Brandywine Meadows

It was late in the summer and we just had to get outside and do some hiking. The original plan was to climb the lions - a hike I have wanted to do for years, but it's steep and the time line (given that it gets dark around 6pm) was ambitious. We scanned my hiking books and found a good alternative - Brandywine meadows out past Squamish. The book said it was easy.

The Drive out was uneventful, but when we drove up the logging road we found it was an active construction site! The heavy equipment operators were nice enough to put down their heavy buckets and let us drive up to the trail head. We parked (off the the road as possible and started up the trail.

Steep! The graph in the book was deceptive (or we are getting sorely out of shape). The trail was in somewhat poor condition - trees roots were covering much of the trail, especially steeper sections. We climbed and stopped to take pictures of the mushrooms which seemed to be enjoying the season.

After long climb, the trail quickly leveled out and we entered meadows. I was surprised how quickly the environment transitioned, but also glad because we could start looking for a place to sit down and have lunch. The valley is strewn with large boulders - probably transported by glaciers in the last ice age. We chose a large flat one at sat down for lunch.

David wanted to be back for his gaming session at 6pm so we didn't have a generous schedule. I wanted to walk up to the glacier, but although it appears close, it is surprisingly far away. I had to put up with a lovely walk in the meadows following the water up to where it comes off the rocks.

Turning around to return, we found a beautiful (if blue) view of black tusk. The path we took up was a tangled mess of tree roots - coming down was a bit more of an adventure - under our heels they became quite slippy, and a few of us took minor falls.

fantastic pics, well done!!

Heather
Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 11:27:06

Thanks for your post. My friends and I tried to do the Brandywine Meadows hike yesterday (August 17/09), but when we got to the turnoff from the highway, huge concrete blocks barricaded our way! We read in the trail guide that the forestry road was 4.5 km plus another 2 km to get to the trailhead, and as we didn't have time to add a further 13 km (round trip) to our day, we had to forego the hike. We were very disappointed, but your pictures helped.

Linda
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 at 18:20:41

A group of 10 of us did this Hike Sat, Sept 12th. Wow .. certainly not an easy hike as rated in the description we had... was hard to find the trail head with all the new construction going on. Also right from the get go it is straight up and lots of large logs and other debris along the way. Definately took our group much longer than the said 3 hour hike return. It was a good cardio going up, but not for the beginner or injured hiker. The views at the top where okay, but in my opinion, not worth the hike (CLIMB) up. Also going down is tricky as it is so steep you have to may very careful attention to your footing or expect a few spills! We too were very disappointed and would not return nor recommend this hike.

LIsa
Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 12:38:10

You need to drive to the next turn off toward the Whistler Transfer Station and Nordic Center to get back to Brandywine FSR as the Brandywine FSR was deactivated near the highway during the highway upgrades. You can still hook back into the Brandywine FSR after the Transfer Stn.

Brenda
Friday, July 9th, 2010 at 14:41:27

Brandywine Meadows

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