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.”
Tag Archives: Tangled Summit
Lindsay Lake 11/10/09
Alain at Lindsay Lake:
“On Sunday October 11th, I was joined by Allan, Chad, Cindy, Debra, Lyndon, Rob, and Robin on this very rewarding hike. We left the trailhead at Buntzen Lake just before 10:00 am. The trail ascended at a moderately steep pitch for the next couple hours before we came to a plateau upon which we passed by several small lakes, one of which had a thin sheet of ice covering it. We continued upon the plateau for approximately one hour before reaching Lindsay Lake which was very pretty and our lunch stop. We decided to make the ascent to Tangled Summit (Mount Beautiful) rather than complete the Lindsay Lake loop. The trail between Lindsay Lake and Tangled Summit does lose a fair bit of altitude before making a final steep ascent to the summit. We had been worried that we somehow ended up on the wrong trail and were headed down the mountain, but alas we were on the right path and approximately an hour and a half after leaving Lindsay Lake, we made the summit. We could not have been better rewarded with the spectacular panoramic view in clear sunny skies. We could easily see downtown Vancouver and further west to the Island, Indian Arm and across it to Deep Cove, and to the east, Coquitlam Lake just below, and further to Mount Baker. It was difficult to pry ourselves from our sunny perch, but finally we began to descend using the Swan Falls trail. While a much steeper trail than the one we ascended with, it still took about 2 1/2 hours for most of our group to reach the base of the trail at the far (North) end of Buntzen Lake which still left a 4.5 km hike along a service road to our cars. As both darkness and the closing time of the park gate were nearly upon us, one member of the group was forced to run the entire length of the 4.5 km service road in just half an hours time (with sore tired legs I might add) to flag down a BC Hydro Park attendant who agreed to pick up 6 members of our group who were at various sections of the service road, and they then enjoyed a relaxing ride back to the parking lot in the back of a pickup truck. Notwithstanding the little crisis near the end of the hike, all in all there was great satisfaction all around. Recommend allowing 10 hours if combining the Tangled Summit and Lindsay Lake hikes as we did.”