot and just walk an extra half hour or so each way. Good decision, as the road kept getting worse and, about 500m or so after the Slesse TH, there was a huge washout complete with creek in it that nobody was getting past in a vehicle (tried to get a pic of it in 3rd pic of this post).
Driving back out, only 1 jeep parked beside us (nobody decided to drive farther) and many people parked a few km back, just before major washouts, but we hadn't seen any of them so must have all been headed to Slesse. I'm sure our 98 4Runner with SK plates got some funny looks where it was parked after the washouts haha. We will probably just walk the extra distance if we do it again unless something is done about the road.
As for the actual trail, it was in excellent shape. The first few hundred meters are slightly overgrown with some alder but snapping a few branches back gives you a clear path. We were making pretty good time and the day was beautiful, with amazing views of Slesse and the rest across the valley.
Then about half-way up, my wife quietly told me to stop and start walking back slowly towards her behind me, so I did such and then turned around to see a decent sized black bear about 10-20 m away from us. We got our bear spray and knives in hand, and thankfully he trotted off the other way. We tried to make some noise for a little bit, waited about 5 minutes then walked little farther along but he was just over the ridge sitting right beside the trail at the creek crossing having a snack and didn't seem to want to move (In third to last pic, but he was in the shade so I don't think you can actually see him). So, unfortunately, we decided to call it an early day. We've been pretty lucky so far with bears, have managed to get through 23 of the 103 Hikes book without getting stalled or turned around and you can't win them all, especially when we were the ones entering the bear's territory.
Overall, still a good day out on the trails and managed to see some great views. Not sure when we will make it back, but we will probably try to start a little earlier and add some walking to be a little kinder on our old vehicle. :)