Although we rarely go to Manning Park to do the Lightning Lakes trails, we inevitably do this route almost every time.    Manning Park is in a wet belt and alpine areas are often shrouded in clouds and rain is frequent.    Snow lingers up high late into the summer and limits access.   The Trail report from the Parks site dated June 13th tells us that all alpine trails are covered in snow.   These trails may not be hikeable until late July this year.     Even when we do get a few days of good weather, after hiking some of the alpine routes, a relatively flat route is a welcome alternative.

The north side trails are double tracks along the shore of Lightning Lake, but change to wide single track by Flash Lake.    These trails are also used by cross country skiers on the snow.   The trail can be quite grown over and sometimes slippery between Strike Lake and Thunder Lake.   The view at Thunder Lake is interesting, but it is hard to go beyond the trail end.   Most of us turn back at the Strike Lake wilderness campground, then we usually go around the south side of Flash Lake and Lightning Lake on the way back to create a loop route.   The trail on the south side is a winding single track, but with lots of good views.  The trail finally emerges at the day use area at the end of the lake, but an extra part of the trail is the route around Lone Duck Bay.  In summer, we have swum across the narrow channel to the campground.

Starting at the Spruce Bay parking area (adjacent to Lightning Lakes campground) or the day use area at the east end of the lake, the route out to Thunder Lake and back is about 9km.   We have also enjoyed this as a running route because of the gentle terrain and good trail surface.