At the start of May, I drove south to Merritt, then down Highway 5A Princeton for 9km to the Lundbom Lake Road.    This gravel road goes through grassland hills to Rec Sites on Marquart Lake and Lundbom Lake.   We  can park near the lake and pick from a number of double tracks and single track trails through the Lundbom Commonage Area.    A number of mountain bike trails usually start off the double tracks, including the one I hiked on this day.    I hiked northwest toward Hamilton Lake, then up a steep double track to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain.

The top is accessed by a short scramble up a series of ledges.    From the top we can look down to the Nicola Valley and Merritt, or across the grasslands hills.    In the distance, Stoyama Mountain (I have been to the top of this remote mountain) was still covered in snow.

On the way back, I looped out onto the Wounded Knee Trail, then chose a series of game/cattle trails through gullies over to the Cocobonk Trail, then down to the double track back to the start, a 4 hour hike.  Every year I hike the area and I take a different route each time.    The best time to hike the Lundbom Grasslands is in the spring, but it would also be a good fall route.

Some photos taken during the hike are shared here as a Google Photos album (link – with captions):

I will be back to hike this area again for some years to come…