Best hikes, treks, tramps in the world.
Trip report by BestHike editor Rick McCharles.
A very popular short walk out of Banff townsite in the Canadian Rockies, the highlight is seeing song birds, waterfowl and amphibians.
Not so much in winter. 😀
Yet I’d argue it’s even more beautiful with snow and ice.
Click PLAY or get a glimpse on YouTube.
10 Adventures has a great write-up calling it the Marsh Loop Hike. (3.4km)
Trip report by BestHike editor Rick McCharles.
There are many ways to enjoy this popular trail right from Banff townsite in the Canadian Rockies.
I started on the Bow Falls Trail.
Continued on to Hoodoos Trail.
The route recommended on AllTrails.
I enjoyed it more in winter than summer — though was happy I wore Yaktraks.
Click PLAY or watch my April hike on YouTube.
Climbing Sulphur Mountain from Banff, Alberta is popular year round. But during the winter you can ride the Gondola back down for FREE. 😇
It’s easy to get to the very top of a Rocky Mountain peak.
Magical.
Click PLAY or watch a short video on YouTube.
655 metres elevation gain on switchback trails — easy in the summer, but potential slippery and dangerous with snow and ice.
Once you reach the Sulphur Mountain Gondola top station, the best is yet to come. A network of trails along the ridge, and viewing decks at the gondola station, provide stunning views of Banff, the Bow Valley, and 360-degree views in every direction.
The highest point is the historic Cosmic Ray Station.
On return to the bottom, consider the short walk over to Banff Upper Hot Springs. Let’s call it recovery.
Click PLAY or see the Gondola and the Above Banff interpretive centre on YouTube.
related – Banff Blog – How to Hike Sulphur Mountain (Alternative to Banff Gondola)
Tunnel Mountain 1,692 m (5,551 ft) is located in the Bow River Valley of Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The mountain is nearly completely encircled by the town of Banff and the Banff Springs Hotel grounds.
Climbing Tunnel is super popular year round as the trail is well graded. In winter many folks bring hiking poles and ice cleats as there are slippery and icy sections.
4.3 km (3 mi) round-trip.
You’ll often see Elk on the way up as I did.
related – Banff’s Tunnel Mountain Hike is Wonderful in Winter
Diggins and best friend Emily Ford started December 28th.
Finished 69 days later.
Emily is the only the second person on record to thru hike the Wisconsin trail in winter.
Creative camping was required as campgrounds are closed in winter. And parts of the official Ice Age Trail were closed.
They averaged 16.5 miles / walking day.
IG @emilyontrail
On January 4, Lukasz Supergan started a 1,080km trek across his native Poland.
Beginning in the Izerskie Mountains, he combined several long trails so that he could hike across the Polish Mountains and end at the Ukrainian border. After 48 days and 16 hours, he reached the Bukowka Pass on the Bieszczady Mountains and finished his crossing. …
ExplorersWeb
Trip report by BestHike editor Rick McCharles.
I’d previously hiked two other sections of the (roughly) 180km Sunshine Coast Trail:
Sarah Point to Manzanita hut (2015)
Mowat Bay to Lois Main (2016)
Pestered by wasps and other biting insects on those two earlier trips, I deliberately returned late season. No bugs.
This time I headed for the Troubridge Trudge section:
Oct 24 – Lang Bay to Golden Stanley hut (km 145)
Oct 25 – Golden Stanley to Mt Troubridge hut (km 158)
Oct 26 – Troubridge to Fairview Bay hut (km 173)
Oct 27 – Fairview to Lang Bay (km 180)
You can hike 42km in either direction. It’s called the trudge as this is the highest section of the Sunshine Coast Trail.
More maps.
Having reached the Sunshine Coast via ferry from Comox, I stayed in a Powell River hotel.
Weather forecast looking good next morning, I cycled down to Lang Bay.
A lovely autumn day.
Hid my bike in the trees close to the highway near Lang Bay.
Walked the gravel road called Canoe Main to join the Sunshine Coast Trail on Lois lake. (I could have walked Lois Main, the older road.)
Lois lake was created by a dam.
The mountains beyond the lake look tempting.
You eventually turn uphill inland on a trail towards Elephant lake.
It’s steep but not all that far to Golden Stanley hut, completed 2016. It’s not mentioned in my guidebook published 2013, of course.
I was carrying my tent as I’d seen online that the huts were closed due to COVID-19.
But the hut was open after all. Since I was the only person there, I moved in.
Impressive pit toilet.
Oct 25 – Golden Stanley to Mt Troubridge hut (km 158)
Mt Troubridge is the highest point on the Sunshine Coast Trail. I was happy to have good weather.
On the other hand, surprised to see snow at such low elevation in October.
It was Ho Ho Ho. 😀
In 2020 everyone takes the newer of two possible trails to the summit. The best route is always well signed.
I still easily reached Troubridge hut by early afternoon.
Here’s how it looks in summer.
And here’s how it looked when I arrived.
