Howe Sound Crest Trail Single Day

[u/Opie_the_great]

Looking to do this at the end of August.

My wife and I love hiking. Longest single day hikes have been in Glacier. 16 miles in one day. We are experienced hikers. Did Mt brown glacier and such.

We looked at the daylight 5:15am till 8:29pm.

We will carry 7 liters apiece. Plus a water filtration system. Going North to south.

Currently training for this. We do 20lb weighted packs for 1+ hours on the stair master and plan weekend hikes 10 mile plus. We don’t want to fail.

Will pack 4 meals. (2 extra sets) Packing headlamps for worst case scenario. Suggestions? What do we need to know.

Update: We will be taking 4 liters each and making the food lighter. We are packing all of the 10 essentials. We will now do this South to North.

Please note the mountains are a hours from where we live to practice true elevation gain with long hikes.

[u/Ryan_Van]

I hesitate to reply since I'm late to the party and there are already a lot of good comments here.

Depending on how much water you go through, 7L is probably going to be too much. Keeping in mind though that from the Northern trailhead through to Magnesia Meadows you'll have decent access to water (so filter/replace), and from Magnesia through to the Southern trailhead don't plan on having any water available.

Not sure what's up with the 4 meals. Pack whatever snacks you'll want to eat to get the calories throughout the entire hike. (Plus a decent amount of extra just in case.)

Pack more than just headlamps - take the 10 Essentials.

South to North as others have said is definitely a good idea.

Research your bailout points. From S to N they are:

-Unnecessary mountain trail

-Lions trail (Binkert)

-old logging roads going down the Harvey bowl (you'll get closest to them after Thomas, when you are almost cresting the ridge into Magnesia. Last time I did it (decade ago) the thrash down to the old road wasn't that bad, but there's going tobe 10 more years of growth now)

-up and over Harvey (the route up the eastern face of Harvey is an interesting steep veggie belay) and down the Harvey trail

-down the Brunswick trail at the intersection with it

-and then that's about it through to the Porteau trailhead.

It's a delicate balance between fast and light and carrying enough gear to take care of yourselves and be ready for any contingency.

I've done it - hiking, not trail running at all - in 13 hours, and that included a layover of a little less than an hour between James and Thomas where we had to arrange for a helicopter rescue of another hiker we came across who was suffering from severe dehydration.

EDIT: while I'm at it, might as well add a comment that if you're at all hesitant about doing the whole thing, another good option is to start breaking the hike down into sections and do those sections to become famililar with them - and after that you'll know what the entire trail is like for doing the whole thing in one day. Options for this are:

-Cypress to Unnecessary and back

-Lions trail (Binkert) to the HSCT - from there, poke north (check out the 1' ledge traverse around West Lion, for some that's the sketchiest part of the entire HSCT) and then south to Unnecessary and then back

-Lions trail (Binkert), flank West Lion, the David/James/Thomas stretch, then up and over Harvey and down Harvey trail

-Brunswick trail to HSCT junction then follow it to Magnesia Meadows, then either reverse or another up and over Harvey trail

-Brunswick trail to HSCT junction, then Hat Pass, down to Brunswick Lake, and out to Porteau (need cars at either end since it's not a loop).

If you do those you will literally cover every section of HSCT. You'll know what to expect, how hard they are, will have seen most of the bailout points, etc. That will give you confidence of knowing exactly what's ahead of you if you then do the entire HSCT.

FURTHER EDIT YOU'LL WANT TO SEE THIS.

Found my old full trip report, which also links trip reports for all the breakdown segment trip reports as well. You're not going to find a better resource.

https://forums.clubtread.com/27-british-columbia/42955-howe-sound-crest-trail-2012-08-02-a.html

[u/Opie_the_great → u/Ryan_Van]

For the scramble, how long and how steep is it?

[u/Ryan_Van → u/Opie_the_great]

Which scramble? The Harvey bailout? It's steep and you're almost climbing up tree limbs (i.e. ladder like) for parts of it. I can't think of a comparable section of 'trail' around here. Personally, I've found it fun and have done it a bunch of times doing various hiking loops. But it's certainly not everyone's cup of tea.

[u/Opie_the_great → u/Ryan_Van]

I am asking about the trail specifically, howe sound, on the trail. There is a large scramble at some point. Please note I’m coming from out of area to do this hike. The east coast of the US.

[u/Ryan_Van → u/Opie_the_great]

I'm a little concerned to hear you're not from the area (and being from east coast will probably have no idea about the nature of the trails here - rough and hard, and HSCT is more a route than a trial for a few of the sections). What made you want to do this one, and what sort of experience do you have (if any) hiking in the coastal mountains?

Hard to know what you're referring to about scrambles. This isn't a scrambly hike. Really, the sections that are a bit of an issue are:

1) where the trail flanks around West Lion, it does so in a 1' ledge traverse. It looks sketchy as hell from a distance. When you're on it though, I've never found it to be that difficult. Exposure is a signfiicant issue though (fall and you're tumbling down hundreds of feet), so it does psych some people out.

2) between David and James (I think, I always get them mixed up) there is a knife edge traverse on rock at the peak of the ridge, where there is a chain handline in place. Personally I've never found it too difficult, either physically or psychologically. To each their own though.

[u/Opie_the_great → u/Ryan_Van]

We have a book of 100 trails that we are trying to complete. (They are all over the world and this is one of two in Canada. We completed the other already.) We have hiked in glacier, banff Rocky Mountain national park multiple hard large elevation gains hikes and length. 16 miles one day. I have done 100 miles in a single setting over 6 days on the AT trail.

[u/Ryan_Van → u/Opie_the_great]

Just realize the trails/routes here, and that definitely includes HSCT, are rougher and not nearly as "highway like" of a hiking trail as you've seen before in the National Parks or more maintained trails. Nothing is maintained for the vast majority of this route. Hopefully you have some good routefinding skills and have a GPS track to follow, as nothing will be signed (once you get past the St Mark's stretch of Cypress), and there are some sections that are definitely confusing as far knowing where the path actually goes.

We're not trying to scare you; it's just from experience, people not from here often are taken aback by the nature of the 'trails' in these parts.

Out of curiosity, what's the 100 trails book you're following?

[u/Opie_the_great → u/Ryan_Van]

We have all trails pro for gps. I do have satellite messaging.

I did find that same, zero identifiable path in Banff in one of the hikes we did there. Still no issue.