The Charlotte Alplands are in a remote area of the province, southwest of Nimpo Lake, but on the Interior side of the Coast Range.  It is a Provincial Protected Area with the highest concentration of alpine lakes in B.C.  There are no roads or trails in the area, except for a few hard-to-follow horse-pack routes through the brush and forest.   We hired an outfitter (One Eye Outfit) to haul our gear in, cook our meals, and guide us through the hills.   We left from Nimpo Lake by floatplane and landed at Fish Lake, then hiked in to a basecamp at Frog Lakes.

The chain of lakes sits at 5700 feet.   The forested basecamp area on the shores of Frog Lake sat in wet subalpine meadows below rocky peaks.

All of our hikes (to be reported in a later post) crossed boggy ground and heavy brush to get to the alpine, but once above (in about 60 minutes), the routes were in alpine terrain.   We hiked to a number of unnamed peaks, labelled here as North, South, West, and 2222 (m).

To the south and west of the Charlotte Alplands is the Coast Range with high glaciated peaks, including the Monarch Icefield Ranges and the Waddington Ranges, the highest peaks entirely in BC.   Tweedsmuir Park is only 15 km from the basecamp area.

The highlights were the alpine passes, rocky peaks and high plateaus with numerous tarns at 6000 to 7500 feet surrounding Frog and Fish Lakes.

In August there were lots of black flies, wet crossings, and heavy brush to get to the alpine.   These are not established trails so hikers face a true wilderness experience and even the camp was a bit rough.   We were pleased to hike the alpine routes of the Charlotte Alplands and would love to return to the high area south of Mt. McClinchy to explore the tarns, glaciers, craters, and ridges in the alpine.

Details on the hiking routes will follow over the fall and winter.