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The trails around Buntzen Lake get plenty of use and along with time and the forces of nature, damage to trails and infrastructure is inevitable.

The bridges on the east side of Buntzen Lake were upgraded between late 2016 and spring 2017.

A section of this wooden railing was damaged since at least April 2014…

As the drop below is not insignificant, this should have been repaired much sooner.
BC Hydro repaired the section Spring 2015…

The ‘large’ bridge over Buntzen Creek at South Beach, was damaged in early 2015 by fallen trees. Here’s the bridge…

As there is an easy alternate path, the bridge was removed in March 2015.
Here’s the area after…

There was plenty of rain last winter and drainage has been greatly improved, such as this area on the east side of Buntzen Lake…

New steps were installed just off of Pump House Road, on the west side of Buntzen Lake. It allows easier access to the water…

There are also minor repairs such as repaired wooden steps at the suspension bridge…

In October of 2014, a small section with several roots on the Bunzten Lake Trail (East side) was improved…

As many of the bridges around Buntzen Lake are quite old, many have fallen into disrepair such as this one on Lakeview Trail…

Bridge repairs are usually done quite fast.
I have been informed (April 2015) by Buntzen Lake officials that many bridges around the lake are planned to be replaced.

Another improvement project in the works is replacing many trail markers on Eagle Ridge/Mountain. The trails on Eagle Ridge/Mountain are difficult and the definition of wilderness. On a hike November 2014, the snow covered the main trail and I had difficulty finding trail markers around Tangled Summit (seen below) and points to the west. A joint effort between Buntzen Lake officials and Coquitlam Search and Rescue will hopefully improve trail markers on Eagle Ridge.

This past weekend was a great weekend for hiking. Saturday, I did the Diez Vistas trail and ended with a hike around McCombe Lake. On Sunday, I did a power hike of the Lakeview Trail.

Below is a map showing my routes (click on for larger image)…

On Saturday, I actually intended to do the Lakeview Trail, but I made a last minute change – I had fluids and snacks, so I was all good. On the drive to the lake, there were some rain drops on the windshield, so I decided to wear my light hiking jacket, rather than the extra merino wool shirt I had. Anyways, it didn’t rain and I was quite warm on the ascent. I passed two couples on the 1st half of the ascent and a group of four on the second half. I saw a group of about 8 at the official 1st vista (actual 5th vista).

Below are some photos from Saturday, with the first being a taped off area, where it is easy to make a wrong turn…

Below is a small creek used if there is overflow or a dam failure on McCombe Lake…

The next photo shows the intake building and dam on McCombe Lake…

And the last photo from Saturday is a shot on Powerhouse Road, along McCombe Lake…

Now, Sunday was quite different – I intended to do Lakeview Trail and I did Lakeview Trail ! I saw 4 other hikers and 2 mountain bikers. I did a power hike and finished the loop in 2 hours, 12 mins. But I still took some photos.

The mushrooms are out in full force and here are two mushrooms shots…

If you like mushrooms, check out my fungus post

At the end of the Lakeview trail, I noticed another old sign. I wrote a post on the old signs around the lake

Here is the sign…

And that was my weekend of hiking. Can’t wait to do it again !!

I’ve noticed a large number of Dragonflies at Buntzen Lake and all around the tri-cities this summer.

Dragonflies spend most of their life beneath the water’s surface in their ‘nymph’ stage. The larval stage of large dragonflies may last as long as five years. After the dragonfly has emerged from the water, they live up to a year. Maybe there was a large amount of dragonflies 4 or 5 years ago, which produced the large amounts this year. Maybe we’ll see another boom in 4 or five years from the eggs of this year’s crop.

Have you ever had a dragonfly fly very close to you ? Well, they’re doing you a favour by eating mosquitoes and other insects. In fact, as long as there’s food around they keep eating.

Common predators of dragonflies include: birds; frogs; fish; spiders. I can add humans to that as well – from personal experience – I was playing tennis last year and on my serve a dragonfly flew into the path of my racket and died – it made such a thud – I couldn’t believe it !

This is cool…
10 Surprisingly Brutal Facts About Dragonflies