The Howe Sound Crest Trail is a 29 km route that starts at Cypress Mountain, passing through the Lions and over multiple summits, before ending at Porteau Cove. It offers spectacular views of Howe Sound, the surrounding mountains, and beautiful turquoise lakes, while covering a variety of terrain.

The route would normally be tackled as an overnight trip, but it can be comfortably run in about 8-9 hours by a reasonably fit trail runner (including lots of stops for photos). Starting at Cypress makes it a net downhill that still offers almost 2,000 metres of elevation gain, but running it North to South from Porteau Cove is definitely an option for an added challenge. In either case, running it as a point-to-point with a car drop makes the most sense. Another option is to simply do the route as an out-and-back from Cypress to the Lions, arguably the nicest part of the trail, making it a much easier ‘half-day’ run.