Maia at Petgill Lake:
“Thanks to Tim’s feedback to the hike call-out we (Eric, John, Ming, Maia) knew that it may be difficult to access either one of the two trailheads to Deeks Lake because of the Sea-to-Sky highway construction and our plan B was to do the Petgill Lake hike. There is no pullout at Deeks Creek. About 4 km later there was a sign `Deeks Lake trail 1000 m’ announcing the other trailhead, but all we found after 1 km were two seemingly lost hikers on the highway and no pullout for the Deeks Lake trail.
So we proceeded to Petgill Lake; easy parking and a well-marked trail. It starts with a steep rocky-rooty section until the first lookout and then levels off, follows a partially overgrown logging road for a while and goes back into more softer, steeper grounds and up and down a bit. We arrived at the lake after two hours of hiking at a moderate speed and decided to walk around the lake before having lunch, which made us discover the viewpoint about 10 minutes from the lake looking down onto Howe Sound. We ate and cooled down and were not really eager to go swimming; it was windy and overcast. Returning to the lake we tried the water and – surprise – it was really warm, so swimming got back on the agenda and was very pleasant indeed. We arrived back at the car after 6 hours. Driving back we checked again at Bertram Creek/Deeks Creek and it really is unclear where one could leave the car and where the trail starts.”
