Backpacking trip to Nicomen Lake and Heather Trail in E. C. Manning Provincial Park

    Between August 19 and and August 22 2004 Sarah and I set out entirely on public transit to do some backpacking in E. C. Manning Provincial Park in the Cascade mountains of southern British Columbia.

    I originally found the Nicomen Lake trail in the book BC Car Free, written by Brian Grover. I chose this particular trail because it is within a few hours of Vancouver and because it is relatively easy to access without a car. BC Car Free recommends beginning the hike by hitch-hiking from highway 3 up to the Blackwell parking lot. It says that this is a distance of 8km and an enormous elevation gain. The hitch-hiking is recommended so that the hike is mostly an elevation drop, since the elevation was gained in the car ride up. From the map on the Manning park website, I noticed that the 18km Bonnevier Trail is another way to get from highway 3 into the sub alpine meadows leading to Nicomen Lake that does not involve hitch-hiking. We began our hike in the reverse of the recommended direction of BC Car Free for three reasons. First, since I wanted to avoid hitch-hiking, we would need to hike up the approximately 1000m of elevation gain regardless, so the direction of the hike did not really matter. Second, the internet yielded no information about camping on the trail and I did not want to begin a backpacking trip with an 18km first day with 950m of elevation gain. Third, if for some reason we wanted to take the road down (hiking or hitch-hiking) rather than the Bonnevier Trail, we didn't need to decide that until the third day of the hike.

    Therefore, the significant markers on our trail would be the following:

Km 0 - 800m: Cayuse Flats

Km 6 - 975m: Grainger Creek Camp (Outhouse, Tent Pads)

Km 10.5 - 1325m: "Ravine" Camp (Not marked on the map, but mentioned on the internet) (Some benches, not much else)

Km 17.5 - 1800m: Nicomen Lake Camp (Outhouse)

Km 25 - 1900m: Kicking Horse Camp (Outhouse, Tent Pads)

Km 31.5 - 2075m: Beginning of Bonnevier Trail

Km 49.5 - 1050m: East Gate

Alternatively, if we choose to continue to the Blackwell parking lot to hitchhike down, rather than taking the Bonnevier Trail, we would have the following two markers.

Km 33.5 - 1850m: Buckhorn Camp (Outhouse, Tent Pads, Food cache)

Km 38.5 - 1800m: Blackwell Parking Lot

These distances would probably take 4 or 5 days of hiking requiring 3 or 4 nights spent in the park. This plan would yield a total elevation gain of approximately 1000m in the first day or two and an elevation loss of the same amount in the last day or two. We would arrive at the trailhead at 10am and leave on our last day at 5pm with either 3 or 4 nights spent in the park.

Preparation

    Having not been on a "real" hiking trip since I was 15, in 1996, Sarah and I needed to stock up on some gear. We bought two MEC sleeping bags. Sarah got a -12 degree small Raven bag and I got a -7 degree regular Raven bag. We also got a MSR Dragonfly stove, since I wanted really good simmering control and this stove seemed to offer the best. We got some pots and pans and a couple of plates. I guess I forgot to tell Sarah that our bus left at 6:40am and that we would have to get up at 5:30am to catch it. We did most of our shopping for food and things on the day before the hike and as a consequence were a bit rushed for packing, but we only forgot a few things. Here is our packing list.

Day 1

    We wake up at 5:30am in Burnaby, British Columbia to catch the 6:40am Greyhound bus out of Coquitlam station bound for Manning park. While I am standing at the bus stop, I realize that I don't have my orthotics (medical insoles) in my hiking boots. In fact, I don't have any insoles at all. I'm not sure what that will do to my feet but we don't have time to go back. At 10:20am, we ask the driver to let us off (between stops) at Cayuse flats. For our first night we have three possible campsites, Grainger Creek at km 6, "Ravine" Camp at km 10.5 and Nicomen Lake at km 17.5. Since Sarah wants to spend only 3 nights in the park, we set our sights for the Nicomen Lake site. At about 1pm, we arrive at Granger Creek Camp and have some lunch after a moderate assent. We are not feeling tired and decide to press on. At 3:30pm we arrive at "Ravine" Camp. It is at the the crossing of the biggest tributary to Grainger Creek. Since it is only 3:30pm and we want to sleep near a lake, we press on knowing that it will be a big climb up to the lake. All along the route, water is plentiful and we use the water filter twice to refill our water bottles. The last 30 minutes towards Nicomen Lake is a hard switchback climb at the end of a long day, but we eventually arrive at the lake just before 6pm with lots of time to make dinner and set up camp.

