Outbound90
First off, fellow hikers be warned. The Monkman "Trail", is only a trail until Monkman Lake, roughly km25. From there it is somewhat traceable until the alpine starting at km30 or so, where it completely disappears and is marked only by the few remaining cairns left over from travelers past.The alpine hiking past the tarns, and Hugh Lake, with views of beautiful waterfalls, creeks, mountain meadows, and distant views over the Parsnip and Monkman Glaciers to the West are absolutely stunning. From there the route takes you past Decent Camp for a sheer descent, bushwhacking down the mountain to Fontoniko Creek. Where you continue to fight your way through patches of swamp, willows, devils club, etc.. There are sections of trail still visible throughout the remaining 40km, but don't rely on it. Essential items are a GPS with the coordinates found on the BC Parks website, and a satellite phone or SPOT. Note: The GPS coordinates on the parks website are in UTM's with datum NAD27, not NAD83 or WGS84 like most Garmin GPS's come default set with. And even with the proper coordinates in, we found our track to be 20-150m off course. Goodluck!
