17km | 900m gain | 11% avg grade
Warning... there was a fallen tree (10" diam.) blocking the 4x4 road which runs off of the Tulameen FSR to the official trailhead - bring a chainsaw/axe. If you are able to drive the 4x4 road section it will trim approximately 8km off the 18-20km round trip.
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If you get through the tree, the road has substantial icy patches and some snow covered steeper grades that would be pretty dicey unless you are a confident 4x4 operator with a competent 4x4.
We were surprised to find crusty snow right from the start. Easy traveling until we had to cross the little river where we had to engineer a crossing with extra rocks and logs. Further along we had to rely on the GPS in a number of places as the trail bed was covered or the trail direction was not obvious. Suggest you bring micro-spikes/mini-crampons & poles... the lower trail is super slick in sections.
Once we finally made it to the meadows, the horizon was dominated by Jim Kelly with Coquihalla peaking out from behind. We also had Illal to our right and a series of mountains along the Coquihalla Highway (Nak, Thar, July, Fig, Bedpost, etc...)
The trip was also colder than expected as we mainly hiked in the shady side of the terrain and we did not get any of the sun once the cloud/fog lifted ... the sun lower on the horizon was entirely blocked by Jim Kelly as we approached the meadows.
We hiked a little further into the meadows, grabbed some photos and then quickly began our descent to restore sensation in our fingers and toes. It took us about 3 hours to get back to the vehicle.
I will post more photos once I am done processing them.
Stay safe, have fun, and maybe I will see you out there.
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