Stoyama Mountain is the last big mountain in the north Cascades.   It can been seen from the Coquihalla Highway as you drive between Merritt and the crossing of the Clearwater River, a long rocky ridge-like mountain to the west.   Stoyama is 7438 feet, rising above the hills around.   The mountain itself is part of an encircling ring of rocky mountain around a central basin of lakes.

No matter how you get to Stoyama, it is a long way in.   From Highway 8, take the Petit Forest Service Road and follow it for 3 km, turning right and over Spius Creek where it becomes the Prospect Creek Forest Service Road.   At 24 km, the road splits.   Stay left at the bridges and start an ascent on the Miner Road.    The road becomes rougher.   At 35 km, look for the rough track going to the right (it was flagged and there was a Cabin Lake snowmobile sign on the route).   From here on, high clearance is needed.   After 0.8 km, take the right fork again and the road becomes really rough.   For the next 5km, the “road” is narrow, eroded, ungraded, and will be very slow-going.   The final 5km took an hour each way and I slipped into 4WD for some water bar crossings.   The road ends at Cabin Lake, a nice mountain lake with a BC Forest Service Rec site and the starting point for the hikes on the mountain.   Instead of driving all the way in, hikers could park just where the road becomes rough and hike in.

The next time I go in, I will park at a side road about 2km along the road (turn off at N49 58.874 W121 11.865), and hike this track for 0.5 km before contouring up the slopes for 1.5 km to the top (with 1300 feet of elevation) up the east slopes.   I could see this route from above and there will be some route-finding, but it will mean avoiding the final rough section of road and backtracking from Cabin Lake to the ridge.

From Cabin Lake, I was not able to find a trail, but it may be there.    The route is to climb the hill directly to the north by the easiest route.   I followed an easy rout that veered up slopes to the northwest to the top of the ridge, then followed that ridge back east.   At that point I picked up blue flagging tape and a clear trail.   I tried to follow this back down after going to the peak, but it disappeared in the lush slopes above Cabin Lake.

The route goes to the edge of a ridge and just follows the east-west ridge until it meets the north-south ridge of Stoyama Mountain.   The tail goes down to a shallow tarn, then climbs rock slopes to the top of the next hill.   From this point, the whole route is due north, going over each hill on the ridge to the highest point, Stoyama Mountain.    From the top, all of the Coquihalla Peaks can be seen; beyond are the Cascades and Mt. Baker in the distance.   To the east, a number of glaciated peaks of the Coast Range continue on to the west horizon.

If you want to go to the summit of Stoyama, you should consider the following.   The road in and out is very rough.   Finding a trail may be challenge so you will need route-finding skills.   The final hour is all on rock, but is just a ridge climb.   Nonetheless, I had a fall and sustained some injuries.   Hiking alone is not recommended.

There is another trail on the mountain.   It goes south from Cabin Lake for 4 km to the southeast to Heather Basin below a 1974 crash site for the Conair Douglas Invader Bomber which had been modified for fire fighting.   To do both hikes, camping over night at Cabin Lake would be a good choice.