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Vancouver, BC
Canada
14 Posts |
Posted - 09/04/2012 : 11:08 PM
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My brother has been bugging me about Hanes Valley for a long time - trying to get me to do it as early as May. I kept putting it off, citing reasons such as dangerous snow on the trail and other better hikes to do. The real reason of course is the fact that I hate boulder fields. It's such a slow trudge along, and I knew Hanes Valley had a big one. He loves them of course.
Well, the weekend was a nice one and I ran out of excuses, so we got the crew together and the 5 of us made for the North Shore. 103 hikes suggested we start on grouse and work our way down to Lynn Headwaters. We decided to do the opposite and save our knees by doing it mostly uphill. A good choice in retrospect and one I'd highly recommend.
We started the day around 8:30 at Lynn Headwaters:
The first few km of the trail was basically gravel road. There are two options here for a while but we took the easier one, figuring we might as well save our strength for when the going got tough. There are a few old logging artifacts on the way like machinery and a bucket. The river was a pleasant sound to our left along this route. We also saw an occasional glympse of the mountains to our west (goat?)
  
The going was incredibly leisurely. We got to Norvan Falls after about 2 hours and stopped for a totally undeserved snack break. Given the lack of rain and being late in the season, Norvan wasn't exactly as I remember it - a storming waterfall - but more like a pleasant flow.
The first creek crossing was immediately next to Norvan Falls. Once again, not much water this time of year (no water?) In fact, we could easily have walked right across it without the bridge. Of course, nothing beats jumping up and down on this one ;)
After passing the junction, we came across Lynn Creek's notorious crossing, often treacherous. Again, perfect time of year as there wasn't much to it. There were definitely places we could have hopped across some rocks, but what's the point if you can't balance along that huge log.
We continued along the trail. At this point, we were getting slightly concerned. This was a 15km trail with 1000+ meters elevation gain, yet we had done almost 8km and were basically on complete flat without even breaking a sweat. We were taking half the time we usually do and knew that this just meant what's coming up may be bad news. (but it wasn't TOO bad in the end).
The view of the Valley finally started opening up. We arrived at the helicopter 'pad' and cache at the bottom of the valley. Wow, seriously scenic - 360 views of crown mt and the camel, Lynn Peak, Cathedral, Goat, the scree slope...
There was even some remaining relatively large pockets of snow!
 
At this point we reached the inevitably more difficult part of the trail. Lots of large boulders, scrambling, loose rocks... and it went on, and on and on and steeper and steeper and steeper. I didn't have a clinometer, but I wouldn't be surprised if the last part wasn't 50 degrees or so. The going was very slow, and we were now at about 1/4-1/6th of our usual hiking speed. So THIS is where the trail time goes!
        
