The weather here in Lillooet has been smoking hot and at least 30 degrees daily. This has made it hard to want to get out and hike. However, today a pal Tatjana and I were able to enjoy a cool cloudier day and hike up to the West Pavillion Fire Lookout. I had heard about this trail from a local physician that I work with and read about it in the guide book "Canyon to Alpine" written by locals and sold all over Lillooet. To access this trail we drove through the town of Lillooet out towards Highway 40. Immediately after we crossed the Bridge River we took a right turn on West Pavillion Road and zeroed the odometer. We drove along the steep, windy gravel road until we hit the 11.5km mark and crossed a cattle guard. We parked on the righthand side of the road and began walking up an old skidder road on the lefthand side of the road. We followed the slowly ascending road for about 3kms and eventually came to the first lookout. It was stunning. However from here we could see we had our work cut out for us. We could see the lookout cabin perched high above us in the distance. |
The views from the fire watch cabin were breathtaking. Beautiful rugged mountains in all directions. It was quite windy so we carefully climbed into the dilapidated cabin for shelter and a quick snack. The cabin itself had no windows and the stairs to get inside were crumbling apart. It must have been one hell of a place to spend the summer months watching for fires in its day. |