Heather Mountain

Overview

Heather Mountain is a medium elevatin mountain found at the far west end of Lake Cowichan. The mountain used to be a popular hike amongst locals, but lately I don't think it recieves too many ascents. The mountain is criss- crossed by a maze of logging roads, and it is quite easy to make a wrong turn. Once you reach the trail however, you are rewarded with a beautiful hike, and on a sunny day I'm assuming amazing views.

Getting There

Follow the Island Highway from whatever direction you're coming from, and just north of Duncan turn west onto Highway 18 (Cowichan Highway). Follow this road until you see the big sign welcoming you to the Cowichan Lake area, just before reaching the village of Lake Cowichan, then go right following the signs for Youbou along Youbou Road. After the village of Youbou, the road turns to gravel and becomes North Shore Road. Continue along North Shore past a sign marked "Heather Campsite." Go about 1.5 km past the turnoff to the campsite and on your right look for a gated road called R Branch. This is where you will park your vehicle and start your hike.

Follow R Branch for a little ways before seeing a road switchbacking up the mountain on your right. I believe that this would be the road to take, but when I climbed Heather I had poor directions so I didn't make the right turn off, and I ended up having to bush whack up the side of the mountain until I met back up with the logging road which I'm assuming is the same one that you see switchbacking up the hill. Next time I'm in the area I will confirm this. As long as you're going up on the logging roads you should be fine. If you are on the right road, once you get above the slash, you should be treeted to nice views of Kissinger and Cowichan Lakes. Follow this road until it dead ends around the 1100 meter mark. At the dead end, look for a flagged route that heads straight up through the salal and blackberry thickets. Follow this very overgrown trail for about 5 to 10 minutes before breaking out into meadows with a pretty big tarn on the left of the clearing. Continue to follw flagging and a slightly evident boot path through the meadows passing many tarns for about half an hour before striking directly up hill again and into the timber. You'll be hiking in the woods for about 15 minutes before getting above the tree line and following rock cairns and scattered flagging tape around many rock bluffs before topping Heather Mountain, crowned by its microwave tower. The day we went up it was foggy with no visibility, but I imagine that on a sunny day the views would be excellent.

Red Tape

Add Red Tape text here.

Camping

Heather Mountain is easily a long day trip, but if you wanted to, you could lug up your gear to the meadows where there are planty of nice, flat camping areas beside tarns.

External Links

Youbou Weather

Images

View Heather Mountain Image Gallery - 1 Images