The northern end of the Suncoaster Trail, a recreation site open twelve months a year, and a road that closes when the fire danger rises.
Where Klein Lake sits, and the other places we attend
around Egmont. Every name on the map is a link.
Two kilometres south of North Lake, on gravel
Klein Lake became an official BC geographical name on 3 May 1951, on map sheet 92G/12, centred at 49.72917 north and 123.96861 west. Klein Creek, which drains it, was adopted on 15 September 1972. The lake is about two kilometres south of North Lake. Access is by North Lake Road, taken from Egmont Road a short distance south of the Earls Cove ferry terminal, along what the regional district's evacuation plan calls "the narrow loose gravel North Lake Service Road".
Bylaw 708 lists Klein Lake among the plan area's more accessible lakes but sets no policy specific to it. There is no regional district water system, no hydrant and no sewer. Properties here take water from wells or from the lake and treat sewage on site, which the plan says "shall continue to be the preferred method of effluent disposal in the Plan area". The plan also records that detection of ground water arsenic is among the concerns driving the search for new water sources in this area, which is a reason to keep a well test current on a property nobody drinks from for months at a time.
A campground that never closes
Klein Lake Recreation Site sits on the lake and stays open year-round with a seasonal onsite caretaker. The evacuation plan counts "23 camping sites plus day-use picnic area". The provincial tourism listing describes 25 tenting sites plus smaller RV sites with no hookups, public toilets, a day-use picnic area, one wheelchair-accessible campsite and toilet, and first-come, first-served occupancy with no reservations.
The plan is direct about what that means when something goes wrong:
The cell phone coverage is poor or nonexistent. The camp site may require a personal visit in case of evacuation to notify the campers.
Sunshine Coast Regional District, evacuation route guide for Egmont and District, 12 April 2023
The site has also been shut outright when the fire danger climbed. Coast Reporter published the closure under the headline "Klein Lake closes temporarily as open burn ban, including campfires, goes into effect Thursday". So an owner on this road has campground traffic passing the driveway for most of the year, and none at all while the site is shut.
The Suncoaster Trail ends here
Klein Lake is the northern terminus of the Suncoaster Trail. The Klein Lake section runs nine kilometres over moderately steep terrain from the parking area on Egmont Road, around the lake, and out to Sakinaw Lake Road, with a surface that changes from natural ground to gravel to larger rock. It passes an unnamed lake, a homemade bench with a view of Ruby Lake, and the Iris Griffith centre. A separate walking route out of the campground is described by the evacuation plan as needing users to be physically able, and it comes out at Dan Bosch Park on Highway 101. Trail users park at the lake and walk in, so vehicles parked near a driveway here are not evidence of anything by themselves.
The clearcuts around this lake and North Lake hold the roughly 200 three-metre slash piles reported by CBC News in 2024, some of them along roadsides and near the campground.
A homicide on the forest service road
On 23 September 2023, Henry Doyle, 58, was killed on the Klein Lake Forest Service Road at Egmont. On 13 September 2024 the BC Prosecution Service approved one count of first-degree murder against his son, Jackson Doyle, 26. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team led the file for the year in between. Its spokesman, Cpl. Chase Smith, said "IHIT's investigative team has remained committed to this investigation over the past year."
Klein Lake is not one of the four communities printed on the regional district's fire page for the Egmont and District Volunteer Fire Department; that page names Egmont itself, Earls Cove, Ruby Lake and the north end of Sakinaw. The hall is at 5592 Egmont Road, out at the highway end of Egmont Road, and the drive in from there is the same gravel road everyone else uses.
What a check at Klein Lake covers
The gravel road in, its surface, ditches and windfall, with anything impassable reported before you drive up
Gate and driveway, and whether campground or trail traffic has been parking or turning on the lot
Doors, windows, shed and any equipment or fuel stored outside
Heating running at its set point, or the whole system drained and its valve shut
Well head, pump and pressure tank, or the lake intake and its screen, plus a note of when the water was last tested
Septic tank lid and field, and any surface water sitting over it
Firewood, slash and brush stacked against walls, and the condition of the ground between the cabin and the cutblock edge
Woodstove, chimney, ashes and the propane tank and fittings
Photographs and a written note for every item, filed the same day, because nothing can be reported from the property itself
Cover on a building nobody is living in normally rests on a clause about inspection: a competent person attends on a set cycle over the heating months, often at four-day spacing or closer, or else the supply is closed and the plumbing emptied. Companies word it differently, so check what yours requires before fixing a routine.
What it costs
A scheduled check at Klein Lake is
$55 a visit, plus
$10 travel. The travel charge is the same
everywhere between Gibsons and Egmont. There is no minimum term and no joining fee.
See the full price list.
Where these facts come from
Every figure, date and quotation on this page was taken from one of these. They are
listed so you can read them yourself.
