I was told to leave the house this year for my birthday in January. I wasn’t going to complain. Things I wasn’t supposed to know about were to be set up.
“Be back at 3pm,” they said.
So I went and hiked Heart Lake in Ladysmith.
It was foggy and we couldn’t see much. “We” being the dog and I.
I parked on Ryan Place off Davis Road and hiked up the hill. The first part is road along the powerlines.
The road goes into the woods.
Along the side of the road, clear signposts and a map show the way up to Heart Lake. From here on, this part of the route is well-marked. Up until now I hadn’t seen a sign from Ryan Place. I think the route from the Holland Creek side is marked better.
The grind up. It’s uphill. For a while.
Then you pop out to a wonderful view. It was cloudy and foggy down below today so you couldn’t see much. This opens up in nicer weather to a really nice view. This view is almost at the top too. The grind is almost over.
The lake pops out of nowhere. You can have lunch here and head back down or go all the way around the lake.
Cool views of stuff around the lake.
Most of the trail around the lake is double track or old road.
Everything is very green.
Like really green.
I had some time to kill before heading back after heading down to the bottom of the hill and with only a short hike back to the car. This little creek comes down where the Heart Lake Trail comes down onto the road. I wondered up about 50 feet to find some beautiful mini-falls.
If you can stomach the grind up, I really like the Heart Lake Trail. You can go from Holland Creek and multiple entrances there or Ryan Place off Davis Road in Ladysmith. You can go to the lake and back or all the way around. For the ambitious and energetic you can continue around Stocking Lake as well to complete the whole loop back to Ryan Place.