Hiking Fowl Peak near Pemberton
Contents
Fowl Peak Hike Information
Difficulty: Difficult
Distance: 21.00Km
Elevation Gain: 1,287m
Highest Elevation: 2,218m
Average Gradient: 12.26%
Effort/Reward Ratio: High / Very High
Time Needed:
– Slow: 9 – 10 Hours
– Moderate: 8 – 9 Hours
– Fast: 7 – 8 Hours
Dogs Permitted?: Yes
Season: ~June to October
4×4 / High Clearance Required? Yes
Scrambling / Exposure: Minimal
Fowl Peak Trail
Trailhead Coordinates: 50°24’11.5″N 122°47’39.6″W
Fowl Peak Overview
Fowl Peak is an infrequently climbed summit located slightly north of Pemberton, typically accessed via the Owl – Tenquille Traverse trail from Owl Creek FSR. With a groomed trail for much of the route, and a number of beautiful alpine lakes along the way, Fowl Peak offers a rewarding trip, either as a day trip or as an overnight, with plenty of camping options at either of the upper and lower Fowl Lakes below the summit.
While there is a nice trail to the lakes, ascending to this summit is an entirely self navigated affair, with the SE ridge offering a mostly non-technical (albeit steep and rocky) climb to the summit. There is no real scrambling or exposure along this route.
Accessing the trailhead requires a fairly long, very steep drive up the Owl Creek FSR, with numerous small cross ditches along the way. 4×4 high clearance is preferred, however an SUV with a skillful driver may be able to make it without issue.
Due to the elevation of the trailhead, Fowl Peak is generally a summer hike (July – October). That being said, late spring will work fine as well, and a snow covered approach will actually be straightforward thanks to the largely mellow ridge to the summit, so late May and June may also be okay if you don’t mind encountering snow along the route.
Dogs are welcome in the area, though as usual in this zone, grizzly (and black) bears are around, so do take the necessary precautions, especially if you decide to camp at one of the lakes.
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Is Fowl Peak worthwhile?
Fowl Peak is a relatively unknown summit that sees little to no traffic in a given year. That’s unfortunate as the views in this region are breathtaking thanks to open alpine terrain and beautiful lakes dotted around. It is quite similar to the Callaghan Valley in that regard. The Owl – Tenquille trail does see some traffic, mostly with thru hikers and campers looking to find a peaceful spot away from the crowds. With that said, this is a very worthwhile outing, especially if you want to get away from the crowds. The views for much of the hike are outstanding.
How difficult is the hike to Fowl Peak?
The majority of the hike follows a well defined trail thanks to the Owl – Tenquille traverse route. Once you depart the trail, it quickly becomes much steeper and more technical, with a mixture of heather, boulder and sand/scree to deal with. Route finding is your only real challenge, there should be no scrambling or exposure of any kind along the route. All in all, while a fairly challenging day physically, it’s perfectly manageable for experienced hikers.
Fowl Peak Route Information
Accessing this hike requires driving up Owl Creek FSR, which can be located slightly north of the Owl Creek Recreation Site off of Pemberton Portage Road. This FSR is somewhat long (~20-30 minutes to drive it), very steep in spots, with numerous small cross ditches along the way. A 4×4 high clearance vehicle would make life much easier, but an SUV with reasonable clearance might be okay.
From the trailhead you should easily locate the Chain Lakes trail leading into the forest. The initial 2km of the hike meanders through the forest, gaining very little elevation, before reaching a junction to the Chain Lakes Recreation Site. We didn’t bother going to explore it, but it’s not far if you did want to.
Continuing ahead, the trail now becomes the Owl – Tenquille Traverse, named as such as you can hike all the way through and connect to Tenquille Lake should you desire (multi-day thru hike requiring a vehicle at each end). The trail now climbs at a more moderate gradient, and after another ~2km you’ll start to break out of the treeline and get your first views of the day.
You’ll actually now begin a gradual descent, passing by a series of small tarns and lakes as the views continue to improve, and shortly ahead you’ll see the much larger Fowl Lake. This is a great place for a break, with beautiful views and plenty of space to setup a camp site should you be intending to.
Back on the trail, you’ll now work your way around the eastern shores of the lake before climbing once again. Pushing through some denser trees, the trail will follow a creek flowing into Fowl Lake, but you’ll soon want to pay attention as you’re about to leave the trail.
At ~1,640m the trail takes a sharp turn, however you’ll note a clear heather slope leading up to some boulders up ahead. Departing from the trail, you’ll ascend this heather while working your way around a branch of forest, all the while following a creek flowing down from the ridge up ahead. You might be tempted to make a direct ascent to the ridge at this point, and while this might work out just fine, it probably also adds a bunch of undulating ridge hiking to the day.
Instead, the route now arcs around the treeline, climbing steeply beneath the ridge to a bowl below. Here there will be a small alpine tarn making for another nice spot for a break and an opportunity to assess your route. You’ll notice a couple of possible ramps up to the ridge from this bowl, and the route we choose was the right most ramp. This looked a bit more mellow, and it turned out great.
Heading over to it, the terrain is now almost entirely boulders, with specks of heather and sand dotted around. You’ll gain a bit of a moraine with some trees on it, before dropping back off it and working towards a steep climb up to the ridge proper. Thankfully this steep climb is on heather, with excellent traction and mostly seamless climbing. It is not steep enough to need to use hands.
After topping out on the ridge, you will see a few summits to the north. There is one with a radio repeater on it that you may think is the summit, however it’s not. Next to this is another false summit, then beyond that is the true Fowl Peak. At this point you want to try and make a direct line towards Fowl Peak, as following the ridge along towards the radio repeater and the summit next to it will only result in some annoying ups and downs. Instead, cut below the two false summits to avoid any unnecessary undulation.
The terrain is all largely simple and easy enough to navigate, it’s now just a matter of picking your route to the summit. In short order you’ll reach it, and the views will be well worth it. You’ll now see the beautiful Upper Fowl Lake directly below the summit, as well as some familiar peaks like Sun God & Seven O Clock Mountain, Mount Ronayne, Ipsoot Mountain, Rhododendron Mountain, Sugarloaf Mountain, Mount Matier, Joffre Peak and countless more.
After resting at the summit you can simply return back the way you came. While descending we spotted a direct line down to a smaller lake that looked to be worth exploring. We opted for this slightly different variant on the way down, and it worked out well. The small lake was absolutely breathtaking, and offered a beautiful view of the peak you were just standing atop. If you want, you could also detour up to Upper Fowl Lake from here, it would only add around 50m of elevation gain to do so. If not, now you can just follow the Owl-Tenquille trail back out to the car.
When should I hike Fowl Peak?
This region is likely best in the peak summer if you want to experience all the lakes (July to October). If you prefer snow to cover your bouldery approach to the top then you may want to consider late May or June. The lakes may still be snow covered at this time though, which for us was half the reward of this trip.
Top Tip
If you plan to camp in the area, either Lower or Upper Fowl Lake would be ideal spots to do so.
If you like trail running, this is a bit of a paradise for it, with a lovely trail to the lakes and nice rolling terrain along the way.
