The Bonaparte Plateau is not an easy place to explore.   The backroads to 5000 feet are long and not well marked.   The trailheads are difficult to find.   Except for the Skoatl Point trail, most trails are hard to follow, overgrown, covered in fallen trees, and short on views.   We head up there every summer to explore in spite of these challenges.   It is quiet, remote, and wild.   The hikes are forest walks with many obstacles to bypass.  Each mile into the forest is a journey back in time to an unspoiled time, green, wet, and silent.

The Deadmans Trail’s name come from the fact that these waters are at the source of the Deadman’s River.  Shelley Lake is the start of the drainage.   There is no road into Shelley Lake so we drive up the Jamieson Creek Road for 28 km and turn onto the Beaverhut-Cabin Lake Road and 8 km up that gravel road, we turn onto a spur road and park.   There is no trailhead sign, but a BC Parks sign can be seen in the bush along the trail.   The route descends down to the lakeshore and follows a rough trail around the lake for 2.5 km.   At a junction at the end of the lake, the Deadman’s Trail veers off to 4 small lakes and beyond to Hiahkwah Lake.   The trail is overgrown and hard to follow.   Snowmobile trails have been marked, but these winter-ATVs cross marshes, lakes, and underbrush and make poor trails for hikers.   The hiking trails are not marked, except for some blazes on trees, and the route is frequently indistinct.  Progress is slow and the footing is wet.   We went after mosquito season (a good choice for anyone else). It is often hard to tell which trail is the right one.   Game trails and fishing trails go off and it isn’t hard to take the wrong fork, but a GPS and a good map kept us from getting lost.

We completed a route to 2 of the 4 lakes and decided to loop back to Shelley Lake, around to the other side, past an abandoned and decrepit (snowmobile) hut, and out to the road.   We finished our hike along the road back to our vehicles.

Would we recommend this trail?   We liked the forest and the lakes, but this is not an easy area to walk or navigate.   On a day with mosquitoes or poor weather, pick another trail.   The Deadman’s Trail has a lot of potential, though.   It needs some TLC.   Some chainsaw work, some pruning shears, some flagging tape, and small crew would restore this to a fine forest walk on the high plateau.

• Trailhead – N51 05.136 W120 26.250
• Junction – N51 05. 838 W120 28.314

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.” (John Muir)