SCT Day 6: Tin Hat Mountain to Elk Lake Hut

Hiked September 2, 2025

Quick Overview

We had planned to get up early to watch the sunrise from Tin Hat Mountain.... And then totally forgot to set an alarm!  Guess we'll have to come back someday.

We woke naturally just after the sun had come up, confused as to why it seemed so light out, and quickly scrambled out of bed hoping we hadn't missed the colours. While we can't know what we missed earlier, we had an incredible sight: the low sun illuminated the layer of clouds a hundred meters below us, which blanketed everything around us except a few far-off peaks scraping into the colourful sky.

We ate breakfast – trying a store-bought dish for the first time, AlpineAire's Vaquero Egg Scramble (delicious!) – and took in the views with the other hikers who'd spent the night. As tempting as it was to continue watching the sun, we had to continue on for a roughly 22km day, so we prepped our gear and hit the trail just before 9AM.

The trail down from Tin Hat to Lewis Lake was steep and pretty treacherous at times. The trail descended hard, working its way above cut blocks as we sunk down through the cloud layers. At one point we lost the trail for maybe 20m and continued down when we should have gone left; a quick (but annoying and steep) backtrack later, we got ourselves back on the marked route. We amused ourselves by continuing to forage the bushes of blueberries and huckleberries growing alongside the trail as we inched our way off the mountain.

A long climb made for a long descent from Tin Hat Mountain.  We switchbacked down the mountain, dodging cutblocks as we worked our way towards Lewis Lake below. An interesting section was working our way down a gorge that had been greatly affected by older windfall, where we hiked around and under some massive trunks slowly aging along the trail.

Lewis Lake Campground

Multiple tent pads; bear cache; composting outhouse; great lake access.
Water source: yes - lake.

Once we reached the shores of Lewis Lake, the trail became flat and cruisey. We picked up speed, passing the  campground quickly and then clearing the lake itself. The outflow from Lewis Lake at KM95 makes a great place to draw water in drier seasons; it was flowing strongly when we passed in early September, so we were happy to cross a great bridge built by the "B.O.M.B. squad".

After crossing Lewis Creek the trail began following an abandoned road, which made for really fast travel. It was straight and totally cleared, with a lovely gentle incline. We traveled for about 6km on old roads, passing Spirit Lake, new and old logging areas, and tons of ancient logging equipment abandoned to the forest. There must be kilometers of old heavy cable half-buried alongside the roads!

The roads finally ended at a small creek where we ate lunch and refilled our water, at about KM101.5. From this point, the trail twisted and turned through the forest, snaking around cut blocks until we reached the SCT reroute around March Lake.

Active logging (and some blasting) closed a section of the SCT that looked like it followed logging roads for the most part. The detour adds about 2km to the total distance of the trail, but makes for a really nice walk through the slightly boggy areas northwest of March Lake.

We rejoined the main trail at a junction with a logging road and started the final slog up the hill to Elk Lake. The trail climbed steeply through wide open forests, criscrossing with motorbike tracks as it went. We were thankful not to be carrying a load of water up the hill! Soon we we started to hear Elk Creek, and shortly after that, the ground began to level and terrain got brushier as we neared the lake.

Finally we saw the hut and lake! It was a pretty awesome area with a dock reaching out into the deeper parts for easy swimming and to better draw clean water.

Elk Lake Hut

Semi-enclosed hut with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the lake. Sleeping loft has wooden window shutters with open window frames (no glass or screens) and open rafters. Lots of evidence of mice!
4 cleared spaces for tents; picnic table; bench and fire pit by the water; dock. Bear cache; composting outhouse.

We spent the afternoon swimming and rinsing off some of our sweaty clothes. We found lots of mouse poop in the hut, so Katie had the idea to set up our tent (sans fly) in the sleeping loft to keep any unwanted bedmates away.

After dinner we were reading the hut logbook and found a wonderful surprise: the previous night's occupants had left the remainder of their wine bag! Sure enough, it was safely waiting for us in the bear cache.

We shared the wine with a group of Americans that had been a half-day ahead of us before now, and watched the sun go down together from the dock. They shared their honey whiskey, and we explained the story behind Tim Hortons. It was a quiet, calm night on the lake and we enjoyed the company. We were happy to stay up a little later than normal since we'd have a short day tomorrow. We eventually went to bed as the stars began to peek out.

So happy that we set the tent in the loft – there was lots of scurrying in the night!