This is a nice 14 km hike that begins at the Future Inn or Starbucks on Lacewood Drive and enters the birchcove wilderness area opposite Costco on Lacewood drive at the corner of the 102 highway and Lacewood Drive.
The trail is not visible from the road but once you climb up the rock pile at the corner of the 102 and Lacewood you will quickly see the trail that leads down to Suzie lake and Quarry Lake.
The trail first heads toward the end of Suzie lake and follows the shoreline to an old access road back to the rock quarry and then along another old road to the beginning of Quarry Lake. Once you arrive at Quarry Lake there is another trail that follows the shoreline and continues along quarry lake to eventually end up at the Dam at the end of Quarry Lake ( an interesting area with a stand of pine trees and a nice view of the Dam).
If you follow the road back from the dam and take a left as you arrive at the rock quarry again you can access another trail that crosses the stream beneath the Dam.
This trail, “Evil Birch” trail is used by more by MTB bikers than hikers. It is a lesser know trail but is well cleared and easy to follow and quite scenic. The trail crosses a stream running out of Quarry Lake into Washmill lake. Once you have crossed the stream the path then continues toward Fox Lake where it wanders around the granite plateau between the 2 lakes and loops back to return on the same path you came in on.
The terrain is varied from several pine stands in the area around the stream at the beginning of the trail to an extensive birch and oak populated area that often rises into the granite plateaus that surround the area.
There are also several other side trails that follow different paths around the lake and down to Washmill Lake.
