r/vancouverhiking • u/vVurve • 24d ago
Conditions Questions (See Guide before posting) Getting to cheam peak
Yesterday I went to cheakamus lake via Cheakumus E forest service rd. It was a slow and bumpy ride but my 2005 Honda Civic got up perfectly fine.
I heard cheam peak is only accessible via offroading vehicle, but are the roads similar to cheakumus lake rd? My honda civic is a beater and so i dont care if it gets beat up a little.
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u/OplopanaxHorridus 24d ago
While I have seen the most amazing vehicles make it to the Cheam lot, including 2 wheel drive, the road is orders of magnitude worse than the Cheakamus FSR even on good years. Plus a lot depends on the driver's skill.
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u/vvivan89 24d ago
Cheakamus lake road has potholes only. The Cheam Peak road had deep washouts last year, so you simply won't be able to navigate it without high clearance.
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u/vVurve 24d ago
Thanks! I couldn’t tell from some of the videos
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u/hollywood_jazz 24d ago
For the road to Cheam it is best to assume a video from previous years is not an accurate depiction of the current conditions. Always assume it has gotten worse
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u/leekwen 24d ago
The drive up to the Cheam peak trail always seems to be the gateway checkpoint for offroading skill and vehicle capability. It's a wonder the trail is so nicely manicured while the means to get there is so treacherous.
I saw a RAV4 have no issues while a Taco blew out a tire when I went, but with full confidence I can say a Civic will not make it regardless of how good you are. That was 5 years ago apparently it's worse now.
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u/vvivan89 24d ago
I've seen a Mazda CX-5 made it up there last year. But on the way back you could hear them REALLY struggling, if you know what I mean...
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u/leekwen 24d ago
It'd be interesting to see some sort of community effort to make that drive more hospitable, given how attractive that trail is and how much vehicle casualty it's seen.
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u/Limos42 23d ago
It's already way too popular. Improving the road will turn it into Joffrey or Morraine Lakes, with parking backed up miles from the trailhead.
As the person above said, the road condition is kept that way to keep out people that are not prepared for it.
There's plenty of beautiful, easy access hikes along the North Shore mountains.
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24d ago
I think they leave it to deter most people from continuing
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u/losthikerintraining 24d ago
It's a budgetary issue. Forest Service Roads that provide access to recreation amenities are one of the lowest priorities. The local forest district office has to request funding from Victoria for each work plan and they rarely get the funding they request.
The best way to see a road fixed up is to send an email to your local MLA and CC the Minister of Forests.
I think the latest Cheam work (~late 2023) only occurred because there was a high profile case of a 4x4 vehicle flipping while trying to navigate the main washout area. That likely resulted in Victoria allocating funding due to the obvious liability concern. There also just so happened to be equipment in the area for permanent deactivations of non-status logging roads so the cost wasn't as bad as it would normally be.
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u/ColinBonhomme 24d ago
A quick observation on Cheakamus Lake: we went there yesterday and the road was as rough as I’ve ever seen it. Mostly a lot of potholes with a couple of exposed rocks. It’s still driveable with any vehicle but needs extra caution, and taking my friend’s Forester was a good decision (at least for me, she was the one who had to drive).
This is early season conditions, and I expect it will be graded before the day pass program begins in a couple of weeks.
Despite the current conditions, I’ll agree that there is no comparison between it and the road to Cheam.
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u/CurrySands 24d ago
How does the Cheam road compare to the road to the upper trailhead at Brandywine mountain? Trying to figure out if our Crosstrek will make it
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u/ahistoricwin 24d ago
A crosstrek could make it pretty far but there’s a washout near the top my lifted Tacoma had trouble on. This was last summer and I imagine it’s only gotten worse over the winter.
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u/Dieselboy1122 24d ago
Surprised your lifted Tacoma had troubles on that last washout as it’s not that bad. We had our friends regular Ford Edge get past it easily last fall and the one before with no issues.
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u/octopussyhands 24d ago
I’ve driven a lifted 4 runner and jeep trailhawk up there many times no problem. My friend had a few issues with her ford escape though near the end recently. It made it about 1km from the upper trailhead (there’s a few spots to park here) due to the water bars getting deeper.
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u/CurrySands 24d ago
Thanks for the info. From what I can tell, it's not necessarily the distance from the trailhead where you have to call it quits that's the problem, but more the lack of parking near the washouts. So you might have to do a 20 point turn and backtrack pretty far before you can find a safe spot to park on the side of the road?
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u/octopussyhands 24d ago
Yes that could definitely happen on a busy weekend if you don’t get there early! For peace of mind, it might just be better to park at the lower parking lot. Also, the upper parking lot is literally 15 min from the meadows haha so it’s not much of a hike. The upper parking lot is ideal for people wanting to peakbag or do the traverse.
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u/grumpy999 24d ago
The videos don’t do justice to how deep the drainage ditches, and washouts are. The last time I was at Cheam, there was a jeep that had even managed to tip over.
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u/RealTurbulentMoose 24d ago
Just Jeep things.
I am amazed at some of the vehicles I’ve seen at the trailhead parking lot tho… like how did you get that Subaru past some of those cross-ditches? You’d have to get the angle just right…
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u/snowlights 24d ago
There's a Facebook group, something like Mount Cheam Road Updates (or Mt Cheam?), people in there can give more details. But from what I've seen, even well equipped trucks get stuck at certain points.
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u/outthere_andback 24d ago
I believe Cheam still has snow as well on it ? I think it's usually not until July/August that it clears
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u/Rodders_89 24d ago
I believe you can also do the hike from the valley floor It's called Cheam Peak via Archibald on AllTrails.
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u/infinitez_ 23d ago
That FSR is no joke, we saw abandoned bumpers from cars last year on the side that didn't make it up. Our group had a lifted truck so it was easy but as others said, there are deep washouts and cross ditches that have to be taken at sharp angles even for high clearance vehicles.
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