Sometimes things do not go according to plan.
I had been planning a four day back-packing/day run trip out to E.C. Manning Provincial Park. It was to be part hiking and part training run for the Finlayson Arm Double (134km) race in September. The plan was to hike in to Nicomen Lake back-country camp and setup there. Next day do an out and back run along the beautiful Heather Trail to Blackwell Peak; next day hike via the Hope Pass to Granger Creek, then on Tuesday hike out and head home. All in all about 44 km hiking and 44 km running.
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| Wild Ice-cream - after the hike |
The nail in this plan's coffin was the Garrison Lake wildfire, burning out of control only 13 km east of Nicomen Lake. The fire was outside the park and not likely a threat in itself, but the winds were changing and the forecast was for terrible air quality in Manning over that weekend. I started to make alternative plans.
Friday, the day before heading over, the final nail in the coffin, a new wildfire in the park in Fat Dog Creek valley had closed the section of the park north of the highway and east of Cascades - essentially all of the trails I had planned to hike and run.
Day 1: Northern SCT to Manzanita (5 km)
And so it was Charlene and I found ourselves heading back to the Sunshine Coast to do the section of the Sunshine Coast Trail (SCT) we missed last time - the northern section from Sarah Point to Mowatt Bay Park. Except, hiking it north to south wasn't enough distance for four days, and I still wanted to incorporate an out and back run.
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| Setting off - walking on the 9:55 am sailing from Little River to Powell River |
We walked off the ferry from Little River into Powell River at 11:30 am on Saturday of the August long weekend. It was busier than the July long weekend. We had just under 4 hours in Powell River before we had to get our bus to Lund. Our packs were loaded with four days of food and two litres of water each. I like to carry the 1 litre Smart Water bottles as they fit the sides of the pack nicely and easy to handle while hiking. I also like the squirt tops, but they only seem to fit those on the half litre bottles - so I buy one of those too and switch the top with one of the 1 litre smart bottles. Why you might ask? It's to do with the water filter. The Sawyer Squeeze water filter works well, but it needs to be back flushed after use (especially if filtering water with lots of crap in it). The squirty cap on the Smart Water bottle fits the nozzle perfectly and makes back flushing easy while on the trail. I just use a small amount of the freshly filtered water to back flush. In addition to the bottles, we had two empty 2 litre running bladders, two half litre soft running bottles and a 3 litre CNOC, so our total water capacity if we had to fill up was 12 litres between us.
From the ferry we walked down the street, spying out a restaurant for dinner after the hike, and looking in the shops. We stopped at a waterfront park, where Charlene did some yoga and I relaxed in the shade of a tree. There was a mini-golf across the street, so we went and played a round of that. From there we hiked about 1.4 km up the hill to Quality Foods.
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| Mini Golf |
Powell River is so hiker friendly. As we were leaving the Mini-golf a local offered us a ride up the hill in his truck. We politely declined. We had lots of time and needed to get our hiking legs back. It was a hot climb but it felt good to get the body used to carrying the pack again.
BC Transit's rural route "14 Lund" operates twice a day from Powell River to Lund. After quality foods, we walked over to the bus terminal at the main mall, and along with two locals and six other hikers, boarded the 3:25 pm (and last bus of the day) to Lund. We arrived Lund at 4pm and from there hiked along Finn Bay Rd, then Sarah Point Rd for about 2 km before joining The Spire Trail that provided a side-access to the SCT. It was a pleasant hike and the trail was an easy grade all the way to the SCT. Our destination for the night was Manzanita Bluffs, where there was an SCT hut and places to camp. Once on the SCT, we hiked north and up the last one kilometre steep climb to the bluffs.
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| Camp setup on Manzanita Bluffs |
I knew from Facebook posts that there was no water at Manzanita; I also could not find any intel on water sources on the Spire Trail in. From the map it looked like we crossed small streams and went by small ponds, but I had no idea if after 45 days of no rain, they would actually be running. To be safe, we each carried an extra two litres of water with us from Powell River (a total of 8 litres between us).
