Chatterbox Falls Trapper's Cabin Hike

Today we spent the morning hiking up to the trapper’s cabin. I think we left the boats around 7:30am. This trail was probably the most strenuous hike I’ve ever taken. My tracker showed I hiked a distance of 7.44 miles, and a time of 6 hours and 22 minutes. I say I, as some of this hike Bill, Mike and I were not together. I was a little slower than Mike and Bill, and managed to start off going the wrong way. (The trail is not marked until just beyond the outhouses, and the sign for the outhouses doesn’t mention the trail!) I forgot that the trail started at the outhouses, and started on the path to the lower viewpoint of Chatterbox Falls. The trail is not very well marked and not maintained. I’m sure there were a couple times I ended up off the trail bushwacking. I did catch up with Bill and Mike twice, but then they hiked a little faster, so I would lose them again. I finally made it to the Trapper’s cabin, where Mike and Bill said they had been for 20 minutes or so. The cabin no longer stands, but a few of the logs are still there, and a couple of bed springs. Would be interesting to know how the heck the trapper got those springs up there! There is also a beautiful water fall next to the cabin. After taking some photos, we started back down the trail. Bill left Mike and I in the dust. And Mike and I managed to lose the trail a few times. The last time of losing it, I was sitting on a tree log resting while Mike was looking around to see if he could spot the trail again. I should mention, someone in the past marked the trail with red marking tape every so often, but I wonder how many red ribbons we saw were misplaced by water flowing down the mountain in rain or melt… While sitting there, a nice young Canadian gal happened by. I asked her if she was going up or down, and she replied down. So I asked if we could follow her as she seemed to know where the trail was. While hiking , she said she already had to do some bushwacking also! And the three of us managed to lose the trail several more times, bushwacking each time to try to get back on the trail. I’m sure Mike and I were holding her up, being the old men we were. Lol. So once we were on a solid part of the trail again, we bid our goodbyes and she hustled on her way. (Her husband was on a crew working on a dock and some mooring buoys here in Princess Louisa Inlet, so she probably had a meeting time to get back to their boat.) But it was very nice of her to stay with us for a bit. She also had a Garmin Inreach and app that had her track, and I had my tracking phone app, so we kind of knew where we had to go, but since we had both done some bushwacking going up, there was no guarantee that the track shown was always on the trail. Mike and Bill had earlier left their jackets at one of their rest stops, and Bill then left his sweatshirt a little farther up from that. We came across Bill’s sweatshirt, then I started wondering if he was ok. We figured as many times as we got off the trail, he probably did to. Then we came up to their jackets, and I really wondered how Bill was doing. He normally has his Inreach with him, and I thought maybe I’d try texting that. However, Mike informed me Bill did not bring it on the hike this time, as the battery was dead. Mike and I sat at the spot where the jackets were for a bit catching our breath, and after a while, Bill showed up. He had actually been all the way back to the boat dock, and was wondering about us. And he had lost the trail also, but just kept going down. I think he got back to the dock initially around 11:40. I ate my sandwich at 12:15 at the jacket rest stop, which was still some distance from the dock! The Canadian gal saw him and asked if he was looking for Colby and Mike….and told him we were back on the trail probably where the jackets were. So Bill came back up to get us. Mike offered to hike back up to Bill’s sweatshirt and retrieve it. After sitting a while, before Mike got back, I headed back down the trail. Mike and Bill came down a little bit after I got back. They are now out on their Kaboats. I’m too tired and stiff to pedal my kayak around, so enjoying the surrounding scenery at the boat. Sorry about the long read, but thought you’d all enjoy the tail of our hike today. You will probably like the photos also.Read more