Mt Troubridge hut was flown up in pieces by helicopter.
It replaced the Troubridge Hilton, a small communications hut that’s now more used as an emergency shelter on the top of the mountain.
I assumed I’d have Troubridge hut to myself again when Chris and his dog arrived. Rather than sharing a small space, Chris took the A-frame. I stayed in the hut on my own.
He had the views of Jervis inlet and could see all the way to Powell River.
Turns out winter camping is quite comfortable — when you can sleep in a hut rather than a tent.
I took plenty of winter wonderland video. And later managed to accidentally delete most of it. Somehow. 😕
Oct 26 – Troubridge to Fairview Bay hut (km 173)
More good weather. I was worried the descent might be slippery, but new snow was mostly grippy. No problems in approach shoes.
Navigation no problem in winter either.
I stopped 800m lower for lunch at Rainy Day lake (km 169) which has a hut.
Winter hiking is much different than doing the same thing in summer.
Eventually snow disappeared. Went away. Like magic. 😀
It got easier on the way down to Fairview Bay.
Again I had the hut to myself.
And again I had plenty of time for photos.
There’s the ferry I’ll be catching to North Vancouver.
Next morning a leisurely 2 hour walk out. Autumn is my favourite time of year for hiking.
This is the end of the South Coast Trail. But I have one section left to finish, close to Powell River. Looking forward to it already.
I had to telephone the bus for pick-up. But it only cost $2.25 to get me back to Lang Bay where I retrieved my bike.
If you want to learn more about Canada’s longest hut-to-hut hike, check first the official website and our own information page:
BestHike – Sunshine Coast Trail
Outdoor Vancouver posted an an excellent information page:
Rating: Difficult
Distance: 15 km
Net Elevation Change*: 889 m
Highest Point: 1,628 m
Time Needed: 7 Hours
Type: Out-and-back
Season: July – September
Dogs Allowed: No (not permitted in the Rainbow Mountain Alpine Trail Network)
Est. Driving Time from Vancouver: 2 Hours
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Trip report by BestHike editor Rick McCharles.
As there is not much information online about Elk Pass, I put together a video.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Easy access from Campbell River on Vancouver Island.
The Elk River Trail in Strathcona Provincial Park is super popular. But not many hikers continue to Elk Pass (in yellow).
For one thing, it’s not easy to find the Elk Pass trailhead.
Everyone sees the damaged sign pointing to Landslide Lake.
From there, search the trees on the left and you’ll find the high and overgrown Elk Pass sign.
Very quickly you realize Elk Pass is no trail. It’s a route you try to follow using bits of flagging tape and cairns.
Demanding hiking.
You’ll have to navigate dozens of blowdowns.
Worst was this dry log jam. I bushwhacked around, finding a bypass trail on my return.
In some cases multiple route options have been flagged by past hikers. I somehow missed the unofficial “Hemlock” Campground.
Instead I bashed on up the Elk River valley.
With no better option, I finally decided to build a flat platform on the snow.
Great camp, actually. But there’s always the risk more snow will fall from high up Mt Rambler.
In addition, mosquitoes were terrible at higher elevation.
Next morning dawned another lovely day.
It didn’t take long to reach the bowl below Elk Pass.
There are some campsites near tarns.
Up there!.
And it didn’t take long.
Here’s the view back down the valley from the Pass.
At the top I spoke briefly with a couple attempting the long, challenging Golden Hinde Traverse. (47km 5-8 days)
Did they make it? I’m not sure.
One hiking group did complete the Golden Hinde(less) Traverse between July 18-24, 2020.
I too carried 8 days food with faint hope of continuing on the Traverse. But decided it was too difficult, remote and dangerous to do solo. What if I got hurt?
In fact, I fell badly twice on the Elk Pass trail: scratches and bruises.
But I did continue part way over the Pass towards this large unnamed lake, a continuation of the Traverse.
Backtracking, I decided to traverse/scramble up to the next pass to the S.W. of Elk. That turned out to be the highlight.
Big vistas over low clouds.
From there it was down, down, down. Back into the trees.
I found hiking down even more challenging than on the way up.
It was nearly 6pm by the time I reached “Hemlock”, the unofficial camp I’d missed the previous night.
It’s named for huge Hemlock trees.
About 8pm I began hearing bombs dropping.
Loud.
Turns out it was a squirrel cutting down pinecones. From on high.
Next morning I returned to the highway via the Elk River trail.
Great hike.
See our list of the best hikes in North America.
The best hiking guidebook is Exploring Strathcona Park. Dead tree version available only.
Iðunn Bragadóttir and her 20-year-old daughter, Þóra Dagný Stefánsdóttir, have spent 32 days traversing Iceland. The duo started on the Reykjanes peninsula and hiked diagonally, southwest to northeast, across the country to Langanes Point.
The 786km route is one of the longest possible ways to traverse Iceland. …
Mother and Daughter Hike Across Iceland
(via Adventure Blog)
