Palmers Pond

Jocelyn Timmermans
Sep 23, 2020
2 min read

Stats: 13.2 km / 1118m elevation gain / 1855m high point / 5:15 hours MT

This is the second section we hiked on the 74 km HBC 1849 Heritage Trail (the first was Mansons Ridge from Peers Creek to Fools Pass). This section we started at Sawaqua Camp and continued east to Palmer's Pond.

pic 1) A waterfall along the 20 km Sowaqua Creek FSR. I would recommend a 4WD for this road because there is a rough section by a landslide and the first few km especially have narrow stretches, rock fall and deep potholes. pic 2) We parked at the Sawaqua Creek Recreation Site and backtracked on the road a bit to a sign where we crossed the road and began a steep ascent. A Great-horned owl startled us as we did him, upon entering the woods. He swept from his bough to another farther off of the trail, and then continued his diligent vigil of us humans who were intruding upon his space.

Manson & Hatfield Peaks -- south.

Mt. Outram & Manson Peaks.

1) Angus Creek. 2) A few flowers along the trail.

Angus Creek; the only water source on the trail.

Waiting was no problem. We feasted on juicy blueberries.

Mt. Outram & Manson as viewed from the lookout.

All 3 peaks. From the Sowaqua trailhead to this lookout the trail had remained relentlessly steep.

A bounty of berries. Our hands turned blue from them.

Tulameen Mt. -- northwest.

From the lookout to Deer Camp the trail was fairly level and then dropped down a bit.

Such beautiful autumn colours.

The clouds had rolled in and the view was quite limited here.

We could hardly see the other side of the not-so-big Palmer's Pond.

With my two feet.

Then we climbed back up about 100m to the high point to have lunch. We wanted the climbing part of the hike done before resting and filling our tummies.

As we were sitting there, Lori jumped up and exclaimed, "I see it!!!" I likewise jumped up and ran back down the slope with my Fujifilm X-T2. This tarn is named after Lieutenant Henry Palmer, who was given the task of assessing the HBC trail for use as a transport route, for farming and for military defence for the new British colony during BC's first gold rush. He concluded that the route was too rough for wagons and an alternate route was needed over the Cascades.

We had a 7-minute window to absorb this beautiful view. A thin arm of land holds this tarn, perched on top of a cliff. In the fog it looked grey. Now it was a sparkling emerald gem.

We felt fulfilled, having had a vivid glimpse of the hike's feature highlight. The sun did peek out more on the way back, bringing the autumn colours to life.