Panorama from part way up the boulders
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=221e7b54-05ec-4323-9181-8acf46b86eea
We finally made it to Crown Pass. The 1.1 km distance to crown was tempting, but it was already mid afternoon and we knew there was still some hiking to be done before getting home. We continued up towards little goat. This part was surprisingly difficult. Again, thankfully it was fairly dry, but even now there was some slippery mud here. Several areas were provided with chains - without which it would have been hard to do. Up, up up - and finally made it to little goat where we stopped for a (this time deserved) snack break.
Of note, we saw a few people coming down this slope, as well as the boulder field down in the valley. I'm still not sure this is wise. It was hard enough going up, I couldn't imaging going down this way for hours.
The rest of the trail was typical grouse - easy in comparison and fast going. As we approached the chalet, we saw increasing amounts of Look-at-me-I took-the-tram-up-and-now-I'm-'hiking'-in-the-'wilderness'-on-gravel-paths types of tourists :P Sheesh. Well, at least it's better than sitting indoors! :)
The lineup for the tram was surprisingly very long - way out of the building and along the path. We debated walking down BCMC or GG but after all of 5 seconds we opted to take the easy way down. I guess we were only marginally better since now we were the Look-at-me-we-went-hiking-now-we-took-the-tram-down type ;)
All in all a good day. Crown looked interesting but will be for another day.
Summary:
- The book rating of 8h was spot on for us, but we were feeling super lazy and took LOTS of breaks. Even with the incredibly slow trudge up the boulder field, we probably could have done the whole thing in 6-7 hours.
- I'd highly recommend it counterclockwise, starting at Lynn Headwaters. The downhill from Little Goat and Crown Pass would be bad on the knees for sure.
- Depending on the time of year, water may or may not be an issue. Even now with the dry spell, there was water at Norvan and Lynn Creek. There were a lot of dry creekbeds, but there were also some small creeks available for filtered fill-up between Lynn Creek and Hanes Valley. Nothing up around Crown Pass. Having said that, the first half of the trail was so easy, and the weather so nice, we only needed filling up half our bottles at Lynn Creek crossing.
- Trail markers were excellent. We only lost the trail once for 2 minutes and that was because we were talking and not paying attention.
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Edited by - gimmesnow on 09/04/2012 11:15 PM
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 Happy go lucky, plaid wearin, postholin, safeway gaitor sportin, old-school film shootin, giver of many regards
Abbotsford, B.C.
Canada
13453 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2012 : 08:40 AM
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A fine writeup with a great detailed account of your trip. Nicely placed shots too.
Tried doing this in the early fall about two to three years ago, but stopped by the high water at Hanes Junction.
K |
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962 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2012 : 10:24 AM
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One of the worst excuses for a trail anywhere. It's a bit twisted to refer to it as a trail in the upper Hanes and Crown Pass area, IMO. The route to Crown Mountain another bad joke.
Just my opinion. |
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Smurf Village, BC
Canada
1497 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2012 : 10:39 AM
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| That's a pretty cool pano you did. So little water right now! |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
559 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2012 : 11:04 AM
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| Nice report on Haney's valley. I saw it for the first time and reminds me of being there. |
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North Vancouver, BC
Canada
81 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2012 : 12:46 AM
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| Nice report. This is one of the few remaining routes in north van I haven't done. I live near Lynn Headwaters and have thought about doing the hike as a massive loop, coming down the bcmc and then coming back home via the baden powell. Your pano of the valley has motivated me to at least run up there and back one day while summer is still here, and that lets me skip the boulder field. |
Edited by - Markhor on 09/06/2012 12:55 AM |
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Vancouver
Canada
286 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2012 : 11:09 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Stoked
One of the worst excuses for a trail anywhere. It's a bit twisted to refer to it as a trail in the upper Hanes and Crown Pass area, IMO. The route to Crown Mountain another bad joke.
Just my opinion.
Why? |
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Vancouver, bc
Canada
1009 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2012 : 1:22 PM
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| On a Meetup hike we did Hanes climbed Crown and walked out via the Skyline Trail at the bottom of the Grouse ski lift. Sparrow (where is he these days) hiked 5 or 6 km back to Lynn via the Baden Powell trail to his car. A hot day made it seem longer. As a through hike you can take the bus at both ends - as I did. |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
2660 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2012 : 6:28 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by gimmesnow
We decided to do the opposite and save our knees by doing it mostly uphill. A good choice in retrospect and one I'd highly recommend.
Ya totally! I've gone up Hanes Valley two or three times, and down once. It was as much of a workout going downhill as up, and hard on the knees.
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99 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2012 : 7:46 PM
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| I did the Hanes Valley Loop on Sunday from Lynn Valley coming down mountain hwy (via Pure Gynt and Lower Griffen trails) to the Baden Powell back to Lynn Valley in roughly 4.5 hrs. The trail has been very nicely brushed out in the few bushy areas from Lynn Creek to the boulder field, thanks to whoever did that! |
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Fast hikin, carrot chompin, always grinnin, gear scatterin recipient of the Theta Lake manouver
Burnaby
2041 Posts |
Posted - 09/07/2012 : 06:55 AM
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| Well-written. |
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Surrey, BC
Canada
423 Posts |
Posted - 09/07/2012 : 10:24 AM
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| Nice, reminds me of the first time I did the trail 10 years ago. I am going to try it again tomorrow. Maybe this time we won't get stuck on the boulder field in a complete white out/rainstorm. |
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Hanes Valley & Crown Pass
