Tag Archives: Brandywine meadows

Brandywine Mountain, 30 Sep 2016

Day hike, Scramble, , ,

Andy G. on Brandywine Mountain:
“Brandywine has quickly become one of my favourite summits. It’s a great mix of easy hiking and more challenging boulder-hopping with some steep terrain and a bit of route-finding thrown in for good measure. And then there are the stunning views. Mountains, glaciers, meadows, lakes… Definitely a hike to save for a sunny day.

The new trail into the meadows still has a muddy spot or two but it’s a massive improvement on the old trail. We were in the upper meadows within an hour or so. Beyond that there is an intermittent trail and cairns for guidance up to the ridge. More cairns point the way up to the higher part of the ridge, although they run out a couple of hundred metres short of the summit, which is where the route-finding comes it as the summit can’t be seen at this point. The summit itself is a small bump on top of a bigger bump, big enough for our group to find (un)comfy rocks to sit on to enjoy lunch.

The road to the upper parking lot is very rough and steep in places: our CR-V struggled in a couple of spots with a full load of 5 hikers. A vehicle with some clearance is a good idea as the bumpy road causes the vehicle to bounce quite a bit. A Subaru Outback made it up OK though. Budget about half an hour for the logging road.

Car-to-car was almost exactly 8 hours (we were leaving the meadows just as the sun set). We finished the day with a quick bite at the Howe Sound Brew Pub before heading home. Thanks to Sarah, Simon, Anna, and Janavie for joining me and making it such a great day out.”

Brandywine Mountain, 30 Sep 2016

Brandywine Mountain, 3 Oct 2015

Backpacking, Overnighter, Scramble, , , ,

Chris M. on Brandywine Mountain:
“The combination of easy access and nice alpine makes Brandywine a good last-minute weekend destination. My Xterra made it to the 4wd parking area with no problems. The trail through the meadows has been upgraded and now there is very little mud. We left the valley before the end went south up to the ridge where we scouted out camping locations. From our vantage it was fun to watch different groups take various routes up the mountain. They all looked like coloured ants. In the evening we made a good firepit and soaked in the superb star show.

We didn’t rush in the morning but we were still easily the first people up to the summit on Sunday. We didn’t have to cross any snow and the views were fabulous. When we returned to camp we took a siesta before packing up and taking a slightly different route back down. Our travel time between parking and camping was around 2 hours, both ways,

Paul, Amy & Liam all had a similar desire for a relaxing but satisfying alpine trip, which made for a perfect group experience. The warm sunny weather was fantastic; especially for October.”

Brandywine Meadows, 2 Jul 2015

Day hike, ,

Jaime at Brandywine Meadows:
“Well, I did this callout with the wrong date on it, which made me very upset when I realized it that morning. Luckily Alena K somehow made the same mistake and also thought the trip was for that day so we actually did get to go! I was surprised to discover that since I had been there last, there is a 4×4 road that takes you basically right to the meadows. If you don’t have a 4×4 you can park at the lower lot and make the 3 km hike up to the meadows.

We had a fantastic day at Brandywine. It was 34.5 degrees that day and we couldn’t have chosen a better location for a hike in a heat wave. There are streams EVERYWHERE! So much splashing! I even had a swim in the tiny, icy lake half way up to the ridge. Also, the mega bug situation that occurs up there was pretty mild on this day. Our first attempt to gain the ridge was on the talus slopes to the north side of the headwaters. We found a beautiful area overlooking the meadows and great views of Garibaldi but to get to the ridge there was a snowfield crossing that looked like a death trap that we quickly decided against. We descended again to the headwaters to cross over to the western side and finally made it up to the ridge. The view from even just the ridge is breathtaking. We chose not to go to the summit of Brandywine in order to avoid a darkening drive down the FSR. No regrets though. That view was fantastic. I am eager to go back and do more exploring along those ridges up there and hit the summit. I loved this hike!

Thanks to the new road, Brandywine is a very accessible and gorgeous location. Full cell service and internet too. I suspect it’ll be a hopping place for families and school groups soon if it isn’t already.”

Brandywine Mountain 08/08/10

Scramble, , ,

Esther on Brandywine Mountain:
“We had a hard time driving to the trailhead. Shortly after turning left off Hwy 99, vehicles should make a sharp left turn on to an unpaved road towards “Brandywine Valley” upon reaching the junction where the paved road continues on the right to Callaghan Valley Ski Area. On the unpaved road, we passed a factory and then a big dusty parking lot before reaching a billboard. After that, the road branches were usually blocked off. We could have followed the main road until the junctions that 103 Hikes and Scrambles of SW BC mention, if the road hadn’t been so bumpy and steep in parts that we thought we had to be lost. One of the vehicles had to park half-way up. Our other vehicle (4WD) relayed the stranded half of the group to the trailhead. 2WD vehicles will need good clearance to make it almost to the trailhead.

We hiked from noon to 8:30pm. The approach to the meadows was steep, muddy, and well-marked. There was no snow in the meadows, but there was way more mud and mosquitoes then the wildflowers that were just starting to bloom. Hello gaiters!

After crossing the meadows and small streams, we hiked up a big snow patch over the scree below the ridge leading to Brandywine Mountain. The route was probably further left of this snow patch. We then followed the ridge to the top of Brandywine Mountain, over a little scree, a nice dirt path, a little snow, and big boulders. Amazing views when clouds moved aside briefly.

We returned along the ridge to the big snow face and slid down it for 30 minutes. Then we hiked back fast because the mosquito army was bombarding us full on.

Out at 8:30 pm, then we relayed people to the stranded car, and finally rolled into the Watershed Cafe for dinner at 9:40 pm. Long day, but what a great group!”