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| Sunset view from camp on Manzanita Bluffs |
We arrived Manzanita about 5:20 pm and it was already busy with southbound hikers. We found a small tight spot to pitch the tent that was out of the way and had a wonderful view over to Vancouver Island. More hikers came in southbound, and we moved a picnic table to make room on a flat spot for one more tent. Two women decided to sleep in the cabin as it was tight to find a place to put up another tent. In all there were about 14 people up there that night.
Manzanita Bluffs was a beautiful spot. It's only 300 metres above sea-level, so not very high, but the views were spectacular. With a direct line of sight to Lund, we had 5-bars mobile service too on all carriers. There were two outhouses, an old one at the north end and a newer composting toilet up the hill above the hut. There was no food cache, but lots of room in the forest to hang-food or tie Ursacks to the trees well away from the campsites.
Day 2: Sarah Point out-and-back (32 km)
The worst of camping on a bluff is that the sun heats the rock all day, then at night the rock radiates heat into your tent. I was sweating most of the night. To make it worse there was absolutely no air movement.
In the morning everybody except us began their journey south. We loaded up our running packs with valuables, some food for the day and the remaining water (about 4 litres). We placed everything else in the tents, except the food, which we hung in the forest in the Ursacks. Then we set off for Sarah Point.
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| Bliss Landing Hut - and tent camping pads - newest hut on the SCT |
We (meaning me) had picked the least runnable section of the SCT. The trail climbed at first over Manzanita, before gently descending. This section was quite runnable. We passed southbound hikers who had spent the night at Wednesday Lake. Once down the first hill we entered Malaspina Provincial Park, which we would be in (except for couple short sections) all the way to Sarah Point. The trail was un forgiving - rooty, rocky and steep up or down for most of it.
Four kilometres from Manzanita we arrived at Wednesday Lake; a beautiful lake with a nice rocky bluff that would fit several tents. The trail from here to Bliss Landing was mostly in the forest, though it did take us out onto a bluff overlooking Okeover Inlet. Mostly the trail was a rough "boot" trail, and for the most part a fast hike.
At Bliss Landing, the trail pops out of the park for a few hundred metres and the SCT association has taken advantage of this to build a cabin here. This is completely new and isn't on some maps of the SCT yet. It's in the forest with no view, except of an old clear cut. There is a composting toilet, and food cache. And the only hut where they have built tent pads - so I'm happy to see SCT recognising there's a need for more camping options on the SCT. Back-country camping is permitted in Malaspina Provincial Park and there is no fee for it either.
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| Sarah Point - northern terminus/start of the 180 km SCT |
After Bliss Landing, the SCT heads up a steep switch back to reach higher elevations to get over the ridge. Three more kilometres and we pass the small Hinder Lake. Wednesday Lake and Hinder Lake are the only reliable water sources (in a dry summer) north of Manzanita Bluffs. We passed three couples heading to Manzanita Bluffs. They seemed surprised when we said we'd see them there. Then we explained what we were doing. About one kilometre before Feather Cove campsite, the trail smoothed out and was a joy to run. After Feather Cove (no water here either) the trail began climbing, but remained runable most of the way to the top of the ridge. Then from there it was a steep drop down rocky Arbutus bluffs to Sarah Point. There is camping here too, again no water.
We met two more hikers who had just got off the water taxi and were starting out. Their plan was to get to Bliss Landing for the night; for one of them it was her first overnight hiking trip. I thought given that, and the heat, it was a good call to plan for Bliss Landing. We advised them to fill up their water at Hinder Lake.
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| Running on the SCT |
Speaking of water, we were down to our last half-litre and in hindsight should have filled up at Hinder Lake on our way out. We began our run back, climbing up Sarah Bluffs in the heat, and rationing the remaining water to last us the five kilometres to Hinder Lake. We ran out about 10 minutes before the lake. At Hinder we stopped and filtered about 3 litres of water between us, which should be enough to get us to Wednesday Lake, 6.5 kilometres away. I also drank a full litre making up for rationing on the way to the lake from Sarah Point. Hinder Lake was awkward to filter from - no easy access to the lake and Charlene ended up standing in the lake up to her waist sinking into the mud as she filled the CNOC bladder.
