The early West Vancouver pioneers used trails beside the creeks to reach the ski areas and other attractions on the higher slopes of Hollyburn Mountain. Their trails above the level of the Cypress Lookout are mainly still there. Below this level, some are still useable; British Pacific Properties have rebuilt others or built completely new ones, in conjunction with their new developments above the Upper Levels Highway. The map below shows the major creeks and roads.
Millstream Trail is basically the northern limit of the lower trails. Taking the creeks from east to west:
1) There are no trails along the lower parts of Brothers Creek.
2) Brewis Trail heads south down Lawson Creek and although it changes name from time to time it leads all the way to Upper Levels Highway.
3) McDonald Trail goes south from Millstream Trail, crosses under Chippendale and presently terminates at Chippendale Court. It will probably continue to the highway when developments in the area are finished.
4) Forks Trail originates by Hollyburn Lodge at First Lake and meets Millstream Trail by the Lookout; it descends further, using different names, and generally follows West McDonald Creek to reach the Upper Levels Highway.
5) Marr Creek Trail starts by the Lookout and follows Marr Creek all the way down to Shadbolt Lane, very near the highway. This cul-de-sac connects with Folkestone Way and Ski-lift Road.
6) Hat Inn Trail switchbacks down from Cypress Bowl Parkway to the present western end of Chippendale and, after a short easterly jog, a trail follows the far west branch of Rodgers Creek to the lower end of Chairlift Road.
We have hiked various combinations of these trails, using the #254 British Properties bus or the #256 Whitby Estates community bus to get to the start of hikes and ended our hikes at a bus stop to get home or back to our cars. You can mix or match these trails in a number of different ways but I have written three separate blogs to describe possible combinations.
For Brewis Trail, we took the #254 British Properties bus to Cresswell and Eyremount, walked to Millstream Trail, hiked to Lawson Creek, went down Brewis Trail and added a route below the Upper Levels to take us to Park Royal.
For Forks and McDonald Trails, we took the #256 bus to its terminus on Chippendale, went up McDonald Trail to Millstream, along Millstream to the Lookout and down the Forks Trail to the top of 21st. We then added a route to take us to Ambleside.
For Marr and Hat Inn Trails, we took the #256 bus to Shadbolt Lane (opposite Binning Lane) and went up Marr Creek Trail to the Lookout. We walked the parkway west to reach the top of Hat Inn Trail, went down to Chairlift Road and added a route to take us to Dundarave.
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