    We have spaghetti and sardines with Portobello pasta sauce. On the shelter in the middle of the camp, a sign says to hang any food at least 4m from the ground and at least 2m from any branches. We have a pretty hard time doing that, and our pack ends up about 2m from the ground and about 1m from the tree but it is dark and we are tired. No bears come in the night and I come up with a new plan for hanging our pack for the next night.

Day 2

    We sleep in since we covered such a large distance the day before and meet some guys who are hiking the opposite direction. They tell us there is a huge climb up to the Nicomen Ridge and that there isn't any water until Kicking Horse Campsite, about 8km down the trail. We pack up and leave around noon and bring about 4 litres of water for the two of us. The top of the ridge is beautiful and looks out over the lake and some mountains in the distance. After the ridge it is pretty flat through sub alpine meadows for the next couple hours. It starts raining lightly and we stupidly don't put on any rain gear. It slowing gets rainier and starts to pour about the time we thought we should be arriving at Kicking Horse. It turns out that Kicking Horse is about 20 minutes farther than we thought which means that most of what we own is wet. I don't know why we didn't stop to put on rain gear. It's also cold and windy, but we don't catch hypothermia. I guess what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. We arrive at about 3:15pm and get into our dry sleeping bags and have a nap. Some other people staying at the campsite say that it took them about 3.5 hours to hike in from the Blackwell parking lot.

     We make legumes and rice for dinner mostly because I didn't realize how similar yellow split peas, green split peas and lentils taste. We put the left over Portobello pasta sauce on it, but it still isn't very good. We are sick of chocolate, nuts and raisins since we brought about 3kg of trail mix, two kinds of granola bars: Quaker Trail Mix granola bars and Quaker Caramel Nut Chocolate granola bars. We also have raisin almond crunch cereal and some cashews and peanuts for adding to our dinners. We brought way too much food. We are more successful at hanging the food in the trees today, but it still isn't 4 meters. Maybe more like 2.5 meters, but at least it is more than 2m from any branches. While I was sleeping I came up with a new technique that I would try for the next day.

Day 3

    After a quick look at the map and our still wet shoes, we decide not to take the Bonnevier trail, but rather take the road out and either hike down the road or hitch-hike. We dread putting our wet boots back on, but we put on all the dry clothing we have left and two pairs of socks each, and after about 30 minutes of hiking our feet are surprisingly warm. The bus drives down the highway at about 5pm and we set out at about 10am, giving us 7 hours to cover the 13.5km of trail and 8km of road. We arrive at the parking lot at about 1pm and sit down for a snack. There is a single Volkswagon Jetta in the lot with two mountain bikes on top which we guess belongs to the couple we had just seen walking down the trail in the opposite direction of us. We figure that it will only take about an hour and a half to cover the 8km down the hill to the lodge where there is a restaurant and where the bus picks up. After about 20 minutes of walking the road the Jetta drives by very slowly with the couple inside. We think to put out our thumbs but their back seat is full of stuff. About 10 minutes later the Jetta drives back and the man (Carsten) leans out and asks us if we would like a ride. They figure that if they rearrange their stuff and send two of the four of us down on bikes that our packs will fit in the car. We readily agree, since it seems like we are getting nowhere and they start rearranging. It turns out that they are on a two week trip from Whistler (where they live) to Montana for a friends wedding. They have camping stuff, hiking stuff, biking stuff, wedding stuff and regular every day stuff in the car. Sarah and I manage to cram into the back seat but we are really thankful. It takes about 20 minutes to drive down, which I thought was a long time to drive 8km until we get to the bottom and there is a sign saying that the distance is actually 15km. We eat a huge fish and chips meal and wait for the bus at 5:15pm.

Last Updated:    Wednesday, 29. September 2004 16:52 -0400