Duffy Greenstone Trails
A network of 132 kms of OHV trails can be found all along the flanks of Greenstone Mountain. On the east are the Inks Lakes Trails, On the north slopes are the Duffy Greenstone Trails and on the west side are the Duffy Lake – Dairy Lake Trails. The double track roads can be used by motorcycles, quads, and jeeps/4×4’s. the double track “tracks” by quads and motorcycles, and the singles tracks by motorcycles. Mountain bikes can use them all, as can hikers, but some of the steepest Difficult or Extreme trails are really only accessible by experts on motorcycles. Hikers usually will not choose to hike the trails in the main season with the motorized crowd active in the area, but the trails can be hiked in the off season. On a cold fall day in November, i hiked a loop trail from the Pendleton Creek Recreation Site. From the Greenstone Mountain Road, drive 3 km up the road to an intersection and turn right onto the Duffy Lake Forest Service Road and drive for 1 km. Many trails can be accessed from this area or from the parking area a short distance farther along.
Pendleton Lake is a larger pond next to a BC Rec Site. It was frozen over on this frosty morning.
Most of the trails from the campsite lead west. All routes to the south have to find ways around a succession of rocky bluffs all the way to the top of Greenstone Mountain, 1000m in elevation above.
We can hike or bike along good tracks that connects Pendleton Creek to Duffy Lake and back on a loop route, but that would be about 20 km. Using the map, its easier to pick other loops. Most of the routes are just forested tracks, but some pass ponds and meadows too.
The first frozen puddle provides patterns in the ice as we hike along the trails.
In this large network of trails are some fine hiking routes too, but exploration of the trails will take a number of visits. We did the same with the Outer Inks Lakes Trails. The best time to do these exploratory hikes will be in October and November, then back in April. For the rest of the year we will leave the trails to the OHVers.
Although the motorized group and the on-foot group have different views of wilderness, we share a common interest in trails, tracks, and routes on Crown lands. Our thanks to the Greater Kamloops Motorcycle Association and the Greater Kamloops ATV Association for their work with the Rec Sites and Trails BC on the development of trails on the slopes of Greenstone Mountain.
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