Hiking the Grassy, Bojo, Mara Loop in Manning Park
Contents
Grassy, Bojo, Mara Loop Hike Information
Difficulty: Moderate
Distance: 14.50Km
Elevation Gain: 875m
Highest Elevation: 1,899m
Average Gradient: 12.07%
Effort/Reward Ratio: Moderate / Moderate
Time Needed:
– Slow: 8 – 10 Hours
– Moderate: 7 – 8 Hours
– Fast: 6 – 7 Hours
Dogs Permitted?: Yes
Season: Year-Round (Winter Preferred)
4×4 / High Clearance Required? No
Scrambling / Exposure: None
Grassy, Bojo, Mara Loop Trail
Trailhead Coordinates: 49°04’03.0″N 120°53’35.6″W
Disclaimer: Winter hiking (snowshoeing) involves significantly more risk than summer hiking. Hikers should be prepared with appropriate education, training and equipment for all possibilities, including but not limited to avalanches. A mistake such as going off trail, getting lost or injured can be far more dangerous in winter than summer. You are responsible for your own safety, and while I am happy to give my opinion on this website as to the avalanche risk of a specific hike, do not take this as fact and please do your own research. Everybody has different risk tolerances and mine might be different to yours.
Grassy, Bojo, Mara Loop Overview
Grassy Mountain, Bojo Mountain and Mara Peak are a trio of partially forested summits located in Manning Park that are relatively straightforward for combining into one moderately challenging looped hike.
While there are no dedicated trails to any of the summits, Grassy and Bojo Mountain are adjacent to the Poland Lake Trail, making for a short and simple detour in all seasons. Mara Peak, however, is nowhere near any trail, and without a healthy snowpack would include a lot of ugly bushwhacking to reach the summit. As such, if attempting to hike all three summits you will definitely want to go when there is a decent snowpack covering the underbrush, however this comes with some complexities.
The trailhead for this hike would typically be from the parking lot of the Manning Park Ski Resort in the winter, however the resort does not want hikers to use their parking lot during ski operations, since it takes spaces away from paying customers. As such hikers will need to park at the Strawberry Flats parking lot, almost 2.5km down Gibson Pass Road, then hike up the road to the resort. In the summer you will have to park at Strawberry Flats either way as the road is gated at this point.
Another issue with the ski resort is that the hike passes through ski runs. On the ascent this is not much of an issue as the resort has dedicated the Poland Lake trail as an access route into the backcountry, however after descending from Mara Peak most hikers choose to descend via a different ski run, which the resort is not typically happy about due to the liability they face of snowshoers on a resort run. If this is a concern, hikers may want to snowshoe back over to the Poland Lake trail in order to descend, which would add a bit of extra distance and elevation gain, but nothing major.
All in all, if you want to avoid these complexities, timing is key as you will want the resort to be closed but snow to still be on ground. If you don’t care for Mara Peak (it’s the lowest one with the least rewarding views), you could also just hike to Grassy and Bojo Mountain at any time of year, with or without snow, following the Poland Lake trail.
This is a pet friendly hike, though I’m not sure what the resort staff will think of dogs on their ski runs.
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Is the Grassy, Bojo, Mara Loop worthwhile?
If I were to re-do this hike I would happily return to Grassy and Bojo Mountain, but Mara Peak is a hard sell since it’s the lowest one, it involves a lot of route finding and fairly tiring travel for a mostly forested peak. Mara Peak is truly a peakbaggers peak with little additional reward, but Grassy and Bojo Mountain both offer fairly rewarding views for moderate effort.
Overall there are better hikes in Manning Park and SWBC on the whole than this one, this is best saved for a winter outing when conditions may not be conducive to something better. The avalanche risk on this hike is negligible so many people save it for when they want to dial down their risk or for shorter days.
How difficult is the Grassy, Bojo, Mara Loop hike?
Physically speaking this hike isn’t too challenging, with an approachable average gradient and reasonably moderate stats. Most of the elevation gain is on an easy to follow, well marked trail that will often have a trail broken in winter. The most challenging part is the section between Bojo Mountain and Mara Peak, which is all off-trail route finding, which usually means some involved trail breaking if you’re not following a set of tracks.
Technically the hike is mostly straightforward, with no scrambling/exposure and minimal avalanche risk. Route finding to Mara Peak will be the most challenging aspect of the day, a downloaded map is likely a necessity as you’ll be traveling in some dense forest with no trail or markers. Dropping off Mara Peak summit can involve some steep terrain, but should be wholly manageable.
Snow conditions will obviously impact how difficult this hike is, if you’re breaking trail in fresh snow, expect for a longer, more tiring day.
Grassy, Bojo, Mara Loop Route Information
As noted the trailhead for the Grassy, Bojo, Mara loop is from the Strawberry Flats parking lot on Gibson Pass Road. While the ski resort obviously has parking, they do not want hikers/snowshoer parking there since it takes the spot of a paying customer. In the summer the road will be gated beyond Strawberry Flats anyway.
