The Baden Powell trail is a 48km hike stretching from Deep Cove to Horseshoe Bay across Vancouver's North Shore. The trail is divided into four sections: Deep Cove to Lynn Valley, Lynn Valley to Grouse Mountain, Grouse Mountain to Cypress Mountain and then Cypress Mountain to Horseshoe Bay. The trail can be hiked in either direction.
Today, we hiked the section from Horseshoe Bay up to Cypress Mountain where it intersects with the Eagle Bluffs hike and the most incredible views of the city and Howe Sound. The typical route to Eagle Bluffs begins at the Cypress Mountain parking lot at the top of Cypress Bowl Road, and follows the Baden Powell trail up Black Mountain past Cabin Lake to the Eagle Bluffs lookout.
Access to the Eagle Bluffs trail head requires a car, which I don't have, so we hiked the route starting from the Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal which is transit accessible. The 250 and 257 from downtown stop at the Highway 1 overpass from where you just need to walk back a bit down the main road from where you came to the start of the trail. The trail is still the Baden Powell trail, just the end section of it.
The hike up this way includes steep climbs, a scramble over a tricky boulder field, and occasionally poorly-marked routes among the rocks and trees. The very last bit involves walking across a ledge on the face of a large boulder.
BADEN POWELL TRAIL DETAILS
When: June to October, due to snow on the mountain during ski season
Where: trail starts near Horseshoe Bay Ferry in West Vancouver and goes up Cypress Mountain
Difficulty: difficult (Eagle Bluffs hike from Cypress Bowl is intermediate)
Length: 4 hours for 9km one-way (Eagle Bluffs hike from Cypress Bowl is 2.5 hours for 7km roundtrip)
Directions: check out the guide on BC Car Free
Bathrooms: no
Public Transit: yes, check out my full list of transit-accessible hikes in BC here (note there is no public transit at the top of Cypress Mountain)
