Five of us hiked to the picture postcard called Century Sam Lake.  It’s named after a character that Sid Williams played.  Must have been quite a character to have a lake like this named after him.  We wanted to hike to it when it was in full sunshine, to show off the deep blue-green.  The trade off was that it was very hot.  But the crowd that was there was fully into swimming and diving off cliffs, so it was perfect weather – cloudless, a bit of breeze.  The Lake is located below the Comox Glacier.  This contributes to the other attraction of this hike which is the ice cave.  It wasn’t as good as on a previous trip, maybe too early in the season, but still very interesting.  And the wildflowers were excellent.

The Lake is in Strathcona Park, but the approach is not.  Trail maintenance is ambiguous, but someone had just clipped the aggressive brush, including Devil’s Club, so that was good.  The route is rough everywhere and steep in the headwall up to the Lake.  The access to this trail is on a logging road through Mosaic lands and the gate is only unlocked on weekends and only when Mosaic is not logging and the fire danger is low.  We timed it well, so all was good.  (11.3 km; 7.5 hours; 423 m elevation gain)

Norris 

Thanks to Louise, Jim and Norris for the photos

(click on photos to view larger)

Hiking -Century Sam Lake – 13 July 2024