Spirit Caves Yale, BC

     The spirit caves hike is a good warm up hike for the season, takes an hour or two to get to the top. The caves themself in my opinion arnt too spectacular, don't forget a flashlight if you plan on exploring them as it is pitch black in there. If your coming from the hope direction when you see the big sign on the left that says "Welcome to Yale" park on the shoulder and the trail head is just behind the sign. You will hike for about 15minutes in an overgrown trail, it might be a bit frustrating but dont worry the rest of the trail is open. When you reach the top you will find the lookout with a steal cable creating a barrier over the cliff ledge. if you continue down the trail in 5-10 minutes you will see the caves on your left, at first it will seem like a big pile of rocks but through further investigation you will find the caves hidden all throughout the rocks.

     The one cave entrance which allows you to go deep is located just off the trail. before you enter make sure you are not claustrophobic and don't care about your cloths, as you will spend some time crawling though some pretty tight squeezes. As you enter this one you will find a small opening to a small room about four feet high. In the middle you can slip down a crack to two more openings go down the left one there should be a rope down it if not, don't go down because you may not be able to climb back up, and you will not find cell service in there. once you reach the bottom of the rope you find yourself in a room about 15-20 feet long 5 feet wide and 10 feet high. if your still feeling adventurous, you will find a hole in the floor of that room which leads to a slightly smaller room below. i found a small passageway in this room but it lead to a dead end and it was a bitch to get out, so don't go through there. down the mountain you will find other caves as well but as far as i explored there was nothing to spectacular to climb through there. If you continue down the trail another 5-10 minutes you will find yourself at this very out of place looking pond. if you got the energy go check it out but your not missing much if you don't.

The Chief Squamish BC

 Click here for 103 hikes in Southwestern British Columbia.

   The Chief Is an aggressive climb up. The path is mainly made up of large rocks that create a long set of stairs. Although the hike was nice and the view was good i felt it was a bit too touristy for me. there was alot of people that got in my way. with not much room to pass. Its about 2000 vertical feet up. it took us about 2 hours to get to the top at decently fast pace. A good hiking boot can be Helpful, mens boots womans boots. The hike consists of three peak's each one progressively higher, a lot familys and other large groups of people will just do the first one, but i would recommend dodging the crowd skipping the first one and doing the second and the third then taking the back trail down. This first picture is of the first peak taken from the third peek. As you can see the second and third peaks have better views anyways. The back trail is nice you follow a dried up river bed back down, its more of a trail, theres no stairs. A good hiking stick is really helpful.

To the left is an Image from the second peek. Be careful here as it has many cliff ledges. The hike itself is not too dificult with an exception of a few spots but they have rope and chain assists for your safety.

Mt Cheam and Lady Peak

This is a picture of Mt Cheam which i took from the top of Lady peak. Honestly what happened is when i got there there was quite a bit of snow covering the trail so i ended up climbing the wrong mountain. it was a steep dangerous climb up. Mt Cheam is safer with there being a trail and all. i recommend you go later in the summer when the snow melts. Also A 4x4 vehicle is recommended. But more importantly your vehicle should have lots of clearance because there are many ditches along the way up. there are lots of meadows with very few trees blocking your view. its about a four hour hike moderate difficulty. The nice thing about Cheam is you drive most of the way up and just hike the peak so you get the best view with minimal work. On a clear day you can see all the way to Vancouver.

This Next Image is one of Lady Peak taken from the trail-head Cheam is just to the left of this about the same distance away. this gives you a good idea of how far you will have to go i would recommend either hill to you i enjoyed both. although at the top of Lady Peak some daring rock climbing is needed if you want to get right to the top. Bring a friend as you will probably not find any cellphone service in this area.
Below is a very mysterious circular pond (when not covered in snow). which sits between the two peeks.

To Find the Hill: take exit 119A head south till you hit a bridge, turn left in front of it. zero your odometer, at 27km turn left on foley forest service road go 2 more km go over foley creek turn left go another 2 km cross chipmunk creek and take your next right up a hill passing a gravel pit, and follow this road as high as you can go. 4x4 with good clearance recommended, as you will cross many ditches.

Mount Lincoln

Mount Lincoln is a nice hike in Yale, BC. Which is not far from hope. Excuse the pun. The images are ones from which i snapped from the top of the mountain unfortunately i do not have one of the mountain itself. It is quite a nice climb, fairly short yet quite steep. there are a few parts where you will find rope to help you up the more difficult area's. I particularly enjoyed this hike because it is in a very rural area any you really feel like your getting back into nature as you will probably not see anybody else on the hill and the views are of mostly mountains not the city. Mount Lincoln is located very near the spirit caves hike which i will blog about at a later date. 

This next image here is probably the best spot on the hill to eat you lunch or stop for a break. located near the top of the hill is a nice big rock over the edge of the cliff. (the picture does not do it justice).


To find the mountain. lets say your coming from hope head down the highway as if you were headed up the canyon when you reach the small town of Yale (about 20minutes), at the far end of town on the left there will be a small wooden sign marking the that says "MT. LINCOLN (LYNKY) TRAIL" it is near train-tracks which you can park beside.