Owl-Tenquille Traverse

The Vitals

Date: August 13-15, 2022

Location: near Pemberton, BC

Distance: ~45 km

Partners: Scott

The Trip

Day 1

The last trip Scott and I did was to White Lakes last summer where the distance covered was very short but the bushwhacking was second-to-none. This year we picked an established route in the form of the Owl-Tenquille Traverse which, while much easier than White Lakes, still ended up being more effort than we expected.

The plan had been to get a ride with Brittany to the south end trailhead in our Crosstrek, then I was hoping to follow the traverse to Barbour, summit it, then continue in the alpine over McLeod and Copper Mound before dropping down to Tenquille Lake. We got off to a poor start when it took several attempts and a bit of scraping to make it through the second water bar on the Owl FSR, roughly 2 km from where it left the paved road. The road was in very decent shape, but just a bit much for a stock Subaru.

We decided to walk the road, gaining quite a bit of elevation en route through some light showers and a stop at an incredibly productive thimbleberry bush. We hoped someone else would come by in a truck and pick us up but we saw no one on the road.

Once we finally entered the forest at the trailhead we had an extra appreciation for the quiet amongst the trees with nice moss and mushrooms. Soon we reached the first sustained climb to reach the subalpine and grunted some more up to a viewpoint. Lo and behold the viewpoint was an excellent vantage to take in the creek that leads up to White Lakes.

Once in the subalpine we wandered by some lakes large and small and thick clouds of mosquitos in mixes of dark cloud and blue sky. Just before reaching Upper Foul Lake, we came across a large group of family and friends camping there for the night. It’s a beautiful spot and a great family trip.

We contoured around the lake on the east side (the west side has steep scree and snow slopes) before doing some scrambling up to a col at the head of the valley. Along the way I broke my pole which I first bought in 2010 and has been on a lot of ski and hiking trips since. It simply snapped when I whacked it against a snow patch as I tested to see if we would punch through or not.

At the col we could look ahead to the next section of the route as it makes its way beneath Mt. Ronayne. There was one section of loose descent here that we took one at a time before selecting a camp site in the heather. It was after 7:00 pm when we had dinner before retiring to our tents to escape the bugs.

Day 2

We awoke to much sunnier skies just as had been forecast, ate our breakfasts, and broke camp. We dropped our bags near a cairn so we could summit Ronayne, a simple affair that took less than 90 minutes round trip, before resuming northward.

I did very little research about the route before we left but had assumed it was ridgeline walking once you reach the alpine. This is far from the case. From Ronayne you begin a steep descent on rocks for a few hundred meters before traversing across a long boulder field that changes from red to grey. Towards the end of the boulder field you climb more rocks until you can drop down to a couple of lakes, the larger of which is called Ogre Lake.

At Ogre Lake we saw some day-trippers who had come in via the Tensas FSR and there appears to be a canoe that lives at the south end. We again traversed the lake on the east side, gradually beginning to climb meadow slopes with numerous horseflies into a valley south of Barbour.

The moderate complexity of the terrain meant we were moving quite a bit slower than anticipated so we decided to keep following the standard route rather than summiting Barbour. This was the right call. We again climbed substantially up to the head of the valley before another descent on loose rocks and a bend around Barbour on the east before arriving at a beautiful blue-green lake with quartz bands in the cliffs above.

The headwall of this small valley is very steep but not very long and the trail was very easy to follow. From the col we could see our destination for the night: Tenquille Lake. We could also see numerous summits in the area including Chipmunk Peak, Goat Peak, Tenquille Peak, and Canine Peak, all of which I had summited two weeks earlier.

We were at the last high point of the route which our tired legs appreciated. We began to descend out of the alpine for the last time and discovered the drop to the next forested bench was actually very steep and loose on a well-trodden (and eroded) trail. From the bench we began to wander through much older forest, passing a nice waterfall and an old refuse pile (barrel rings, hundreds of rusted cans, a pail…). Scott started telling me about some of the prospecting history of the area as we contoured through the forest on a wide and flat trail. It’s nice to notice when a trail is cutting across steep terrain but is still level from side to side, saving your hips some real fatigue. This is not the case when traversing in wild country.

Eventually we reached the lake and followed the trail along the north side to the camping area. We set up our tents, swam, and ate dinner while the bugs got more fierce. In the later evening we strolled across the open meadow to check out the Tenquille cabin (gorgeous) and the caretakers’ area (semi-permanent tent with cots and a cooking area).

Day 3

The third morning I slept in a bit to Scott’s disappointment as he hung out in the bugs without a lighter to start the stove for breakfast. He didn’t hold a grudge as we drank coffee and finished the mini donuts he had brought.

Our planned exit was towards Branch 12 but then down the longer and steeper old forest fire burn all the way to the Lillooet river. This was the most convenient way for Scott’s wife to pick us up from their home in Pemberton.

In the meadows just west of Tenquille lake we saw a lot of grouse and just after the trail junction to Branch 12 we found a bear banger and launcher. The launcher was very rusty but I cleaned it up at home and it’s functional again.

This trail seemed funny to me because it has only one switchback but it is several kilometers long. You just keep traversing and traversing with the valley slowly getting larger through alternating hot, open sections and more heavily treed sections. I don’t know how old the burn is but some of the towering trunks jut high into the sky, devoid of branches.

From the switchback the remainder of the trail is in the forest with the very end being a couple of steep, tight turns to drop you right beside a bridge over the Lillooet River. We had used my inReach to send a message that we were closing in on the exit so our ride showed up just as we finished eating our lunches. Pretty convenient!

The trip capped off three good outings in the mountains in four weeks and scratched my hiking itch for the summer while the numerous bugs that are the theme of summer 2022 gave me some more itches to think about.