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| Charlene swimming in Wednesday Lake on the way back to Manzanita Bluffs |
Tired now and tired of the technical and largely unrunable trail, the 6.5 kilomtres to Wednesday Lake seemed to drag on. There was always one more hill to climb but we finally reach it. And we also caught up to the three couples we'd passed outbound. They were just getting ready to move on after a rest at Wednesday Lake. We stopped for a rest here too; Charlene went in for a swim and I sat with my feet in the water. It felt so good. We also ate some of the food we had brought and drank up what was left of our water.
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| Warning for southbound hikers at Wednesday Lake - filled up our nine litres here |
We filtered from the lake's outlet stream. The water was flowing nicely over rocks, making it easy to fill the CNOC, plus it was shaded and cooler by the stream. We filtered 6 litres of water and carried 3 litres of dirty water in the CNOC. In all we left Wednesday Lake with 9 litres of water to haul back up to Manzanita Bluffs (we'd each need to drink about a litre of it on the 4 km hot climb back up). On the way up with passed all three couples and when we arrived back at the camp, there was nobody else there. As it turned out there were no northbound hikers coming through that evening, so it was just the eight of us up there on Sunday night.
Day 3: To Little Sliammon Lake (27 km)
Sunday morning up at 6 am and we were on the trail by 7:30 am. Heading southbound, we hiked down the bluffs enjoying the cool morning air and knowing it would not last. Once down the hill, the trail was mostly a beautiful smooth easy to hike trail. So we obviously ran the wrong section, though running this section wouldn't have worked very well. But if you plan to run the SCT, highly recommend running the Manzanita Bluffs to Homestead section. It has some climbs, but the trail is for the most part, smooth and runable.
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| Looking back at Manzanita from our next hill climb as we hiked southbound |
The trail climbed over a small hill, then a nice gentle down hill to Malasapina Road, where somebody had left a cooler of drinkable water for hikers. We used about half a litre to top up and carried on. Through hikers call this "trail magic".
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| Trail Magic on the SCT - much appreciated and thank to whoever left this for hikers |
There's not much to say about this stretch - it was all in the forest and just an enjoyable hike. So quiet and no people. We did see some northbound hikers who told us there was a good water source at Plumper Creek, and we told them there was no water at Mazanita so load up at the small creek about 1 km before the hut - the creek was running.
We stopped at Plumper Creek, filled up our water and took a break for an early lunch. I loved the location, shaded, and the running water felt like air conditioning.
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| Filtering water from Appleton Creek |
We were now just above sea level, and next 3.5 kilomtres followed Plumper Creek and the wide valley it was in. Of course, all we saw was trees, birds and some noisy squirrels. At homesteads we popped out onto a forestry service road, before immediately going back on trail and starting the longest climb of this section - 200 metres elevation gain to Rieveley's Pond Hut. This hut is next to a very small lake (hence the name pond). It had a flat area that could hold a few tents, a hut and composting toilet. There was nobody there and we didn't stop. We carried on. Stopping at Appleton Creek camping area to filter more water from the stream under the bridge.
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| A walk in the woods |
Appleton creek was the most dramatic part along this section of trail. The trail followed the ridge above Appleton Canyon, then dropped down into the canyon. Along the way there were waterfalls, which in high flow season must be spectacular to see and hear. We came across several day hikers along this stretch. A black dog made the hairs on my neck stand up as at first when I see a black animal coming up the trail towards me, the first thought is "Bear!".
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| Bandit Falls - one of many falls as we headed down the Appleton Canyon - imagine these are roaring falls in in spring |
By 4:30 pm we arrived at Sliammon Lake campsite. It was fairly large by back-country standards, with lots of flattish areas for tents, easy access to the lake and an outhouse. There was one couple there setting up. As it was only 4:30 pm we decided to keep going another three kilometres to Little Sliammon Lake. This trail alongside Sliammon Lake, then over a small pass to Little Sliammon Lake was a beast. It was more of a route than a trail, and extremely slow going. We got to Little Sliammon Lake campsite by about 6:00 pm. That's how slow we were moving along there.
The campsite, called Shangri-la was quite nice. There was room for about 4 or 5 tents, and there was a shelter with a picnic table under it, and a decrepit stinky outhouse, with the door half off. It was so bad we decided to dig cat-holes in the forest instead. About 30 metres down the trail was a dock, with good access to the lake for swimming and for filtering water.
