It was the eternal struggle what to do on May long weekend, I live in the Cloverdale area and I have get out of town because of the havoc the rodeo brings every year. So with the idea of heading up the Coquihalla for a three day trip earlier in the week the Marble range was mentioned as a back up trip and I just agreed because I didn't think it would be an issue. Well upon researching the backup plan I realized it should be our main goal as the area is nothing but stunning.
The only issue is water can be a problem as it is all open ridge with nowhere for the snow to linger but we came on the perfect weekend as the snow was still there for a water source but was shrinking fast! As I write this report a week later I would not doubt people will have issues finding water or snow to melt for water so be warned!
We parked at the Circle H Ranch where we were met by the owners son's who where extremely pleasant and allowed us the park on the back of their ranch for a little added protection. We started the hike a little off track as I walked down to the creek to check it out to find some old flagging and what I thought was a trail but was just a game trail but with 15-20 minutes wasted of wacking through the bush we were back on the real trail which is very well defined and no one should really have a problem finding. The first 4.5km went by so smooth that we decided to drop our packs and give Bowman a shot as our real objective was camping on Wild horse ridge.
We found the for in the trail pretty easily and we were off. I was thinking we may have been on the wrong trail for a little while as the trail tends away from Bowman for the first 1/3 or so before sweeping back on to a small ridge on the East side of Bowman mountain and that's where the elevation begins. The trail was pretty simple and all difficulties on the ridge up were avoidable with good route finding. Once on the summit we had a few pictures and we were off as the sun hid behind the clouds and the wind picked up a bit, but the wind was appreciated as the mozzies lower down were real go getters and would do almost anything for a meal. Once back to our bags we untied them from the tree's with our half assed attempt to keep bears and other little critters out of our food and with our overnight bags on again we started towards Wild horse ridge.
The first picture is from the summit and the second is from Wild Horse Ridge showing almost the entire trail all the way from the power line clear cut in the lower left valley that leads out of frame then after the junction you follow the valley on the South East side of Bowman to the East ridge visible with the meadows and trail below the summit.