We decided to stay home over the Thanksgiving long weekend, but as we did not want to sit around the house all weekend we decided to make a day trip and go for a drive and do a hike. We didn’t want to force a huge, long hike but also wanted to get a little ways out from the city. So we decided to head east and up to Sasquatch Provincial Park to do a reasonable hike around Hicks Lake.

Our original thought was to do something in Golden Ears Provincial Park, but as it’s a bit closer to the city and more heavily trafficked, it has new day use procedures that are a bit of a pain. More COVID changes to deal with. We got off to a reasonably early start and headed east out of the city. We decided on the longer, slower route along the inlet and through Port Moody, Pitt Meadows Maple Ridge Mission and eventually up to Harrison Hot Springs.

On the way up we made a few short stops to check some things out. Just before Harrison, we took a side trip up to Weaver Creek Spawning Channel. I had suspected that it was closed to the public (thanks COVID), but as the drive up to it is quite nice, and we were in no rush, it was worth the extra time. Sadly it was closed so we just turned around and continued our trip. I’ve made the trip here a few times over the years to see the spawning salmon. It’s always really interesting. But we couldn’t stop, so we turned back and continued our little trip.

A map of our journey out to Sasquatch Provincial Park.

Sasquatch Provincial Park is just a little north of the town of Harrison Hot Springs. It has been a while since we have been up this way. Back (quite) a few years now, when I was still running, we used to participate in the Haney to Harrison 100K Relay. A road race of 100 km, done as an 8-person relay from the town of Haney to Harrison Hot Springs. I think I did it three times over a number of years, until it ended in 2010. Sad - it was a really fun event to do as a team. After a short stop in Harrison for some lunch, we headed up to the park.

Looking out across Harrison Lake from Harrison Hot Springs

Not surprisingly, given the time of year and less-than-ideal weather, it was very quiet. They were closing up the campground that day and there were only a few cars in the parking lot as we got prepper for our hike. It was supposed to be 6-7 km around Hick’s Lake and as it had been a while since we’ve been out hiking, we were both very much looking forward to it.

A lok out across Hicks Lake at the start of our hike. The weather was not spectacular.

The hike started out along a pretty easy gravel path, and unfortunately stayed up quite high from the lake shore. Before too long, we had our first (and only) challenge for the day - a legitimate river crossing!

The water wasn’t deep, but it was deep enough and flowing fast enough to cause some problems. We didn’t really feel like hiking in wet shoes the rest of the day, and there was no obvious way across. So we took off out shoes and socks and waded across. It was not really that difficult, and we continued on our way.

I’m going to be honest with you - there was not a lot of great subjects for taking pictures on this hike. The first third was on the gravel path and was not too interesting. But as it is fall in BC, one thing we do have is lots and lots of mushrooms! So this post is filled with all kinds of different mushrooms that we saw. Sadly, you’re not allowed to harvest in Provincial Parks, or we could have had an amazing ahul!

These were some of the most interesting and colorful mushrooms we saw on the hike.

The tops look like little creme brulees…

A little further down the path there was a small stream that provided a small waterfall.

After a while we lost the gravel path and got onto a much better trail through the forest and along the lake shore.

The hike continued around the lake, every once in a while peeking out onto the lake through the trees.

Someone even installed a rope swing - but it was way too cold to go for a swim!

Like I said, there were mushrooms everywhere…

The forest is incredibly lush and green this time of year. This park must have been part of an original old growth logging, as there were massive stumps everywhere, and even some of the second growth is quite large now.

An old first growth logging stump acting as a nurse tree for a pretty big cedar.

There was surprisingly little bird life out on our hike.

Towards the end of the hike, just before getting back to the car there was a side trail that took you out to a pond with a couple of beaver lodges.

After completing the hike, we headed back towards the city. We re-traced out route and made a couple of stops along the way. The first one was near Harrison Mills, as there is a spot along the river where we’ve reliably seen eagles this time of year. We were a few weeks early for the proper eagle festival, and there were not a lot of birds to be seen. There was one that had a decent sized salmon on the river, and a few in the trees.

On the way out, we had passed a sign for a regional park called Cascade Falls. Always a sucker for a waterfall, we decided to make it our last stop on the way back. The drive took us a fair bit further up into the mountains than we expected, but it was well worth the side trip.

The hike itself was very short - a few hundred meters - and led up to the waterfall and a suspension bridge in front of the falls. There were a few people around, but not a lot. The falls themselves were quite impressive, and as it had been raining a lot lately there was serious water volume going over them.

We got our first peak at the bridge and waterfall as we hiked up towards them.

After a short visit to the falls it was time to finish the drive home. It wasn’t too late when we arrived home, which was good as we both had a very busy week ahead of us.