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Meziadin Lake Campground - Trip Tic
Destination: Meziadin Lake Campground

Route Notes

  • This Scenery is for "Return to Misty Moorings" only.
  • Minimum Altitude: 1800 Feet
  • Landing zone is: Water, Frozen in Winter
  • Note: Water is frozen in winter
  • GPS for destination: - N55 05.20 W129 18.46 Alt 816
  • Print-Able copy HERE
  • Flight-Seeing Flight Plan HERE

Meziadin Lake Campground

Part of the Meziadin Lake Provincial Park, this campground is a favorite for those on the road who are looking for some of British Columbia's beauty. It's just a short flight from Stewart and is in a beautiful location. Meziadin Lake Campground is an excellent location for canoeing or kayaking and offers beautiful views of the surrounding landscape. Meziadin Junction is an important location on The Stewart-Cassiar Highway. The SCH is officially called Highway 37 and is the longest and most remote drive running nearly 500 kilometers (300 miles) through the vast wilderness of northwestern BC on its way to the Yukon. A more challenging drive than the famous Alaska Highway to the east, the Stewart-Cassiar is every bit as beautiful as it threads its way through endless forests, alongside wild rivers, and beneath the colorful Skeena and Cassiar Mountains. Long stretches of gravel and the lack of services along the way make for an adventurous drive.

A floatplane and boat dock greet arrivals here. The small island just offshore is a favorite location to spend some time alone in the vast beauty of this area. Also there are cabin's nestled into the surrounding woods on both ends of the campground. Look for the telltale wisp's of smoke from the chimney's and fires the campers have going.

TreeTop VFR Plan

FROM: Stewart Airport (CZST)
TO: Meziadin Lake Campground

Background: Your flight begins in Stewart, BC. Stewart's setting can only be described in superlatives, combining an oceanfront location with alpine scenery, glaciers, ice fields, and spectacular waterfalls. This setting and the outdoor recreation opportunities it offers, contribute in an important way to the communities lifestyles. The area offers, fresh and saltwater fishing, boating, hiking, cross country skiing, snowmobiling, and numerous other activities.

Stewart's colorful history has been dictated by the fortunes of the mining industry. The first exploration in the area took place in the late 1890's and the town site was named in 1905. An estimated 10,000 people resided in the area in the early 1900's, attracted by the prospects of gold; yet during World War I the population was reduced to less than twenty. Stewart was founded by two Scottish brothers, John and Robert Stewart.

Major mines such as Premier Gold, Big Missouri and Granduc Copper have been established in the Stewart area. These projects created the impetus for population increases and attracted a skilled work force to the community. Mining is also primarily responsible for the development of support services such as heavy duty mechanics, welding shops, and transportation-related businesses, which provide service to all the basic resource industries. Today employment in the community is much more broadly-based and includes opportunities in transportation, mining, logging, retail and hospitality sector, and public administration.

As a contact zone between the Coast Range Batholith and sedimentary formations to the east, the Stewart area is highly mineralized and contains proven reserves of a wide range of precious and base metals including gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc.

COURSE: From Stewart, CZST - To intercept the flight plan, if you are taking of from 18 (south), you will have to fly out over the channel ahead of you and make a "U" turn back to the north. If you are taking off from 36, fly straight ahead. Heading north from Stewart, you will see a valley with mountains on both sides, fly up the center of that valley. You will be flying up the Bear River Basin.

  • Over the mountains to port are the major glaciers in the area, Chicamin, Boundary, Greenpoint ... They are all there starting about 5 miles to the west of your position. To starboard you would find the Bear Glacier about 5 miles away.
  • NOTAM: You will see a highway below you. You can actually follow this highway all the way to Meziadin Lake. This is "Glacier Highway."
  • You are flying the Bear River Basin. The Bear River Glacier is 5 miles to starboard.

COURSE: Ahead of you is Mt Johnson. Just before Mt Johnson, there is a low peak at about 1500 feet, fly to the port side of it.

COURSE: You will soon come to a "fork" in the river, a tributary coming in from the right and left. You will want to turn to starboard and fly up the "starboard" fork again staying in the valley.

COURSE: Follow the river valley and you will arrive at Strohn Lake. Over this lake change course to a heading of about 250 degrees (a little to port).

  • History - Ice once filled all of Bear River Pass. In the 1940's, Bear Glacier began to retreat and Strohn Lake formed in the exposed basin. Acting as an ice dam, the glacier prevented the lake from draining down the Bear River Valley. If enough water collects behind an ice dam, a glacier may begin to float. Water flowing under the ice quickly creates a large tunnel. The lake empties, the ice dam resettles, and water again begins to collect until another flood is triggered. Five times between 1958 and 1962 Strohn Lake emptied underneath its ice dam in a catastrophic tumult of muddy water, rock and ice. This type of flood is known by the Icelandic term "jokulhlaup." In 1967, Bear Glacier melted away from the valley wall and Strohn Lake was no longer dammed. The threat of sudden destructive icy floods in the Bear River Valley disappeared with the glacier's retreat. Bear Glacier Park was designated as a Class A Provincial Park in 1998.

COURSE: When the valley comes to an end, as you break out into the open, you will see Meziadin Lake ahead a little to port toward the center of the near shore line ... a heading of about 60 degrees. (If you are following the road, discontinue this, it goes off to port, you will go straight ahead).

COURSE: As you cross the near shore line of Meziadin Lake, alter your heading to starboard to about 77 degrees. You will want to fly just off the point of land to starboard ... continue straight to the landing zone.

  • NOTAM: Begin lowering altitude to land on the far shore of the lake. 500 Feet is recommended over the lake. REMEMBER the lake is frozen in winter.

COURSE: As you approach the far shore, a cove with a small island will show up. Land to the port side of the island near the shore. The campground is on the shore.

Doug Linn
Charter Manager
Misty Moorings, Inc
contact@mistymoorings.com