Mount Fleet

June 28, 2021

1462m

Kamloops, BC

Mt. Fleet locates immediately to the north of Paul Lake not far from Kamloops. Logging roads goes very high up on its northern flanks and from the end of the road there are mountain biking trails that extend to and beyond the summit to a mediocre viewpoint south of the summit on a bluff. This was the 4th peak bagged in my solo Kamloops trip and turned out to be a boring one. I rushed for it to catch the sunset but it turned out that the views weren’t open enough.

After driving down from Mt. Lolo I immediately turned south down a rougher spur road that ascended the north slopes of Mt. Fleet. The navigation was purely done on Gaia map. The roads were considerably narrower and rougher than on Mt. Lolo but imposed no problem to my Tacoma. I aimed for the highest possible driveable spot and the last kilometer or two was decently bushy for the truck.

Mt. Fleet drive and hike. GPX DL

For some reasons I missed the trail that’s labelled on my Gaia map but I was still on a biking trail. After a while I realized this trip was going towards a wrong direction so I impatiently decided to bail and started to bushwhack. The bushwhack was pretty terrible for a while over pick-up sticks but at this point I was determined. After about 15 minutes of bullshit I made to the broad and forested NE Ridge and suddenly joined a trail that’s also not shown on my map. I was sure that this trail originated from the one that I started from. I followed this trip upward and joined the proper trail a while later and then the next thing I had made to the summit, with absolutely no view whatsoever. I did manage to capture a couple sunset photos but those were rather soso. I continued past the summit and dashed down to that viewpoint but I was very disappointed to see very limited views. Nonetheless, this was better than the true summit.

My truck parked at the highest driveable spot on Mt. Fleet
After a while of bushwhacking I finally found this biking trail
The smoky sunset on the way up towards Mt. Fleet
Me on the true summit of Mt. Fleet
Paul Lake with Rockface Mtn. behind it to the right
Rockface Mtn. and Mt. Harper dominates the southern skyline
Me on the southern viewpoint taking in the dusk scenery

About 10 minutes later I decided to rush back to beat head-lamp time. On the descent I paid close attention to the trails and had no problem following that proper branch back to the truck. I still had to carefully drive down those narrow roads. I eventually got back to my hotel in Kamloops at almost 11 pm and sleep camp easily with air conditioning.

Me playing on the mountain biking trails on the way back down.