Evans Peak
- Jocelyn Timmermans
- May 6
- 2 min read
Updated: May 8
May 5, 2026 -- Golden Ears Provincial Park
Stats: 10.5 km / 1014m gain / 1125m high / 5 hours MT
We had to put our mind to the grind as we negotiated roots, rocks and a steep unrelenting grade. Sweat dripped from my face as I went into low-gear and set a steady rhythmic pace in sync with my breathing. Often we had to do high body-hoisting steps and on the way down, we had to constantly apply the "brakes" to give our knees some relief. But the efforts were justified when we got to the summit.
We started out on the West Canyon trail and soon branched off left onto the Viewpoint trail. At the junction and northern-most part of that trail, we turned right. Being familiar with this trail, I braced myself for the next hour of up, up, up.
Remains of a shelter. Why would someone build one on this steep slope?
After 1:30 hours, we got to the plateau where we got our first views of Robie Reid Mt. We had climbed 620m and were halfways, time-wise.
A glimpse of Evans Peak through the trees.
We turned a sharp right onto Evans Peak trail and then crossed this creek, heading east.
After a bit of a flat section where there was a bit of bog and a lot of mosquitoes, we started the final climb to the summit. This involved two rope sections. But at the first one, we used the roots rather than the rope.
The second rope was not far from the first but you could not get up without the aid of the rope.
This was the only patch of snow on the whole trail.
On the ridge. Alouette Lake -- south.
Judge Howay (2100m) + Robie Reid (1950m) -- east.
Alouette (1320m), Blanchard (1350m) + Edge (1440m) peaks -- north.
Pink Heather were the only blossoms we saw.
This tiny bird looked like a finch.
Group shot, L to R; Stelian A, me, Brian H, Greg S, Denise D, Lonja J + David G
Going back down.
Back on the Viewpoint trail.
Denise doesn't look so sure about the next step. We had to hang onto that sawed off root and lean a bit outwards while finding a foothold.
At first I thought these two squirrels were fighting but they were doing a bit more than that. The female kept trying to get the male off of her back as he kept nipping her in the neck and doing his thing.
Back at the junction we turned right on the Viewpoint trail, thus doing a loop back to the West Canyon parking lot.
Brian did a tremendous sigh when he lowered himself into his chair. That reflected how we all felt. We were in no rush to leave our tail-gate happy hour. Getting up again would be brutal.
I just had to take this last shot as we drove out of the parking lot.
Thank you Brian for always be the gentlemanly sweep and Stelian for being in the front and guiding us while brushing small debris off of the trail. And thanks David for sharing your wealth of knowledge gleaned from a life-time of experience climbing in the mountains.
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