Deeks Lake, Friday May 31, 2019

[Mark Latham]

Two of us met near the West End at 10am, drove about 30 minutes to the Porteau Road exit off the Sea to Sky highway, turned right at the stop sign and parked in the public lot where the usual trail starts up a gravel road.

Because of recent commercial activity mining granite near the Deeks Peak trail (which branches off the Deeks Lake trail at Km 1.0), there is a locked gate across the entry to that gravel road and a warning sign to keep out. To avoid conflict, we instead walked back to the freeway exit ramp where a rail-and-post fence marks the start of an old trail. (Warning: We later heard that ticks have recently been encountered on this old ‘abandoned’ trail section, and possibly in grassy areas nearby, so precautions should be taken.)

We followed the old trail up to where it reaches the gravel road at Km 0.8. Turning right, we walked another 200m south to where the Deeks Peak / Kallahne Creek trail branches off to the left at Km 1.0, with a similar warning sign to keep out of the mining area. We didn’t see any workers or equipment along that brief 200m stretch, but there were fresh tracks of heavy equipment along the gravel road. We stayed on the Deeks Lake trail, which at that point is an older gravel road.

We enjoyed the shady forest as we headed uphill on this beautiful sunny day. Stopped for elevenses at a viewpoint (short branch to the right of main trail). Later admired the waterfall as we approached the lake. There was no snow on the trail to the lake, but we could see some where the trail continues.

We only saw one other person on the trail the whole way up and down. It was a weekday (Friday). As we were leaving the parking lot about 5:30pm, three backpackers arrived to hike up and camp one night at the lake.

Distance: 14 km
Ascent: 984 m
Moving time: 5 hr 11 min
Stopped time: 1 hr 31 min

Our GPS track: gaiagps.com/datasummary/track/8b4ca9d6a45d2213eec8baa713bdfb7c

• This topic was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by Mark Latham. Reason: Added warning about ticks. Also mentioned Kallahne Creek

[Patricia Morris]

Thanks for checking it out U2.

[Author]

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