Bedwell Trail

[LKing]

We started our holidays off with a trip out to Buttle Lake for the week. This way we can cram in as many of our favorite things to do as we can. Tuesday morning the 13th July we headed out to Jim Mitchell Lake road. About 8am we were at the trailhead parking lot. There was a wash out on this road in the spring and it was repaired using shot rock. Careful of your tires as we once had 2 flats from shot rock. The road is pretty good other then that spot though.
This was our first trip up Bedwell trail and it started off not too bad with a nice meandering trail and a suspension bridge to cross. There are quite a few switch backs that begin to take you up higher. I should have counted them and I am sure somebody has but there was alot of metal staircases so you wouldn't have to scramble up rock. Only one that we had to help the dog over that was more of a ladder then stairs. It is about 3 hours to reach Bedwell Lake and an overall elevation gain of about 600 m. So it is a pretty nice walk. The lakes were beautiful both with camping pads, bear cache, and outhouses. I liked the Baby Bedwell Lake camping spot .... it was cozy. There was still some snow along parts of the trail between the lakes but I am sure that will be gone in no time. From the lakes there is wonderful views of Mt Tom Taylor and Big Interior Mtn which are still very much snow covered. The ice had just melted off the lakes recently and we stopped to eat and soak our feet in the icy water.
Not a bad hike, although I do like to be up looking down. It was about 20 kms for the day. Below is the link to my facebook album it includes pictures from other hikes so far this year. Bedwell trail pics start from the 2nd page half way down at the suspension bridge. Bedwell trail