Blue Mountain - Birch Cove Lakes Wilderness Area — Attraction in Timberlea

Beautiful area with many trails and lakes. Plenty of opportunities for hiking, birdwatching, trail running, swimming, skating etc.) I have been a few times and find there are many social trails that people have created. This makes sticking to the trail difficult. I also havent found much signage on trail. I recommend having a phone or GPS as it can be easy to get turned around. Each time I've been there I've looked at the trail head map prior to starting but needed extra time or my phone to orientate myself. Photo below shows there are two 13's on the map. Process of elimination should help you figure that your starting at the one near the parking but I know I made the mistake so others must have too. Also if you are mistaken about the actual location of your starting point, it makes it real easy to get lost!! Terrain can be steep, rooty & rocky and icey in the winter. Be sure to bring...

Beautiful area and trails, hard to believe it's just outside the city. We started with a planned trip around Charlie's lake loop, meeting another hiker he told us the rest of the loop was completely ice and we should probably go a different way. So we took Mike's trail. The trails are barely marked so 100% you need a GPS. We got lost and then found a unknown trail that wasn't on the GPS that was marked with ribbon. Followed it and found Fox lake loop. And made our way back with the GPS. Key points. All the trails were very icy this time of year, use a GPS, go early in the day incase you get lost. The trails involved lots of obstacles to get over, as well as climbing sometimes. Usually just jumping over rocks and tree branches. Really...

The hiking area is great considering how close to the city it is. After completing the Ash Lake loop and adventuring in the other areas, we saw a mix of well maintained trails and other spots with no signage and overgrown brush. There is a map of the park at each intersection to ensure you go the right way, but some signs are a faded. The stops along the lakes boast fantastic views and the terrain isn’t very difficult. I’d like to see proper parking in the north west corner of the map, we stopped in a cul-de-sac on Collins Rd. I’m really happy we found this spot close to the city for a half-day hike, despite the lack of trail blazes...