It’s always good to have a plan B when the forecast looks bad. So instead of going hiking in the rain in Kluane National Park, with two other friends we decided to escape for a two days Mountain Bikepacking trip in the Coast Mountains. close to home. We agreed on Hodnett Lakes, located in a remote valley and saving us a few hours of driving. The round trip is about 25km of mountain biking with 2,000 feet (600m) elevation gain.
We followed an old exploration road which crossed a few creeks and goes through the forest to the alpine valley. The first part of the trail is the same as the hike to Red Ridge, the second part continues south to Hodnett Lakes and the base of Mount Hodnett.
The Hodnett Lakes trail is following a part of Thompson Creek where you can see some huge beaver dams and huts.
The trail part between Red Ridge and Hodnett Lakes was mostly wet and muddy in some spots, which gave us some difficulties to keep our feet dry. We found some fresh animal tracks in the mud which told us that a wolf was following a moose on the same trail earlier in the morning.
After our arrival to Hodnett Lakes, our objective was to find a perfect camping spot for the night and then hike to the top of the unnamed summit at 1800m altitude (5,200ft, see summit on the picture above) overlooking the lakes and the valley.
Despite of the clouds and rain, the view from the top was worth the effort to reach it. On the way down, the weather was getting worse with more rain, so we quickly set up a tarp a bit higher on the mountain than our campsite to stay dry and have dinner before to rest our legs!
Biking the way back on the next day was much faster and fun, going down in elevation for most of the ride. The mountain bikes saved us a lot of time for sure! I consider myself lucky to live less than 10 minutes from several trail heads leading to gorgeous valleys surrounded by lakes and mountains.
