On a sunny mid-December morning the Batchelor Hills called for an 8 km hike. We have hiked some of these routes for decades, but now there are a number of additional single track trails too, with new names, and some new routes. For this day I chose to follow mostly old double tracks toward Mara Mountain, up and around a …Continue reading…
We hiked the valley bottom trails, mostly flat routes by the rivers and the south-facing slopes above looked dry, so I headed up the Lac du Bois Road to hike the lowest trails. At the first trailhead on the left, the lot was snowy/icy and the trails across the hillside were all ice with some dirt sections. Microspikes on my …Continue reading…
In late fall most of the trails of the area became quite icy so we decided to hike in the lower grasslands on a route I call the Barren Hills. It is just an section of the lower Batchelor Hills. Some of the old double tracks were used by ranchers. Most of the single tracks are relatively new, made by …Continue reading…
As winter progressed we had some milder days and over a few weeks, the snow and ice on south-facing lower slopes melted and ran off downhill. The lower slopes of the Batchelor Hills are often the first to be clear of snow and ice. On a cold day, the ground was frozen so I chose to start at one of …Continue reading…
Several places we hike to are included here: Batchelor (with a t) Batchelor Hills, Batchelor Lake, Batchelor Mine Named after Owen Salisbury Batchelor who moved to Kamloops in 1895 He built and ran a stamp mill just below the hills and was involved in several other mining ventures in the area Mara Mara Mountain, Mara Trail, Mara Canyon (Kamloops) Named …Continue reading…
In late winter when the snow still lingered in the hills, we stomped across the ice and through the snow to explore the three hills that make up Batchelor Hill in the Lac du Bois Grasslands Protected Area. The trailhead we chose is the “Upper Barren Hills trailhead”, off a short side road just past Batchelor Hill itself. The double …Continue reading…
A search of dated photos from hikes in late winter showed some patterns of the first arrivals of wildflowers. Each year is different. In the lower hills, the snows can melt as early as the third week of February or as late as the third week in March. The south-facing lower-elevation, angled (right angles to the height of the sun). …Continue reading…
The Westsyde Bench route extends from the Batchelor Hills subdivision to Deep Lake. A good single track starts right at the parking area by the cattleguard (at the south side) and winds around a ridge, then bends north passing by the new housing areas before joining double tracks on the relatively flat benchlands. The route continues north past Oak Hills …Continue reading…
As spring approaches, the lower south-facing slopes clear of snow first, but the hills above with no tree cover follow shortly afterward. Within two weeks after we can hike on the lower Barren Hills, the upper Barren Hills can also be hiked but hikers will face a bit of snow and mud on the north side of hills or in …Continue reading…
The first hills to clear of snow are the lower Batchelor Hills. The south-facing slopes are sometimes called the Barren Hills but recently the mountain biking community has established new single track trails with new signage and new names. We hiked these trails on the dirt in February. From the cycling community’s map, we followed the Lazy Boy Trail …Continue reading…
The Batchelor Ridge circuit goes along the benchland, up over the ridge, and back up and down steep hills to the trailhead/start is a good hike – 10 km with 540m (1771 ft.) of elevation gain. The route goes through areas that are heavily used by ATV’s motorcycles, and 4WD’s when it is dry (in spring) so we try to …Continue reading…
When the winter weather starts to break in mid-Feburary, the first trails to clear are the south-facing open slopes of the lower Batchelor Hills, sometimes called The Barren Hills. We started at the first access point off of the Lac du Bois Road and we contoured through the hills as far west as we could on a route we knew …Continue reading…
In March the hills take a while to dry out, so we look for south-facing lower elevation routes. The hills north of Brocklehurst offer us a series of trails. Over time, we have developed a 14km return route for shoulder season, but we can vary the route to do somewhere between 7km and 14km. On this last spring outing, we …Continue reading…