In the first week of summer the hike chosen was a route from McQueen Lake to Isobel Lake. A short distance from the turn into the Overnight Center an older trail bears northeast.    This was once called the Forestry Capital Trail, an interpretative trail through the forest with stations along the way.     Many of the numbered posts are still positioned along the trail, but we would need the printed guide to know what each one signified.   The trail passes through two meadows and some mixed forest on the way over a ridge and down to the marshy area on the west side of Isobel Lake.

There was no one around on the trail to the lake, but there were families hiking, fishing, and camping as I hiked the trail around the lake.  There were no mosquitoes on the hike, but there were lots of birds.    I used the Merlin app to record and identify a number of birds – ravens, marsh wrens, song sparrows, Swainsons thrush, willow flycatcher, ruby-crowned kinglet, pine siskin, yellow-rumped warbler, blackbirds, and loons.

(pine siskin)

This was a two hour (7 km) rewarding hike.   Admittedly, the loop around Isobel Lake was the highlight so I could have driven to the lake instead, but an hour on quiet forested trails has its own rewards on a summer day.

Shared here are photos from hike, embedded as a Google Photos album slideshow.   Click the link in the upper right corner to go to the album and captions for the images.

More Information:

• McQueen to Isobel Hike
• McQueen to Isobel Ramble (video)