March 21 - Stats: 14 km / 610m gain / 607m high point / 4 hours MT
In the spirit of exploration, we picked out this as of yet, untried trail for Wendy & I. It's just west of Rolley Lake and southeast of Alouette Lake in Maple Ridge. Half of this route is on gravel FSR but the gate at the parking area kept vehicles out. There were ample mountain bike trails but we stuck to the All Trails App's directions.
In the beginning we crossed over a few creeks on wet boardwalks. But then the gravel road became rather uneventful for a few km. We stayed on the Skidders FSR for the first half of the hike.
By this uprooted tree there was a yellow gate and then power lines. Right past that we came to a junction where we stayed right and got onto a narrower unmaintained road that had a light dusting of snow.
This old wooden road led to the gold mine area.
Here we turned right off of the road and onto the Gold mine / Cabin trail. Remains of the old cabin lay scattered about, right by this junction. This was the farthest point in the loop so we now started heading back.
This trail followed alongside a turbulent creek, thanks to recent rains.
Just to the left of this fallen giant, I found the cave.
The mouth of an abandoned miner's tunnel.
The only far-reaching view we got, facing south.
A second miner's cabin higher above the creek.
On the PBR trail.
Back at the five-corners, we decided to continue on the Woodlot FSR, thus doing a second loop.
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