From Strawberry Flats the easiest way to the trailhead is by simply hiking along Gibson Pass Road to the resort. In the winter the resort requires backcountry users to obtain a backcountry permit from the Alpine Ticket Office of the ski resort, obviously in the summer this isn’t necessary.. While you could follow the Poland Lake trail to the resort, this involves unnecessary elevation gain and loss, it’s easier to just hike along the road (and there’s a chance one of the passing shuttle buses will pick you up along the way anyway).
Once at the resort, head to the Alpine Ticket Office and get a backcountry pass (free at the time of writing). After getting your pass you’ll want to head to the Bear Chair chairlift, keeping left of it and heading up the Junction ski run. There should be signage for the Poland Lake trail, but if in doubt refer to your GPX or ask an employee where the trail begins. Once you locate the first sign it should be easy to follow. Note that this is not the summer version of the Poland Lake trail at the moment, as that is inaccessible in the winter since it passes directly over the ski runs.
Keeping an eye out for signage, the route initially goes up the ski run before eventually entering the trees. As you climb the trail goes from the trees and back to the ski run several times, all the while gaining elevation quite quickly. Usually the rest has marked the trail very well as they do not want snowshoers getting lost and using the ski runs unnecessarily.
Once you reach 1,750m or so you’ll be past the ski runs and into the backcountry. At this point the markers that the resort set out cease and you’re left to navigate on your own. The trail now joins up with the summer Poland Lake trail, continuing to climb in the process. At around 1,825m you’ll want to depart from the Poland Lake trail and begin making your way up the eastern ridge of Grassy Mountain. After a mere 50m or so of climbing you’ll reach the summit of Grassy Mountain, with some nice views to the south of Frosty Mountain, Castle Peak and Red Mountain.
You’ll now want to continue west along the ridge, dropping off it and returning to the Poland Lake trail. Following the Poland Lake trail for another kilometer or so, it’s mostly a gradual descent, dropping around 60m or so. Keeping an eye on your map, at around 1,750m you’ll climb up the eastern ridge of Bojo Mountain to the summit. The views will be similar, although somewhat less obstructed by trees. Bojo Mountain is the highest summit of the day at 1,899m.
Up to this point you have mostly been following an established trail, with slight detours to each of the summits. Now you have to decide whether Mara Peak is worth the added push, as it’s a lot more involved than Grassy and Bojo, and offers worse views than both of them.
Assuming you choose to continue, you’ll now drop steeply off the southern aspect of Bojo, heading back to the Poland Lake trail. Once you reach the trail though, instead of following it you now cross over it, continuing to descend into the valley between Bojo Mountain and Mara Peak. You’ll now undoubtedly need to refer to your map to ensure you’re going in the right direction, and the route becomes a bit more involved as you navigate through the forest. Travel is mostly straightforward, there should be little to no bushwhacking with a decent snowpack, you’ll just need to constantly refer to your map to verify that you’re going the right way.
Once you’ve dropped all the way to 1,600m you’ll reach a large open marsh/pond area free of trees, which you’ll simply cross over since it’ll be buried in snow. On the other side you’ll begin climbing back up the other side of the valley towards Mara Peak, again paying close attention to your GPS.
After some time climbing you’ll gain Mara’s west ridge, which can be a little finicky depending on exactly where you choose to ascend it. Once on the ridge you simply follow it east to the summit, with some reasonably decent views to the south once more. Mara Peak itself is mostly forested, the views along the ridge were actually clearer.
Once finished up on Mara Peak you continue heading east along the ridge, which can be steep in spots and will likely force you to keep to the north of the ridge, which is fine. As you continue to descend from the ridge you’ll eventually reach a ski run, the Wagon Trail. Once you’ve located this you will want to follow it, keeping left away from any skiers.
The resort does not want snowshoers hiking down this ski run, and they will likely make that clear once you get to the bottom. In this case you have a few choices: a) time it so you end the hike when the resort is closed, b) go anyway and plead ignorance at the bottom, or c) don’t go down the Wagon Trail ski run and instead snowshoe over to the Poland Lake trail that you ascended earlier, and descend from there (which is permitted). The last option will involve some additional distance and minimal elevation.
Once you’re back at the resort you simply hike back to the parking at Strawberry Flats via Gibson Pass Road.
When should I hike the Grassy, Bojo, Mara Loop?
If you are going for all three peaks you will want to time this for a decent snowpack, which usually means mid-winter to early spring. Ideally you’d go between December and April for these conditions.
If you are only going to do Grassy and Bojo Mountain you can go anytime of year.
Top Tip
The ski resort may be lenient to people parking in their lot in winter on a weekday. I went on a Tuesday and parked in their lot, which was at least 75% empty, so it didn’t seem an issue and nobody said anything. This saved 5km of hiking along the road.
There is often a decent amount of trailbreaking on this hike as very few people go to Mara Peak, so you’ll probably want to go with a group and try and time it so you aren’t hiking indeed, fresh powder.
