Synopsis:A short hike up logging roads and skid trails to reach the canyon.
NOTE: The only reason anyone would do this hike is to access the ice climbing area in the Cedared Creek canyon. You'll be doing it in winter, but since someone has usually gone up on a snowmachine, it is hikable. Bring snowshoes or skis just in case.
Access: From the lights in Golden, drive 59.5 km south on Highway 95. There aren't a lot of distinguishing markers before you get to the trailhead, so watch carefully when you are getting close. The highway takes a right hand bend, and just at the start of the bend there is a gated road on the left (east) side of the highway. You want to park by the gate.
The road with the gate is 4.5 km north of the hamlet of Spillimacheen. If you make a left curve and find some very large fields, you've gone one curve too far.
In the last few years, the entrance by the gate has been ploughed, so you can park off the highway. Park off the road and in such a way that others can park here, too.
Trailhead: Walk around the gate.
Trail: Follow the road as it climbs up, bends to the left, and passes under the power line. At about 500 metres, there is a clearing on the right. If you are on foot or snowshoes, go to the back right corner of the clearing, where you will find a skid trail that climbs the hill. It rejoins the road higher up the hill. If you miss the turnoff at that clearing (or if you are on skis), just stay on the road, curve left, and take the right fork when the road splits at 1.2 km. Keep straight for 800 metres until the road curves left up the hill.
At 2 km, when the logging road curves to the left, there is an old, flat, skid trail that heads off to the right. It is open at the beginning but pretty soon you will enter some small trees, and follow a trail that threads between the cutbank on the left and a steep drop off into forest on the right. You will reach the canyon, and the ice climbing area, in about 300 metres.
The last 300 metres could present an avalanche danger in high snow years. The canyon, of course, is a terrain trap.
There are a couple of spots where people camp. On that note, I wouldn't recommend drinking the water in the creek. In summer, there is evidence of toilet paper all over the place.
Unless there has been a recent huge snowfall, the trail is easy to follow because it is well trampled into the snow.
The trail is on crown land that is part of a woodlot. You are not trespassing, although there could be active logging from time to time.
Cautions: