Kennedy Falls and Big Cedar Trail - WINTER

Location: Lynn Valley, North Vancouver, BC, Canada 
Distance: 10 km (round trip) 
Time: 4 - 4.5 hours 
Elevation: 150 m 




February 17 2018, 

There are two ways to access the trail leading to the falls so we picked the easier of the two, the one starting at the top of Mountain Highway.

It's easy to access by bus. If you decide to drive, there is a sign that will not allow you to park any further up the hill at a certain location because of how busy it has gotten in the past for local residences. Fromme is known to be one of the best places to mountain bike in North Vancouver.

Keep walking up Mountain Highway until you reach a yellow gate at the top. Past this is old Mountain Highway which you continue along. You will see paths coming in from your left. Those are the ends of mountain bike runs. If you keep going you will pass a big parking lot for mountain bikers. You have to continue up the main path for a little bit further. About 500 meters up the path there is a turnoff to the right called Big Cedar Trail. There is a section junction later, Kickford trail junction, where you have to stick to the right to remain on Big Cedar Trail. If you're on the right path, you should eventually cross a wooden bridge.

There isn't a lot of elevation gain. For the most part it rolls up and down, crossing small streams and dense foliage. It's really the terrain that makes this trail challenging. It has been getting more popular in recent years so we didn't bother bringing snowshoes, assuming correctly that the trail would be pretty packed down.

Lesson #1: Wear gaiters. There are some deeper sections depending on how open the canopy is so how much snow got through. I didn't wear any and after a while of digging the snow from inside my boots, I decided to just deal with wet socks. They were merino wool so they stayed pretty warm even though they were soaked through by the end of it.

View from Big Cedar Trail across Lynn Creek

A few spots from the trail give you some quick peeks across Lynn Creek. The day we went was slightly foggy but we could still see the outlines of trees on the other side.

Lesson #2: When researching this hike, it was mentioned that the trail might be hard to follow because of the markers. While it is clearly marked with small orange circles either nailed into the tree, or bright coloured ribbons attached to branches, sometimes the snow can cover them up so if you are the first one out like we were, take your time in finding the next marker so you don't get too far off trail.

More than halfway through the hike you will come across the biggest cedar you have ever seen. It is four metres in diameter. It is one of the last trees from the old growth forest from before the clear cutting.

Fun Fact: It is hypothesized that Lynn Valley could have housed the tallest tree in the world, a Douglas Fir that stood at 125 m. But it was logged as the town started developing. There are even stories of hikers who have gone astray and return with stories of having seen 5 meter wide trees deep in Lynn Valley's forest. However, there have been no documented trees in Vancouver over 4 m.

Big Cedar - one of the last old growth trees in Lynn Valley

There are two trails on the other side, one heads to the right and veers sharply downward to the creek where it will meet up with Lynn Headwaters but it's the left one you want to take to get you to the falls.

You should hear the sound of the falls soon after but be careful as there were a few slippery sections for us close to the end. It gets quite cold down by the cascading water so be sure to throw on a warm coat before eating your snacks and taking awesome photos. 

Kennedy Falls

We left at 9:15 a from the top of Mountain Highway and there weren't a lot of hikers on the trail. The only ones we saw were on the way back. It could be that it was unpopular that day and most of the snow was starting to turn to slush. A few times when your feet sank too far down, we ended up also sinking through a few inches of mud as well.

Injury count: 
- while going under a snow laden branch, I hit my forehead against a log jutting out of the snow