The Prince & Jarvis trail is a 17 km loop that follows paths that used to be old logging roads and ski trails.
Round-trip: 17 km
Difficulty: Difficult
Location: Thunder Bay, ON
This was a mining area in 1846, that was then logged before being purchased by the Ministry of Natural Resources in 1968. Several cross country ski trails were developed here over twenty years ago but they are no longer maintained and are becoming overgrown.
The hike starts at an old ski area parking lot and leads to a lookout over Lake Superior. The trail then follows a ridge to a second viewpoint where it descends the cliffs and travels through an ancient raised beach.
Drive South on Highway 61 and turn left onto Sturgeon Bay Road. Turn right onto Walker Road South and drive for about 5km and park before the washed-out bridge. Continue down the road on foot. The trail begins just past the creek crossing.
In the winter you can take an alternate route to the lookout by hiking down to Jarvis Bay Beach from Jarvis Bay Road, then crossing the frozen Jarvis River, and then hiking up the old logging road up to the lookout. The alternate route is shown on the map.
Thanks Janet Verge. How was the trail? Would it be easy to navigate through? Im hoping people have snow shoed and i can just follow the trail that way. ?
Tanya – I was there Dec 11. River wasn’t frozen – open water yet. Need winter tires for the final hill to the alternate parking area, otherwise the road was good.
Has anyone done this recently? Can a small suv make it down to the alternate route parking and is the river frozen? What is the current condition of the trail? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thx
Christine
– we went yesterday with car – Walker road was fine but we weren’t able to get to the parking area mentioned (as couldn’t pass a rocky creek bed).
– we walked 3.4 km to get to intersection where the loop starts – was 24.75 km of total hiking from where we parked. Took us just over 10 hours including breaks and stopping for lots of pictures
– hike was worth it though! The beaver dam, the views, the flowers, the beach, etc.
What kind of condition is Walker Road in during the summer? Is 4×4 needed/recommended or are cars ok? Thanks.
I appreciate this update Fred!
Trails have since been opened and cleared this year by a number of us who ATV in the area. We opened up the far lookout trail as well and with this year being dry conditions for hiking are great. The beaver dam has to be about 6′ high at the one access point but is passable.
Incredible winter hike but I think mileage will vary based on weather and snow base – crossing the river is recommended since this is a long hike with a gradual upward grade.
Keep to the right on any forks, and as you reach the final branch of the trail, when I made it here the snowmobile tracks seem to end and loop back, I think the connect was a bit overgrown but if you hang a right right before this dead end it’s only about 30 meters before you come back into a obvious cleared trail that continues to the top of the lookout.
Well worth it but a pretty intense hike even with the snow firmly packed by snowmobiles. The last leg up the hill was untouched when we went so that’s a bit rougher as you’re wading in up to 3 foot snow at times.
Here’s a couple shots from the hike, cheers!
https://flic.kr/s/aHskvK4yKu
Hi Rob, I am sorry you had trouble finding the trail. Since I haven’t been in the Thunder Bay area for a few years now I have to rely on the hiking community to help me stay up to date there. That said this is a great hike and a great resource for more information on it is the Thunder Bay Hiking Association http://www.tbha.ca/ as they were the ones who introduced me to this trail. I hope you will contact them for more info about this trail and maybe and join them on a hike or two 🙂
somebody should update this website about this so called hiking trail. I tried to find it. We followed the directions and got to the clearing just passed the creek and there was no trailhead. Everything is so grown over there was no chance of finding any kind of trail. Kind of disappointing 🙁
Was there in July 2011. I biked part of Walker Rd. to get to the Atv trails. The whole loop is a big figure-eight. (2 loops).The middle trail is a few kms down Walker Rd. past the creek crossing but has a lot of blowdown and a beaver swamp. Once you pass these there is actually access to Lake Superior. The lookouts are amazing.
We tried to get out there,but sadly there were big trees downed across the road and we had no chain saw to clear