Tag Archives: Sunshine Coast Trail

Hiking from Saltery Bay to Fairview Bay Hut

Saltery Bay to Fairview Bay hike – quick facts

Distance: 14km round trip
Rating: Intermediate
When to hike it: Any time of year
Time needed: Approximately 5 hours
Start/end: Near the Saltery Bay ferry terminal on the northern Sunshine Coast, British Columbia
Camping/huts: The hut at Fairview Bay is free to stay in. If it’s full, you can always camp outside and make use of the facilities.
Water: There are a couple of creeks along the way, as well as one near the hut. However, they can dry up in the later summer months.
Dogs: Are permitted and can easily navigate the terrain, but cannot stay inside the huts.
Marine access: You can also kayak or canoe into Fairview Bay Hut, which is the only hut on the SCT with marine access.
Longer hike: You can make this into a longer hike by continuing onto Rainy Day Lake and looping back round to Saltery Bay (approx. 18km).

Map of part of the Sunshine Coast Trail — There’s a map at the start of the trail

Hiking a section of the Sunshine Coast Trail

The Sunshine Coast Trail (SCT) is a 180km point-to-point hike that stretches the length of the northern Sunshine Coast. It takes around eight days to do the whole thing. If you don’t have that kind of time (or endurance!) then you can always hike a shorter section, either as a day hike or as a multi-day hike.

There are various access points along the trail. Saltery Bay is one of the most user-friendly trailheads, as it’s about a two minute drive from the ferry terminal. You don’t need a 4×4 or high clearance vehicle and there’s ample parking. You can do it as an out and back hike, or you can continue up to Rainy Day Lake and make it into a loop (which increases the distance to about 18km). Both options can be done as a day hike, or you can stop and camp at the huts – the choice is entirely yours.

[Note: the hike from Inland Lake to Confederation Lake is another good option for those wanting either a day hike or an overnight hike, especially if you don’t want to tackle any forest service roads].

If you’re thinking about hiking this section of the Sunshine Coast Trail, then here’s what you need to know.

Parking and trailhead

You begin and end the hike at the Saltery Bay trailhead, which is the southern terminus of the Sunshine Coast Trail. Parking is located on Rainy Day Lake Road. There’s both free parking and paid parking. The trailhead is just minutes from the Saltery Bay ferry terminal. There’s a wooden kiosk marking the start of the Sunshine Coast Trail, along with a map and signs pointing to Fairview Bay Hut.

The route

The trail starts on a gravel path that heads towards sea, giving you a good view across the wharf. You then enter the forest and quickly reach a sign that reads ‘escalator’. As you might guess, the trail then heads sharply uphill, ascending through short switchbacks. Don’t be deterred – this is by the far the longest stretch of ascent you’ll have to endure!

Once you’ve reached the top of the escalator, the trail meanders through the forest and back towards the coast. Before long you’ll reach Pirate’s Cove, a rocky bluff with views across the ocean. From here you follow the coastline for a while, which is strewn with arbutus trees and sun-scorched tufts of grass.

Pirate's Cove on the Sunshine Coast Trail — Pirate’s Cove

Although you aren’t scaling any mountains, the trail has enough ups and downs to keep the heart rate pumping. You’ll return to the forest, and after a short ascent will come out onto a powerline trail. It’s covered with grass and gradually ascends to a pylon. You re-enter the forest shortly after the pylon, where a sign indicates that you’re one hour from Fairview Bay Hut.

From here the trail is much the same, undulating up and down through the forest, occasionally bringing you out onto the coastline. Half an hour before the hut is another rocky bluff called Ahlstrom Point. Finally, you cross a small wooden bridge across a creek, after which the hut appears in front of you.

There are orange markers for the length of the trail, as well as signs indicating how many kilometers you’ve travelled. Navigation is very easy and it’s unlikely you’ll get lost on this section of the trail.

Fairview Bay Hut

The huts on the Sunshine Coast Trail are free to use and are maintained by a team of volunteers called the Powell River Parks and Wilderness Society (PAWS). These are rustic backcountry huts and have few facilities.

The Fairview Bay Hut is particularly pleasant, as it has windows across one side, allowing you to enjoy the view no matter what the weather. There are a couple of benches and tables downstairs. The sleeping quarters are upstairs. If you want to stay the night, you’ll need to bring your own sleeping mat and sleeping bag. The huts can get full, so it’s always wise to bring a tent along, just in case.

Fairview Bay Hut on the Sunshine Coast Trail

The other bonus of Fairview Bay Hut is that it’s in a prime seaside location. You’re just steps from the beach. When the weather’s hot, the water is the perfect temperature for a dip. The view across the ocean and the dense forest is incredibly beautiful, and you’ll likely see seals and eagles (and maybe whales if you’re really lucky!)

