MEACHEN CREEK FSR TRAILS – Meachen Creek Falls, White Boar Lake, Mayo & Alisa Lakes, Hourglass Lake, Haystack Lake & Sanca Pass.
Maps: 82F/9 St Mary Lake & 82F/10 Crawford Bay.
Drive:
From Marysville, drive NW on Hwy 95A about 500m and turn left (west) on St. Mary Lake Road (if you reach the lake, you have gone .5km too far. Zero odometer.
0.0 Start on St Mary River Road. Cross a wood bridge.
.5km Turn right onto St Mary/Hellroaring Creek FSR.
1.6km Turn right onto St Mary/Meachen Creek FSR
8k Meachen Creek Falls. TH on right; easy trail 300m to an overlook. No guardrails.
14km Mount Evans Trail to left
16km White Boar Lake Turn left (south) and drive 3km on a rough rocky road. Park and walk 100m to small subalpine Lake at 1585m (5200’) below the spectacular 3,000-foot cliffs of Mount Evans. Campsite on north shore. No trail around the lake.
17km Mayo and Alisa lakes to left (road unsigned, unmaintained and for most too overgrown to drive on). Walk 2.3kms gaining 274m (900’) on road. Mayo Lake trail is 1.5km long gaining 120m (400’). Mayo Lake is a shallow tarn at the base of the 2500-foot north face of Mt Evans. Ailsa Lake is 1km to the right (west). Scramble up through alder 268m (880’).
27km Go left
29km Hourglass Lake parking on the road (unsigned TH at 1597m (5240’). Trail 3.6kms (at 2.2km take the right fork), gains 270m (900’) to the 1-km-long, twin Hourglass Lake 1860m (6100’), pinched in middle to 20m by a rocky narrows. Large waterfall at the west end. Scramble up talus slope 335m (1100’) to Upper Hourglass Lake, in a beautiful alpine setting 2190m (7200’).
30.7km Go right (lower).
32.3km Haystack Lake Trail & Sanca Pass. Park at the end of the road.
History – In the late 1800s, access to the remote creeks of the East Kootenay was over Sanca Pass – which connected Sanca Creek in the West Kootenay to Meachen Creek in the East Kootenay at Haystack Lake. Sanca Pass once had a log hotel (now only a wood foundation, rusted metal and broken pottery).
Trail: Start on the deteriorating Upper Meachen Creek Road that turns into a trail for 3kms to a campsite and the trail junction – right (west) goes to Haystack Lake, left (south) goes to Sanca Pass and Creek.
Haystack Lake: 2kms gaining 91m (300’) to under the north face of Haystack Mt. 2682m (8800’). The route down to the lake is rough. Good campsite on south shore. Many ridges and lakes to explore in the area.
Sanca Pass: From the campsite, follow the well-worn trail in the forest, pass the old buildings of the hotel .75km to the thickly forested Sanca Pass. Go 1km south to Carrot Lake (2.5 km past trail junction). Past Carrot Lake the trail deteriorates with deadfall as it descends into Kianuko Creek and crosses a pass into Sanca Creek.
