Old Baldy

Old Baldy in Chilliwack is one of those hikes that sounds “low effort, high reward” on paper, but right now it’s more of a grind than a gem. The stats are no joke: about 16.1 km out-and-back, around 1050 m of gain, topping out near 1693 m and taking most people around six and a half hours. When conditions line up, you can get big views toward Vancouver Island and Garibaldi, which is why this trail keeps tempting people back.

The route itself starts steep for the first stretch, then settles into a long wander in the trees with occasional viewpoints breaking up the forest. A lot of the hike is enclosed and can feel repetitive, so the payoff is really those open sections near Old Baldy where the valley and distant peaks open up. On a clear day with low haze, the visibility is surprisingly wide for a Chilliwack-area summit and you really feel how high you’ve climbed.

Current reports for Old Baldy are mixed at best: the trail is severely overgrown in sections and can be hard to follow, with mosquitoes swarming in the brush once things warm up. The access is its own challenge; the forest service road has washouts, can be icy in shoulder seasons, and you now often have to park about 4 km before the old AllTrails pin, turning this into roughly a 16 km push anyway. A high-clearance vehicle, solid navigation, bug spray, and a willingness to deal with brush are essential, and if you’re looking for a clean, well-defined difficult hike around Chilliwack, there are easier wins than Old Baldy until maintenance catches up.