Coquitlam Crunch Trail — Attraction in Coquitlam

A very nice easy/moderate hike and walk that is located in Coquitlam in the Heart of the Tri Cities area.

There is plenty of parking located in a couple areas. You can park either at the very beginning just off of Runnel Dr. Either at the parking lot located right at the Eagle Ridge Playing Fields, or across the street on Runnel where the Tim Hortons is. A second parking lot that is located where the Lacross Box is off of Lansdowne Dr. I do believe there is approximately 60 parking spots. When School is in session the parking lot can be busy dropping kids off in the morning, and around 2:30 in the afternoon can be busy for 30-60 minutes as the parking lot is in the middle between the Elementary school and Middle School.

You can either just do the stairs section East side of the Stairs is for going up. And the West side stairs are for going down.

You can do the entire Coquitlam Crunch from either Runnel Dr. Parking area or from the Lacross Box parking lot off of Lansdowne Dr. From the Runnel parking lot the entire trip is close to Four Miles round trip up and back. I'm in fairly good shape ( 55 ) and I can do the entire thing in approximately 40-43 minutes. And that's with a 5min break break at the very top.

On the way up there's lots of signs with information on them about the Wildlife and so on. I won't post those pictures as that would defeat the purpose lol. The trail consists of gravel and wooden stairs and some paved sections.

There are two locations for washrooms 🚻 that are located at the beginning where the Eagle Ridge Playing Fields are. And the second washrooms 🚻 are located about halfway up to where the Church is.

Keep and eye open for lots of wildlife Birds 🐦 Deer 🦌 Yogi Bear 🐻 Foxes 🦊 Owls 🦉Coyotes and Raccoons 🦝

There's also a dog 🐕 park just past the halfway point.

I do this quite often as I live close by and also grew up in Port Moody ( Coranation Park area ). So I've been doing this WAAAAAY before the Crunch ever existed. As kids we use to use the entire area as short cuts to get to and from places and to each other's Houses growing up.

So enjoy the Crunch and enjoy the views and scenery and the...

You CAN do this!

Just get out here and try it, take your time don’t worry about anything else. Take breaks as you need them. If you are going from a sedentary life style this will for sure be a huge shock to the body. Don’t let that get you down!!! Set a goal for your next attempt. For me a sweat and a chance to catch a tan is a win win. I do the CC in mid spring as a wake up call for how in shape I actually am. I try to set a goal after that of making it out at least once a week if not more. There are people of all shapes, sizes and abilities trekking up, it’s not intimidating in that respect.

You can start at the very bottom which is Runnel Dr or at the bottom of the stairs which is Guildford Way. Both have a parking lot and street parking.

Starting on Guildford which I normally do you will climb just over 450 steps at this point you can choose to either keep going on a lighter trail no stairs just steady incline that passes a Church, dog park, basketball , hockey and tennis courts, a school, track, baseball diamond, soccer field and nice grassy areas with wildflowers along the way. Or you can go down the stairs on the opposite side and do a couple rounds of stairs. Pre covid you could go up and down both sides. Currently to maintain social distancing it is a one way trail up the 450 steps and then down which is great. Some people bring their dogs and for the most part clean up after them. Decent views all around and sometimes a bear or two.

It does run under power lines and above a pipeline. The city is making the best use out of land that would otherwise be useless. Recently some improvements by the city have been made and include bathrooms right before the big stairway with WC accessibility which is great. Garbage cans that are bear proof and hands free just use your foot plus a basket on the side of cans to put your empty bottles so the don’t end up in the landfill. I am pretty sure more improvements...

It's a staple of the tricities and a pretty good spot to get a quick bout of exercise. It's split into 4 sections. The first is the stairs portion which consists of around 440 stairs (give or take a few). There's actually two sets of stairs (one recently completed) due to it being the most popular section with many people just going up and down repeatedly. The remaining 3 sections are gentle sloping walks up hill until you get a pretty nice view of Coquitlam all the way out to Mount Baker on a good day.

Many people complain it's too easy or too hard but it's really just a function of what you put into it. Some people run the whole thing 3 or 4 times in a single session. Some hike it slowly expecting Grouse Grind levels of exertion that never come. Regardless, it's a great spot to see a lot of people happily getting some exercise in and usually...