Ridge Lakes Snowshoeing - Kamloops Trails

Ridge Lakes Snowshoeing – Kamloops Trails

Doug Smith  February 12, 2021 at 9:00 am

Every winter we snowshoe from the Lac le Jeune Estates area up to the Ridge Lakes.    There are several possible routes, but many of the tracks shown on any map are plagued by windfall and so no one follows them on snowmobiles or snowshoes.   A reliable route that is usually tracked with snowshoes starts at the end of Lac le Jeune Drive.   Park on the south side as a courtesy to homes near the end of the road.  A single track leads east to two small ponds and after the second one, a trail climbs south up the hill.   At about 1.3 km, the track crosses the fire guard then continues to climb.

The lodgepole pine forest is on both sides of the trail.

After cresting the top of the ridge, the trail then descends to the eastern Ridge Lake.

We walked on the edge of the lake bearing west to the next lake, following a  double track.

There were no snowshoe tracks past the second (west lake) so we stopped for lunch there.   There are some campsites on the larger lake in summer.

We retraced our own track through the lodgepole pine forest.   The Ridge Lakes area is remote and very quiet.

We prefer to do the Ridge Lakes route after the snow has settled and after some snowshoers have done the route.   It is much easier once it is stomped in.   The snow can be deep up at 1525m so breaking trail for the whole way is an exhausting choice.

For this day we chose not to do a loop route and instead did an out-and-back route in the high country forest, covering 8.15 km in about 3 hours.   We will be snowshoeing Ridge Lakes again next winter.

We have also hiked the route in summer.   For more information on the route, here are some more articles:

 

 

 

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Doug Smith

Doug writes for Kamloops Trails, a not-for-profit (and ad free) website, offering information on trails, waterways, routes, featured spots, viewpoints, and explorations in the outdoors in the Kamloops area (and beyond).

Doug started exploring this area in 1976 and continues to follow tracks and routes wherever they lead, with the aid of map, compass, GPSr and camera. After many dead-ends, but also many discoveries, he chose to share this information.

The Kamloops Trails website has a massive number of interesting posts and would be of interest to anyone in Kamloops who enjoys the outdoors. Visit the Kamloops Trails website at: http://www.kamloopstrails.ca/

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