We drove north on Highway 5 to Little Fort, then turned onto Highway 24. Our destination was Bridge Lake to kayak, hike, and explore. We turned onto a side road to get to Bridge Lake Provincial Park Campground and a spot to launch our kayaks. We paddled around the lake, exploring the bays and islands. Going around the whole lake is about 21 km, so we chose an interesting route for a couple of hours. When we were done, we drove west on Highway 24 for a short distance to the trailhead for a loop route on the forested hillside above the south side of Bridge Lake.
The paddle around the lake was quiet. There was little wind and no other boats on the lake.
At the trailhead are two trails, the Beaver Trail and the Owl Trail. The Bridge Lake Ice Caves are at the bluffs overlooking the lake.
The caves are really just deep fissures in the rocky bluffs. There are several routes down into the “caves” and at the bottom of the deepest one I found some ice in summer. There is probably more ice in late spring. Any exploration of the caves requires scrambling and a rope may be a good idea. We don’t recommend descending by yourself.
The Ice Caves are not a destination on its own, but we can hike a 2 – 2.5 km route there and combined with other explorations in the area, it is worth exploring.
