Nature Vancouver

Trip report - Whyte Lake hike - Saturday 24 May, 2008.

A cool and overcast morning ended up warm and sunny in the afternoon as fourteen of us explored two excellent new trails in the Whyte Lake area in West Vancouver. Both trails are accessed from the Westport Road parking area, following the old road underneath the TransCanada Highway.

The easier trail begins with the TransCanada Trail up Nelson Canyon, from the east side of the old highway bridge. A moderate but short climb of about half a kilometre (15 minutes) leads to a junction where the TransCanada Trail is signed to the right; the new trail drops off slightly on the left before resuming its climb. After about ten more minutes, there is a crossing of Nelson Creek where a new bridge is under construction. You could cross on the rocks here in low water but not in May or June, but there is a good stout log bridge just a bit further up. From the creek crossing, the trail continues up Whyte Creek Canyon through old growth Douglas-fir and reaches Whyte Lake in about twenty minutes more. A short trail at the east end of the lake cuts off to the lake, but continue on the main trail over a new boardwalk to a junction, where you go right (the left is the old road down to the old Baden Powell Trail, now overrun by the Sea to Sky Highway project). A couple of minutes further along, the main trail continues along to the Baden Powell Trail; a branch to the right leads to a small clearing on the north shore of the lake which makes a perfect lunch spot.

On this hike, we followed another more ambitious trail to make a loop which came back via the above trail. This trail begins immediately at the western end of the old highway bridge, and works its way up to the top of the power line. Elevation gain is about 250m and some of it is pretty steep but once you get up this section the rest of the loop is easy.

The first highlight of the day, about five minutes up the trail, was one Vancouver groundcone (Boschniakia hookeri), an unusual plant which is parasitic on the roots of salal, with a couple of others further up.

 

           (right photo, of a "ripe" one, by Lynette Grants)

About fifteen minutes up this trail, after crossing underneath the powerline, the main trail actually switchbacks to the right and is easy to miss (look for a bit of flagging tape on a small stump) but it’s worth continuing straight through on the spur, which makes a couple of switchbacks and emerges into a small meadow with a good patch of hairy manzanita (Arctostaphylos columbiana), parsley fern (Cryptogramma) and Polytrichum moss. There are numerous taped routes that continue from the meadow into the woods behind Eagleridge Bluffs, but they’re not recommended unless you have very good routefinding skills. Returning to the main trail, the cutoff is easier to spot from this direction, and the main trail continues up and underneath the powerline again, then slowly but surely makes its way to the top.
 

Several open outcrops produce more good stands of manzanita, and the day of the hike we found at least three chocolate lilies (Fritillaria lanceolata) still in bloom, and two early blue violets (Viola adunca). The manzanitas, blooming in profusion two weeks previously when I recced the area, were unfortunately past their prime, but many other spring and early summer flowers were coming out.


At the top of the ridge, the powerline joins up with the other powerline coming up from Gleneagles substation. We enjoyed a pleasant break as the sun came out, and we got good looks at several birds including a Turkey Vulture, a Band-tailed Pigeon, an Anna’s Hummingbird and several Black Swifts.

From the summit, the trail continues past a wooden helicopter platform and into well-shaded cedar-hemlock woods, where it remains level for some time, then climbs over a low forested ridge and reaches a t-junction. Despite the branches laid across the trail to encourage us to go left, we took the route to the right and gradually climbed a second forested hill before descending gradually through an old growth Douglas-fir forest to the Whyte Creek canyon and a junction,  where we took a left turn onto the above-mentioned trail to the lake. The left turn at the t-junction is a more direct trail to the old road and thence to the lake, but is not as interesting.

At the lake we enjoyed the company of Wilson’s Warblers, Common Ravens and a pair of Western Tanagers. Plants at the lake, uncommon to this area, included Labrador tea (Ledum groenlandicum) and sweet gale (Myrica gale).

The hike out is fairly quick, and the entire loop can be done easily in two hours if you don’t stop. There are one or two patches going up the powerline which may be a bit slippery and hands-on and are easier going up and going down. Also, the trail through the Douglas-firs is easy to follow going down to the main Whyte Creek Canyon trail but can be hard to locate coming from it; for these reasons (and to get the hard part done first) doing the loop in a clockwise direction rather than anticlockwise is recommended.

For more information on the main Whyte Lake trail and planned improvements (some of which are complete), see www.seatoskyimprovements.ca/Detailed_Design/West_Vancouver/WVDD_Trails.pdf