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James, Alix and I had originally planned to run 30 kilometers in the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest, but Coal our Black Lab wouldn't let us leave without him. So we changed our plans, and decided to run to Hector Ferguson Lake (yes, someone was aware of our change of plans…). Other people and the 103 Best Hikes guidebook have noted that the trail was around 27-28 kilometers. With this information we calculated that this hike/trail run would take us approximately four and a half hours. We began our trip at 1100 hours, a little late for hiking, but we figured that by starting late and running that we would make up for the late start, and still get to sleep in.
The first 4.5 km's of the East Canyon Trail, were in great condition and quickly passed. Then we entered the single track section. This trail has been greatly neglected, with heavy underbrush and many fallen trees. These conditions slowed our progress. At around the marker for kilometer 10, we reached a recent blow down of trees. This 100 meter section of trail was very difficult to pass, taking over 20 minutes. During this crossing, Coal had to make some spectacular leaps from fallen tree to fallen tree   At km 11 (UTM: 0540648 5473062, 154 meters) we crossed Gold Creek and had a thirty minute break to dry our feet.  Then we began our ascent up towards Hector Ferguson Lake. This trail was in better shape that the East Canyon Trail, but it did have a few sections were some impressive Old Growth Trees that had fallen across the trail. After about an hour and half we came upon a large landslide. The trail had been completely wiped out. At this point we split up and attempted to find the trail, since we didn't want to hike up and through the landslide. We did not find the trail, so we headed towards Hector Ferguson Creek. Once at the creek we were able to determine our location on our map (UTM: 539006 5475243, 586 meters), which approximately 1 kilometer away from the lake, as a crow flies. We decided to give ourselves thirty more minutes to reach the lake, by hiking up the side of the creek and through the creek. After twenty minutes, we realized that we were not going too far, quickly and decided to turn around. This was a difficult decision, being this close, but it was 1500 hours, and we figured that it would take at least 3 more hours to get out. Since we had originally only planed for a 4.5 hour trip, we didn't want to get stuck, without more equipment and food for an uncomfortable night. After fifty minutes of running down the trail, we reached and crossed Gold Creek, where we had another quick snack. Then at km 10 we crossed the blow down of trees, but this time we crossed it in only 5 minutes, since we knew the route. At 1800 hours we were back at the car, a little longer than expected. Since this trip took so long, I've done some investigating and found a trail description on Clubtread.com, this report states that the trail is actually close to 36 kilometers. The difference between this distance and the original distance is 9 kilometers, which would be over 2 hours of fast hiking. When using a small string and the 1:50,000 map 92 G/8 Stave lake topographic map, I measured the distance to the Gold Creek crossing to be close to 11.5 kilometers and the next section to Hector Ferguson Lake is approximately 4.5 kilometers (there is some error in my calculation since I could not bend the string perfectly for all twists and turns in the trail). This gave me an approximate distance of 32 kilometers. I would recommend for people that are attempting this trail to use the distance of 36 kilometers, rather than the 27 kilometers that is listed in other guidebooks. |
