Local Trail Guides and Reviews on Trailpeak

I sporadically write trail guides for Trailpeak. The creator is Canadian, he started the website when he lived on Vancouver Island so there is lots of stuff local to me. There are some things I really like about the website and some things that are cumbersome.

You can search trails by using the map or by selecting fields. I like searching by map because I usually have an idea of the area I want to explore, but some trails aren't connected to the map search function. When you search by closest city you sometimes miss older trails that were posted before the list of available cities was expanded, so a hike might be listed as 'close' to Victoria or Nanaimo when it is in reality quite far, or you might search for only trails close to 'smalltown' and some trails that are close don't come up because they are listed as being closest to a larger city. If you know the name of the mountain or the trail you want to do but can't find it on trailpeak - try googling "(name of mountain/trail) Trailpeak" and you might find that such a page exists, it was just given a weird title or not tagged properly.

 Make sure to check when the trail guide was written - backcountry access changes all the time, for example the Comox Glacier used to be a popular hike but the logging road that made it easily accessible is now rarely opened. Trails that were well flagged with nice boardwalk may now be overgrown and slippery and broken. Check for reviews of the trails for more up to date information, and if you go and check out a trail with an old guide, come back and write a review with current info, or even info about the season you've gone in. (Maybe the trail guide writer went in February and hasn't been in the summer, or went in a year with lots of snow pack and high water levels and you're going in the middle of a drought). The province and logging companies also often close access to popular areas on long weekends to prevent crazy partying.

Trailpeak has GPS data for many trails. You can pay to download, or you get three download credits for one upload. If you upload GPS data for a hike you didn't write the guide for, write a review stating that and if the GPS tracks start or end at a different place than the trail head described in the guide.

Hiking Trail Guide Resources:


Coastal BC in General
Trailpeak
Coastal BC


Vancouver Island
Alpine Walker
Vancouver Island Outdoor
Vancouver Island - Things to Do and See
ClubTread
Victoria Hiatus

Vancouver and Area (Whistler, Squamish)
Vancouver Trails
Outdoor Vancouver
UBC VOC Trip Reports
Whistler Hiatus
Hello BC - Whistler Things to Do
Squamish Hiatus

Mountain Climbing
Summit Post

Backcountry Access:
TimberWest Logging Company
Western Forest Logging Company