Exploring the Rice Lake Trail in North Vancouver

by Keith and Heather Nicol

  Over the July 1 long weekend we headed to Vancouver to visit our kids, Kristie and Michael as well

Checking out the trail map at the start of the trail

as check out a new hike in the North Shore Mountains. We decided on doing the Rice Lake loop which is in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve, an area that our daughter is discovering but that we had not visited before. This area is accessed by Lillooet Road and we parked near the Seymour Capilano Filtration Plant.  We were doing this hike on Sunday, July 1 so there were quite a few families out in force and many of them had bike racks on their cars since this area also accesses the Seymour Valley  trailway which our daughter Kristie had been on earlier in the spring. This trailway can be walked but is  particularly popular with bikers since it has a shallow grade and is wide so is family friendly. 

 

A model flume shows how they used to move wood from this area to the ocean

 On this day we were interested is seeing Rice Lake since it seemed to be a short loop which would

The shoreline is scenic in many places along the lake

suit our group. This trail winds from the parking lot past an information booth where you can get maps and other information and about the extensive trail system here and we picked up a map on the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve which included the Rice Lake trail. Rice Lake has been used in the past as a local water supply and as a source of water to drive logs down to the ocean in the early logging days. In fact at one point they have built a model flume that at one time would have stretched for miles to aid in getting logs to tide water.  Rice Lake is certainly scenic and the level 3 km wide trail is suited to a wide range of walkers.  Rice Lake is also stocked with rainbow trout and we saw many people trying their luck along the shore or at the wharf.  Apparently it is stocked twice a year with about 5000 fish so there are certainly fish there to be caught.  We recommend this area for all sorts of people interested in hiking , biking or fishing and there are many more trails we want to try in the future. Check out: www.metrovancouver.org

Fishing for trout off the wharf at Rice Lake