Tag Archives: Port Moody

Diez Vistas, 4 Jun 2016

Day hike, ,

Bob H. on Diez Vistas:
“Three of us went for a moderate to fast-paced hike to one of the most popular hiking trails in the Lower Mainland.

The weather was warm, but it was nice and cool under the forest canopy. Diez Vistas is Spanish for ten views.

Most people doing this trail complain that there are only 3 or 4 views (how sad, right?!). Anyways, I promised my fellow hikers 10 views and I actually gave them 11.

Five of the original views are obstructed by trees now, but there are 5 more views that were never ‘official’ vistas, including 3 on the east loop, which most people don’t know about. The 11th vista is actually on the Lakeview Trail, which we took a shortcut to. We finished the hike in 4 hours.

For more info on this hike, check out this blog: http://www.buntzenlake.ca/diez-vistas/”

Original Vista No. 1 view

Eagle Mountain, 21 Jun 2015

Day hike, ,

Bob H. on Eagle Mountain:
“It was a great Summer Solstice hike up Eagle Mountain. We started at the Hickory Avenue Reservoir in Port Moody and made our way up through the cool forest. We reached the tranquil Cypress Lake in 1.5 hours and to the West Rampart viewpoint 1 hour after that. Dennis, Luke and I stopped at the West Rampart viewpoint for a few minutes to take in the beauty of Coquitlam Lake. The trail has been improved since I was there 3 months ago – there are new ropes in a couple of sections to assist in traversing the steep terrain. After hiking through some old growth forest, we arrived at the White Rock viewpoint 30 minutes after leaving West Rampart and stopped to have a bite, soak in the sun and admire the views overlooking Eagle Mountain, such as Vancouver and Mt Baker. The wild blueberries are starting to come out, but won’t be edible for some time yet. We made our descent hooking up with the Halvor Lunden Trail for a bit before heading onto the Coquitlam trails path.”

Cypress Lake

Swan Falls, 24 May 2015

Day hike, ,

Bob H. at Swan Falls:
“The original forecast for today was sunny with a high of 19; however, it was overcast all day, but very comfortable temperature-wise. Our group of 4, set off at 8:45 am and made our way to the south end of Buntzen Lake, over the floating bridge. At the Pumphouse, we choose Lakeview Trail, which is a highly underused trail. After Lakeview Trail, we headed north on the Old Buntzen Lake Trail past McCombe Lake, the old intake station, the Buntzen Dam and the massive aqueduct. After a short walk on the service road, we reached the Swan Falls trailhead and ascended to the falls, which is a 200 m elevation gain. Today’s cumulative elevation gain of 937 m is due to the many ups and downs on the route, so it’s not really indicative of a strenuous hike. In fact, the hike is quite easy, except for the 200 m elevation gain on the Swan Falls trail, but that is only for a short time. There are nice views from Lakeview trail and from Swan Falls. The Swan Falls area is a great place to relax on the smooth rocks, while listening to the water fall.”

Group photo

Eagle Ridge, 2 May 2015

Day hike, ,

Bob H. on Eagle Ridge:
“Another gruelling hike today. We started at 8:30 am and ascended the Halvor Lunden trail from the Buntzen Lake parking lot. The temperature was 9 degrees when our group of 4 started. We made it to Polytrichum Lookout in about 1 hour, to the lakes district 1 hour after than and then Lindsay Lake just before the 3 hour mark. We took a short detour to see The Pulpit viewpoint and to have a snack. Unfortunately, all we saw was white cloud! So, after our cold break (5 degrees here!), we continued back to the Lindsay Lake junction and up to Mt. Beautiful. We saw some snow today, the most being around Tangled Summit. We made it to Mt. Beautiful (1260 m) at 1:30 pm and had a relaxing 30 minute break in the sun!! Yes, thankfully the sun came out for us and we had amazing views of Coquitlam Lake and the mountains to the north and east. After our break at Mt. Beautiful, we continued on and we reached the Swan Falls/Dilly Dally Junction a short time later. We headed west, down the Swan Falls trail. After an hour of slow downhill trekking we reached the actual Swan Falls at 350 m elevation and we had another 30 minute break in the sun.”

