Living the best adventure life, since 1958
April 5, 2026
~ submitted by Nick Fisch
Snowshoes on, then off, then on, then off again…. and again.. and again. It was one of those days.
Four of us set out on Easter Sunday to tackle Heather Mountain from the little Shaw gate. It was a bluebird 20 degree spring day. We began at around 9:30am from the locked gate for a very long slog of an approach up the logging road. We hit snow at around 3100ft and dawned the snowshoes. The going was slow.
June 6, 2025
~ submitted by Su Castle
It was a hot day up Heather Mountain. The snow had mostly melted; luckily there were a few patches to cool down with.
It was one member’s first hike both on Vancouver Island and with the IMR. Â We had a 12 km round trip as we were able to drive most of the way up.
Great company, big views. We took it slow and steady, made time for rest stops and a little exploring.
Elapsed time: 6 hours. Elevation gain: 750m.
September 11th, 2021
~ submitted by Matthew Lettington
Heather Mountain is one of the many Vancouver Island hikes where the logging road approach far exceeds the distance on the trail proper. It’s a trip I do when nasty weather turns us away from more challenging objectives, and therefore one I do in the rain.
Continue reading “Heather Mountain”
–submitted by Matthew Lettington; originally published on explorington.com
When the weather turned to crap on October 28th, we abandoned our plan to summit Steven Peak in the Tlupana Range and turned our eyes to something much closer to home: Heather Mountain.
You may be surprised to read that I haven’t done this common south island hike, but the long logging road approach never really appealed to me, when there are so many other objectives on our list that don’t require 15 kilometres of walking on hard, unaesthetic logging road. However, earlier that week, I caught wind that the gate might be open and sent Phil a message about the possibility. Rather than walk through the downpour of rain on an unknown route on an unfamiliar mountain, we decided to make an easy day of it.
We got lucky! Indeed, we did find the gate unlocked. Even better, we found that a kind soul had brushed out the upper sections of the old logging road, creating what I’ll refer to as an ATV track to the end of the road.
Total Distance: 4.8km
Starting Elevation: 1053 Em
Maximum Elevation: 1346 m
Total Elevation Gain: 392 m
Total Time: 2h 12 m