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| Sliammon Lake - view from camping area |
But we think it was haunted.
It had a creepy feeling. We were in the forest and there was an old clear-cut on one side, the lake on the other and tons of berry bushes. Berry bushes and close by water means it would be favourite place for animals, especially bears. We could hear a deep groaning/growl coming from the forest every so often. We heard coyotes howling. We didn't go anywhere without carrying our bear spray.
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| Lillte Sliammon Lake |
The strangest was the canoe. First time we went to the dock there was no canoe. We heard voices over the water. Second time we went back the canoe was on the dock, but there was nobody around. It seemed strange as it was a long hike out from there. So we decided it was ghosts. All I knew is I wanted to be safely in the tent by dark. I always put the bear spray close by so I can grab it in the night if needed, and I keep a knife inside the tent in case we need to cut open the tent to make a quick exit, or stab something trying to get into the the tent. Our food, fuel and anything scented, as always is safely inside the Ursacks and a tied to a tree a long way from the tent.
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| Yoga class in the Shangri-la at our "haunted" campsite |
Day 4: The hike Out (17 km)
Last day on the SCT. We got going by about 8:30 am and hiked out to Powell River. The trails were quite nice and flowy to hike along. Once out of the Little Sliammon Valley, the trail went down hill gently for some time, before our last climb, over Scott Hill and down to Shingle Mill. The hike up was pretty easy and we were soon on the bluffs. We stopped here to enjoy the view and have some snacks. Then we began the steep rocky descent down the bluffs. Shingle Mill was about a third of the way through our hike today, and there was a beautiful flush toilet washroom at the side of the road. I was so happy to see that.
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| The haunted canoe and the early morning mist rising from the lake |
From here we hiked over the bridge on Highway 101 and rejoined the trail on the south side of Powell Lake. Nice smooth trail and then one more climb over a ridge and we were back a Mowatt Bay, where we started the SCT southbound on the July long weekend. We had completed the entire SCT.
We stopped at Mowatt Bay for a break, so Charlene could get a couple of decent swims in (she's training for a swim/run on August 20th). I relaxed under my ultra-light sun umbrella, which made such a big difference in temperature. My mobile shade.
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| View of Powell Lake from Scott bluffs |
After an hour, we left Mowatt Bay and on road, climbed about 120 metres in elevation. We turned off the paved roads and followed a BC Hydro service road, then onto the Millenium Park trail system. This was a nice trail through the forest, that took us down to the ocean side park we had relaxed in when we arrived in Powell River on Saturday. We hiked through the park and down the main road to the latin restaurant for an early dinner.
A little drunk after a 650 ml bottle (bomber?) of Tin Hat IPA (local IPA named after the mountain on the SCT), we hiked back up the street a kilometre to get locally made ice-cream at "Wild". It is amazing, and I'm not usually a fan of ice cream. The vanilla with blended fruit is the best - this time I had strawberry. So refreshing.
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| Walking down Kingfisher Trail in Millennium Park - this is not part of the SCT |
And then time for home. We hiked back the way we had come, past the restaurant to the ferry, to get the 515 pm ferry to to Little River. Then, with a stop in Thrifty's for more food and cold Bubly water, we headed back to Victoria, getting in a 10 pm.
Sleep time. November Project is at 6:29 am on Wednesday. Back to reality!
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| Waiting for the ferry: personal shade under my Six Moons Designs sun umbrella |
Final Thoughts:
I must say I am so impressed with the people of Powell River. It is very hiker friendly. People stop to talk to us. A guy driving by slows down to asked if we'd done the trail and then air high fives us. We're offered rides from locals. The SCT is also a very well maintained and blazed trail. At 180 km it isn't a long distance trail, but certainly something that can be done in 7-10 days depending on how quickly or slowly you want to go. Resupply is possible as follows:
1. at Shingle Mill by getting BC Transit bus 1 to the town centre mall - bus runs every hour so could resupply and get back on trail quickly
2. Mowatt Bay by walking up the road to Cranberry store, or from there getting BC Transit bus 2 to Powell River town centre mall - bus runs every hour.
3. Contracting with a local operator who will take supplies to you at service road trailheads at pre-determined times, for a fee of course.
