On a fall day, we drove up to Roche Lake, then we hiked a 12.25 km loop route through the Roche Lake Provincial Park backcountry area. We started at the junction of the Roche Lake Road and the Black Lake Road. We hiked along a rough double track to the shores of Black Lake, one of the picturesque and mostly-unspoiled lakes of the park. From the end of Black Lake, we continued east, passing under the transmission lines and around Bog Lake. There are several side tracks to ignore, but we knew the way and continued on, heading south past an old cabin to a backcountry campsite on the shores of Ernest Lake. This is the most scenic lake of all the lakes in the area. We had lunch at the lake, then backtracked to a hard-to-spot junction which goes around the marsh area. The loop route goes through an old track in the quiet forest, with a side trip down to the western corner of Ernest Lake.
Our hike continued west passing near John Frank Lake, then under the transmission lines again and back on an established, but rough, road to Roche Lake. We passed the campsite and arrived at our vehicles, all in taking over 3.75 hours.
This hike is a favorite that we have done a number of times. We have also explored other routes in the Roche backcountry to Frisken Lake, Bulman Lake, John Frank Lake, and some smaller lakes, also paddling a few of them.
Anyone wanting to hike this area will need some navigation skills, and a good mapping app would be useful.
Some of the photos taken while hiking this route are included in a slideshow. Click on any image to see the album and any image for a caption.