Fairview Bay on the Sunshine Coast Trail — The perfect spot for a dunk on a hot day

The return journey

If you are only hiking to Fairview Bay Hut, then you’ll need to return the same way you came.

Time and distance

It’s 7km from the Saltery Bay trailhead to Fairview Bay Hut. This makes a round trip of 14km. Due to the undulating nature of the trail, the outbound journey and the return journey take about the same amount of time. It took me 2.5 hours each way, going at a relaxed to moderate pace, with a few stops along the way to take photos and admire the view.

The Sunshine Coast Trail website suggests this hike will take two hours each way, which may be optimistic for some.

Make it into a loop by hiking to Rainy Day Lake Hut

If you’d like to see more of the Sunshine Coast Trail – or you just like hiking in a loop – then you can continue on to Rainy Day Lake Hut. However, you need to be aware that this will increase the distance and the amount of elevation gain.

From Fairview Bay Hut, you continue to follow the Sunshine Coast Trail northbound. You quickly begin to ascend. It’s quite steep and continues for a couple of kilometers, making it quite the cardiovascular workout. It’s only around 3km to Rainy Day Lake from Fairview Bay, but you’ll be glad to get there. The hut has a similar set up to Fairview Bay Hut, only the downstairs isn’t enclosed by walls. It’s perched high on a rocky outcrop called Hailstone Bluff. It’s just a short hop down to the lake, which has a pontoon and is a great place to go for a swim.

[Note: you can actually drive to Rainy Day Lake. See the Sunshine Coast Trail website for more details].

To return to the parking lot, you need to continue around the shore of the lake for a short distance. You’ll come across a signpost pointing you back to Saltery Bay, with the trail cutting left back into the forest. It’s about 8km from Rainy Day Lake to Saltery Bay. Keep following the orange markers. You’ll ascend some more up to a viewpoint where you can see across the Jervis Inlet. There’s then a long descent, after which you’ll reach a road that brings you back to Saltery Bay.

Navigation on this section of the trail is sometimes confusing, particularly as there are a couple of spurs and it’s not always obvious which direction to take. There’s also little phone signal.

You can do this loop as a long day hike. Or, you can turn it into a multi-day hike, staying at either (or both) huts.

Hiking from Inland Lake to Confederation Lake

The history of the Sunshine Coast Trail

The idea was conceived in 1992 by two gents called Eagle Walz and Scott Glaspey. Their motivation was to save the area’s remaining old growth forests. They believed that if more people could access this section of B.C’s backcountry, the more chance there was of saving it from the talons of the logging industry.

A year later a group of volunteers known as the Powell River Parks and Wilderness Society (PRPAWS) was formed. They worked for eight years to create a hiking trail that spans the length of the northern Sunshine Coast, from Sarah Point in Desolation Sound, to Saltery Bay. The rest, they say, is history.

Nowadays the group continues to maintain the SCT, including both the trail itself and the huts. That means that any information shared here may well be out of date in years to come. But as it stands today, the SCT’s claim to fame is that it’s the longest free hut-to-hut hiking trail in North America. No fees, no reservations, and if you want, no tents necessary. Pretty good, right?

My brief encounter with the Sunshine Coast Trail

While planning a trip to the northern Sunshine Coast, I invariably stumbled upon a bounty of information about this epic hut-to-hut trail. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to do the whole thing. After all, I was only going to be on the Sunshine Coast for five nights, and I had a lot of other activities on the agenda.

But not wanting to bypass it completely, I settled on the notion of doing an overnight hike. We only had one car between us, and a 2WD at that, so it would have to be a there-and-back hike with an easily accessible trailhead. After scouring the internet for information with little success, I contacted the good people at Tourism Powell River and asked for their recommendations.

After approximately one hour (I’m not kidding), a lovely lady called Tracey replied to my email with the following suggestions –

Park on Malaspina Road and hike north to Manzanita Hut
Park at Saltery Bay and hike into Fairview Bay Hut
Park at Inland Lake and hike into Confederation Lake
Park on Malaspina Road and hike south to Rievely Pond Hut

In the end, I plumped for option 3 – Inland Lake to Confederation Hut.

Inland Lake to Confederation Hut

After spending a night at the Inland Lake campground, we drove our car all of 20 metres to the day-use car park, filled our water receptacles at the pump, and set off into the unknown. Actually, that’s not entirely true, as the first couple of kilometres skirt the edge of Inland Lake. Seeing as we’d done the 13km loop around the lake the previous day, we sort of knew the way.

Shortly after the totem pole, a sign pointing right directs you to Confederation Lake. It’s uphill from there. Yep, there’s no two ways about it – this section of the Sunshine Coast Trail is steep. If you’ve got an overnight pack on, and it’s 30°c outside (which is was), then it’s pretty hard work.

