For those with decent clearance: once you get past the rocky washout that Jeff references, 2WDs can get pretty easily up to within 100-200 meters of the "2WD parking" marked on the VOC map (there is a tricky bit where the second spur branches to the left off of R-200). A Subie made it to the 4WD lot, along with a full range of medium-clearance 4WD SUVs like my sucky CRV. A low-clearance minivan did make it to the R-200 junction (i.e. past the washout Jeff mentions) but I suspect it hurt a little.

We did a 6 night trip to the Ape Lake area from July 21st to the 27th. I was expecting to get devoured by the mosquitoes but they were surprisingly tame, even in meadow areas. I didn't have to use my headnet and ended up with a grand total of 3 bites, all in areas that didn't have clothes/bug juice protection.

Also, the wildflowers were at full bloom at ~2000 meters on the NW side of Musician Mountain, with just insane numbers of Lupine, Asters, and Paintbrush. The Lupines/Asters were past peak down near Ape Lake but there were good numbers of Dwarf Fireweed. However, the wildflowers were surprisingly absent at ~2000 meters NW of Jacobsen Lake. We again saw just a carpet of wildflowers on the SE side of Mt. Jacobsen at around 1700 meters. All in all, the wildflowers made for some pretty great photography!

I went up Tricouni on Monday.
TH was driveable with a good clearance 4x4.
All 3 lakes were snow-free.
Muddy sections all along during the first hour of hiking. Though was fairly simple to avoid anything ankle-deep.
I've read there may be a trail on the rocky West side of the creek, but everyone I saw was using the muddy East side. Anyone know details?

Did you come up High Falls Ck or from the Chance Ck side? I have kind of lost the thread of which access is working best and want to get up there soon, without a lot of faffing about.

Have u considered a quick helicopter ride from Squamish then Mike?

There is some more info about the west side trail in this thread:
https://forums.clubtread.com/11-hikin...dows-west.html

Thanks for the road condition update!

Interesting back story. I wish I had gone down to check out bridge condition.
And yes I came up the High Falls Creek side.

Braved the crowds at Garibaldi Lake last weekend. The annual Black Tusk meadows flower show is on - everything is blooming. The reservation system at the campground seems to be working - it was nice to roll in by headlamp on Friday night and have a reserved spot waiting for us.

While I have never heard of there being bears in the campground, there was a problem with a food-conditioned bear at the Garibaldi Lake campground last weekend and in the previous week. It came through the campground on Saturday afternoon with tons of people around - apparently, it has learned to scavenge food and garbage from campsites and was spotted near one of the cooking shelters. The rangers scared it off with a banger but since it had been hanging around for a week or more they had a conservation officer fly in on Sunday morning to put it down.

I am thinking of hiking Singing Pass and Musical Bumps again. Has the slump gotten much worse since I was there two years ago? Is the rope still in place? Thanks!

Bumping this thread, which for some reason has gone for a month without any updates.

Eryne and I hiked to Serpentine Lake near Hope last weekend. Road is in good shape (need hc 4x4 for waterbars). Presently, leave logging road right by a claim post marked "Chris 19 " or something like that. Follow copious flagging tape up swath of trees between two cutblocks to pick up the trail in the forest in 200 m or so. A few blow downs on the trail, nothing serious though.

We met two parties coming down as we were hiking up around noon.

Lots of evidence of people camping at the lake and not burying their shit - big piles of TP in certain spots in the woods. Otherwise, nice little trail close to Hope.

BR700 of Squamish valley river FSR has ACTIVE logging on it , so it is in perfect shape: no potholes or waterbars, probably any AWD car can make it to the top. There are a few very steep turns so a regular car will have hard time on them...

This branch give you access to Shovelnose Creek "trail" that leads to one the most amazing 360 degrees views within 2h drive from Vancouver
The trail itself requires bushwhacking for 20 min, but after that you start seeing some flagging in the trees and a small foot path that you can follow to the alpine, from where you can make your own way to a multitude of peaks, ridges..etc.

Hiked the Tikwalus Heritage Trail (aka First Brigade Trail) in the Fraser Canyon on Sunday with Eryne and burndug. Perfect temperatures for this hike and, relevant to complaints about crowds, we were the only ones on the trail all day. We carried out some garbage from one of the overnight camp spots. Highlight of the day was 8 baby squirrels in a hollow tree.

Thanks for the update, and nice to know there's still trails around without swarms of people. Did you notice many ticks out and about, since that area seems to be notorious for them? Also, any recent tips (from you or others) on the state of the Gate Mountain/1858 Gold Rush trail in the same area?

I haven't hiked the Gate Mtn trail for like 15 years, but I expect it's in pretty reasonable shape. Maybe a few trees down across the trail. No ticks about on Sunday. It might be ticky in spring.

Also, the vine maples around 1000 m elevation in the Fraser Canyon and Coquihalla areas are really going off right now. Heard the larches are too