Swan Falls

Eagle Mountain, 8 Mar 2015

Day hike, ,

Bob H. on Eagle Mountain:
“A gorgeous day for a hike up Eagle Mountain. It really felt like summer today! We started off at the end of Hickory Drive (325 m) in Port Moody at 9 am and made our way up through the mountain biking trails. We reached Cypress Lake (800 m) 1.5 hours after starting and we met two other guys heading to the same location, but taking a different route. After a short stop at Cypress Lake, we headed to the West Rampart viewpoint via the east loop of the East Bastion Trail. We made it to the West Rampart viewpoint (880 m) at 11:30 and we met the two guys we met at Cypress Lake – it turns out they are the architects of the East Bastion Trail! Anyways, after a 10 or 15 minute break, we headed off to the White Rock viewpoint (950 m), where we arrived at 12:30. After 20 or so minutes basking in the beautiful sun (and listening to the woodpeckers), we made our way back onto the trail and began the descent. We finally made it back to the starting point just after 3 pm. The only snow we saw was a dusting in a shaded area off the side of a logging road.”

Coquitlam Lake

Lindsay Lake, 15 Feb 2015

Day hike, ,

Andrew W. at Lindsay Lake:
“Spring has sprung early and trails normally covered by a huge dump of snow are bare and ready for hiking. A small group of two hiked to Lindsay Lake (near Buntzen Lake) for the ~13 km and 1 km of vertical. A tiny bit of snow at higher elevations in the shade but the view of Vancouver was spectacular! No bugs due to the early season conditions was just the icing on the cake for this great local hike!”

The Pulpit Viewpoint

Diez Vistas 10/11/12

Day hike, ,

Eugene on Diez Vistas:
“Before going on this hike I was told that Buntzen Lake was flooded and the floating bridge was closed. The warden’s office confirmed that, although they indicated that BC Hydro was going to lower the water level soon. So in order to avoid the possibility of a long detour on a paved road, we went to Vistas from Sasamat Lake by taking a connection trail from parking lot F followed by the Sugar Mountain Trail, until we reached the junction with the Diez Vistas trail. It took us 1 hour 10 minutes from the parking lot to reach the first Vista.

The trail was in good condition and perfectly dry. On the way back we went to check the condition of the floating bridge. It appeared that the water was already low enough to make the bridge passable, although it was still officially closed.

Overall, it was an enjoyable hike, as all 12 of us stuck together and made a great team.”

Diez Vistas 18/07/12

Day hike, ,

Carolyn S. on Diez Vistas:
“Five of us (Kim, Jenny, Melonie, Linda and I) set out to Buntzen Lake and the Diez Vistas in Port Moody on July 18. It being a Wednesday and cloudy we had the place nearly to ourselves. It was great to have Kim along as he had done this hike many times before and could direct us. Despite the clouds we had some decent views of Burrard Inlet, Deep Cove and the beginning of Indian Arm. We got in a dip at the north end beach as the sun broke through the clouds. We hiked at a leisurely pace and were back at the parking lot after 6.5 hours. It worked out really well. I encourage others who haven’t tried doing a callout yet to give it a try.”

Tangled Summit 25/09/10

Day hike, , ,

Ben on Tangled Summit:
“For braving the gloomy weather forecast, we were rewarded with clear skies and a great day for hiking. We set off down the powerhouse road shortly after the park gates opened and made our way to the far end of the Buntzen Lake to the Swan Falls trail head. This trail deserves its reputation as one of the steepest around. It took us nearly three hours at a steady pace to reach the junction it makes with the crest trail. Just a short ways beyond was a rocky open area on the ridge that afforded us some nice views. Although we found signs for the high points, none were actually labeled Tangled Summit which is in contradiction to both 103 Hikes 6th ed. and Google Maps. The trails system however was very thoroughly marked with clear signs at every fork and junction. We took the crest trail and part of the very muddy Lindsay Lake loop back to the south end of the ridge where we made our descent back to the cars.”

Diez Vistas 06/03/10

Day hike, ,

Heather at Diez Vistas:
“Nine keen hikers did a relaxed early season hike around the Diez Vistas loop. The sun was shining, the views were beautiful, and the conversation was interesting, varied, and plentiful. This hike was coupled with the great idea of a book exchange, so much of the conversation wound its way around the books people had read, heard about, liked or disliked, and which book each person had brought for the exchange. A big welcome went out to the few “first-time” Wanderungers in the group, and a big thank-you to Hurrian for organizing.”

The group enjoying great views