The Valley of Fatigue

Even so, the beautiful old growth forests provide a robust shelter from the sun, not to mention something awe-inspiring to look at as you heave yourself through the Valley of Fatigue – yes, that’s it’s given name! As you reach the shores of the lake, a sign informs you that it’s another agonizing 2km to the hut. From here the trail becomes more technical and begins to undulate.

At this point, with mounting anticipation and increasingly sore and sweaty bodies, we began to speculate on our chosen destination. What would the hut be like? How many other people would be there? Would the lake be nice to swim in? Wouldn’t it be good if there was a boat?

And then we arrived.

Expectations were exceeded. There was even a bloody boat. The Valley of Fatigue was forgiven.

Confederation Hut

As it turns out, there was just one other resident of Confederation Hut that night – a Slovenian called Mike. He had hiked all the way from Sarah Point and dutifully told us that Confederation Hut was the best hut he’d stayed in on the Sunshine Coast Trail to date. So nice, in fact, that he’d decided to stay an extra night.

A gorgeous wooden edifice with a green tin roof to boot, this is THE spot for anyone harbouring Swiss Family Robinson fantasies. Downstairs is equipped with a wood dining table and benches, a wood pellet burner, and a food preparation area. The sleeping quarters are upstairs in the rafters, with a few blankets and mats for anyone in need. Further sleeping spots are available underneath the hut itself.

Woman sits in front of Confederation Lake hut

Cabin porn

Once a thorough inspection had been completed and our spots staked out upstairs, we did what any hot-blooded human would have done – stripped off and threw ourselves in the lake. We quickly realised this was no freeze-your-wotsits off alpine lake. You could luxuriate in this all day.

Our swim was swiftly followed by a lap in the rowing boat, complete with life jackets and all. How this boat got here and by whose hand we don’t know, but at the time it felt like a gift from on high. As we sat in the middle of the lake, encased by forest, with snow-peaked mountains in the distance and the secluded cabin in the foreground, it was easy to see why our new friend Mike was reluctant to leave.

Cooling down after a hot hike

After dinner we took the short jaunt to the viewpoint at the disconcertingly named Vomit Vista. Never fear, it’s an easy walk, and there were no bodily fluids in sight. After that it was to bed, where we found the hut to be relatively cool and, thanks to the fly screens, bug free. If only my fellow companions didn’t snore, I would have had a much better night’s sleep.

The following day we forced ourselves to leave this beautiful spot, with the return journey taking about half the time of the previous day’s hike. As I scrambled down the hillside, my thoughts turned to Mike and the delights he would be experiencing as he worked his way to Tin Hat Mountain.

That’s the only problem with doing a short section of the Sunshine Coast Trail – it whets your appetite, and all of a sudden you want to take a week off work and walk the whole darn 180km.

I know that I, for one, will be back.

Road Tripping on the Northern Sunshine Coast

Day 1 – Inland Lake Provincial Park

Firstly, we had to get to the southern Sunshine Coast, so we drove from Vancouver to Horseshoe Bay, where we boarded the ferry bound for Langdale. Reservations are highly recommended in the summer months. We then continued from Langdale to the second ferry at Earl’s Cove, the cost of which is included in your ticket. You can’t reserve this ferry, so it’s a case of turning up and hoping for the best.

When we arrived at Saltery Bay we headed to Inland Lake Provincial Park, where I’d made an online reservation for the campsite. At the time of writing, it’s $18 per party, per night.

We had planned to mountain bike at Duck Lake first, and you can rent bikes at Suncoast Cycles if you need. However, we were a little behind schedule, so we bypassed this and went straight to the campsite.

After pitching our tents, we set off to explore the 13km walkway around the lake. There were three of us and we only had two bikes, so we took it in turns to run/cycle around, stopping at frequent intervals for a swim. The water’s lovely and warm and there are some small beaches to relax on.

Inland Lake

Day 2 – Confederation Lake

The next day we packed up our hiking bags, moved the car all of 20m to the day-use parking lot at Inland Provincial Park, and hiked up to Confederation Lake. We retraced our steps from the previous day, going around the lake for about 2km, after which there’s a sign pointing uphill to Confederation Lake.

The steep climb takes you through an old growth forest and eventually pops out on the shores of Confederation Lake. Being part of the Sunshine Coast Trail (SCT), there’s a free wooden hut that you can stay in, or you can pitch a tent. If you don’t want to stay the night, this is still a worthwhile (and do-able) day hike – not only for the exercise, but also for the gorgeous destination!

