Chris N. at Phyllis and Marion Lakes:
“We had a full compliment of hikers for this not-very-spectacular destination (organizers: there is a thirst for hikes so do some callouts!). We parked just at the base of the Phyllis Creek road just north of the Furry Creek golf course. The yellow gate at the bottom of the road was locked and, if open, can’t be trusted to be so when you return so don’t drive through it. ATVs have build an elaborate route around the gate and we encountered 2 ATVs. Also met 2 trucks out exploring (not sure how they got up there).

I usually use iMapBC to create detailed 1:20000 maps but I am starting to encounter issues with the age of some of the road data. This trip highlighted those issues. We encountered several recent forks that just weren’t on iMapBC and difficult to see on Google Earth. There’s a triple fork around 1 km – take the leftmost road. After crossing Phyllis Creek, there are new roads on the right in several places and signs warn of active logging.

The lakes themselves are not much to look at but rocky bluffs straight out of an old Chinese print loomed over them and were pretty cool. The second lake has a dodgy makeshift dock. It took just 2 hours to reach a large fence and gate blocking access into the Capilano watershed just past the lakes (I am sure you could get around it if you really wanted to). We had a quick lunch in some wet snow and headed back just as it started to rain. Got some good use our of our waterproof clothing. We were back at the cars in time to drive the short distance to Galileo’s Coffee in Britannia Beach before they closed (3 pm during the winter).”