Elevation Gain: 893m
Distance: 8.98km
Total Time: 2 hours 19 minutes
Date: June 9th, 2026
Just East of Smithers in the Babine range sits an old mine site and popular hike up Astlais Mountain. It forms part of the front country of the Babine range and offers vantages deeper to the East. The big plus to this peak is that it’s easy access and short outing. That’s exactly what I was looking for with an after work outing and while the weather was hit or miss it’s short enough not to matter.
Access starts off of the old Babine Lake road and I drove there in short time from my bread and breakfast in Telkwa. The trail then follows an old mining road and I just stuck to the least overgrown looking option each time. I gained about 500m before reaching treeline and took the last remnants of road right up to the ridge line.
From the ridge it was a short walk up the grassy slopes to the summit where I had open terrain all around. Cronin and Hyland to the north looked quite interesting and the true summit of Hudson Bay Mountain certainly caught my eye as well.
The rain was coming in short squalls and the wind was biting so I left after grabbing a few photos and meandered back to the car in good time. While this was a short outing, it was definitely worthwhile as an after work activity. Perhaps an analogous hike to the grouse grind if you put some effort into climbing fast.