Deeks Lake British Columbia

Deeks Lake British Columbia is located near Lions Bay on the Sea to Sky Highway. There is a parking lot located just off the highway at Porteau Rd. You can either park in the paved parking lot as we did, or if you have a vehicle capable of going off-road you can trim a few kilometers off your hike by driving closer to the actual trail head.

It was not very long into the hike to the trail head when the first of two black bears appeared. I (Tyler) heard the first one before we even saw it. I said to freeze and to listen carefully. Right then a younger black bear came out of the woods and entered the trail about 20 meters ahead of us. He didn’t stick around very long and was gone very quickly – even before I could capture a picture of it even with the camera in my hand!

At this point Catherine was a little hesitant to continue on with the trail as she had heard some bad stories about bears in Quebec. I had to take a few minutes to explain to her more about safety in the woods in respect to bears. Catherine being very tough didn’t take very much convincing to continue on with the hike. But wouldn’t you know it – no sooner had we started further up the trail out came the largest black bear that we had ever seen. Don’t do as Tyler did, and chase the bear up the trail to get a picture! Seriously – don’t do it.

As hikes go, the walk to the lake was not easy. This is more of an intermediate to experienced type of trail if you want to do it in a short time frame. The trail is very rocky and steep in some sections making it hard to walk. There were also very many mosquitoes so we had to use ample supplies of bug repellent. During the five and half hour walk up we stopped many times to take photos, some video and to take in the many views of the waterfalls which are close to the trail. We saw only about a dozen people on the trail so overall it was fairly quiet.

Catherine was sporting casual footwear instead of hiking shoes so her feet and legs became very sore and tired by the time we got to the lake. She complained often that her feet hurt but she never once asked to turn around to go back.

Deeks Lake itself is not the largest lake in the world by any stretch but after a long hard climb was very much worth the effort. You could see fish jumping in the lake and the water was very clear but a tad cold. There was still spots of snow around the edge of the lake and on the surrounding peaks. What makes it so nice as compared to so many other lakes close to the city is that because of the remoteness it was so very quiet. There wasn’t the usual sounds of motorboats and jet skis to drown out your moment of solitude. We spent about an hour taking in the fresh air and beautiful scenery before deciding to head back down the mountain.

It took about a third of the time to go back down the mountain as it took to go up.

Tyler Says:
Deeks Lake trail for me was not the hardest trail I have ever walked nor was it the easiest. There were too many mosquitoes for my taste but the lake itself was worth the trip. I will definitely be back very soon as I will walk that trail again as part of another trail to the Lions overlooking Vancouver. So if you are in the Vancouver area and want a moderately challenging hike that will take between 5 and 8 hours depending on your fitness and planned stopping for photos and the such, Deeks Lake might be right for you. You can camp at the lake if you want but just use common sense and be prepared for bears!

Catherine Says:
I would recommend the Deeks Lake trail to others because the lake was very beautiful. Just make sure you do not do like I did and wear poor shoes! Take lots of photos and don’t be afraid if you see bears.

Tags: black bear, british columbia, Canada, deeks lake, fish, hike, lions bay, mosquitoes, mountain, trail, vancouver, waterfall