We spent the rest of the day swimming in the lake, which like Inland Lake, is balmy during the summer months. There’s an old rowing boat you can take for a spin, and we tried fishing for trout but with no success. The Vomit Vista viewpoint is just another 800m further on if you can manage it and offers lovely views of the mountains.

For a more in-depth description of the hike, read about my brief encounter with the SCT.

My Swiss Family Robinson

Day 3 – Okeover Inlet

After a relaxing morning swimming and fishing at Confederation Lake, we packed up our bags and headed back down the hill to the car. We got onto Highway 101 and drove to Dinner Rock campsite near Lund. This is a free campsite by the ocean, and while it looked perfectly nice, someone advised us that a large group had been causing all sorts of noise issues and we might be better off at Okeover Arm Provincial Park instead.

Feeling that we were in need of a good night’s sleep, we duly took his advice and rocked up at the Okeover Arm Provincial Park campground. I’d not made a reservation but there was plenty of space. The park warden came around later to collect our fees, which at the time of writing is $18 per party, per night.

We spent the rest of the evening pottering around the campsite. There are some little beaches down by the inlet, all full of oyster shells. It’s an absolutely stunning spot to watch the sunset – on a warm summer’s day the sky becomes a colour palette of reds, and the surrounding mountains each turn a different shade of purple.

Okeover Inlet

Day 4 – Savary Island

In the morning we drove into Lund, which is a pretty little fishing village. We parked the car in the upper hotel car park and paid at the hotel reception desk. I’d pre-booked a Lund Water Taxi to take us to Savary Island, which at the time of writing is $22 per person, $3 per bike, plus tax. We hadn’t had breakfast, so headed to the incredibly popular Nancy’s Bakery for one of her famous cinnamon bun rolls.

It takes just 15 minutes to get to Savary Island, but when you step off the boat, you feel like you’ve been magically transported to a Thai island. Think dusty unpaved roads, long stretches of white sandy beaches, and a seriously laid-back vibe that will make you reluctant to return to the mainland.

We already had two bikes, so hired a third at Savary Bike Rentals, which is a short (uphill) walk from the dock. This is definitely the best way to get around the island, although the terrain is not suitable for thin-wheeled road bikes. Cycling can also be something of a hazard, as I spent more time ogling at all the beautiful wood cabins than watching where I was going.

As you do a loop around the island, there are various little galleries and shops you can stop at. We stumbled upon one family-run business selling lemonade and ice coffees from their kitchen. After placing our order, we were duly ushered onto the deck to relax in deckchairs overlooking the ocean.

Above all else, Savary Island is known for its vast beaches and warm waters. In fact, you’ll find the warmest waters here north of Mexico. So of course, beach hopping was the main activity of the day. The tide was out (and the tides here are huge) so we couldn’t really swim, only paddle. We did discover that low-tide is also excellent for clam-picking, but alas, we weren’t equipped.

We finished off our bike tour at Riggers, the only pub on the island. It was then back to Lund where we indulged in dinner at the Boardwalk Restaurant before heading back to our camp at Okeover Arm Provincial Park.

Savary Island

Day 5 – Desolation Sound

We were conveniently placed the next day for the short journey to Powell River Sea Kayak at Okeover Inlet. I’d reserved some kayaks for two days, so we got the paperwork sorted, loaded up the kayaks and launched shortly after 10am. There’s a parking lot where we left our car.

The waters along the Inlet were very calm, although things did get a little choppier as we reached the open ocean of Desolation Sound. After about 3 hours of paddling a mother orca and her calf swam past. They must have been about 30m away, which was incredible.

Read more about my experience kayaking with orcas in Desolation Sound.

Shortly after we reached the Curmes Islands and decided to occupy a couple of camping pads on East Curme Island. If you want to stay the night, you need to buy a backcountry camping permit in advance, which is $5 per person. There are tent pads and outhouses here, but nothing else. If you run out of water, you can paddle over to Unwin Lake and refill from the freshwater stream.

This is an incredibly beautiful spot overlooking Desolation Sound and we all wished we could stay for longer. In fact, the folks at Powell River Sea Kayak were surprised we had paddled so far just for a night, as most people set up base here and then explore the surrounding area for a few days. Even so, it was well worth it!

Home for the night on East Curme Island

Day 6 – Back to Vancouver

Then it was time to go home. We kayaked back in windy conditions, hopped in the car and made the long journey back to Vancouver. You can buy your return ferry ticket at Saltery Bay.

We were all pretty exhausted, but at the same time we were chuffed to have had such an amazing road trip. It’s incredible what you can pack into such a short space of time, and it’s certainly opened my eyes to the delights of the northern Sunshine Coast. I’ll definitely be back, and am particularly keen to explore the Sunshine Coast Trail and Desolation Sound in more detail.

‘Til next time!

HER WILD WAY