Capturing the Art of Nature
Black Mountain
Our first steep hike together, it was not too difficult and the scenery well worth the effort
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
Summits on the Air
2016
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Occasions to explore a new to me trail is always a fun adventure. Today Carolyn and I hiked the trail to the summit of Black Mountain, one of the three peaks that form Cypress Bowl. I have hiked the other two several times but never seemed to get to Black. Well today was my chance to conquer this summit. It wasn’t going to be a long day so we set off at a leisurely time of 9:30 and headed straight for coffee and the highway to Cypress Bowl. All was proceeding to plan until we got to a kilometer before Cassiar tunnel where the traffic stopped moving. Traffic slowed us down for the next few kilometers and it wasn’t until we got up the cut in North Vancouver that we started moving at a decent speed again. The traffic delayed us a half hour! Well we weren’t in a hurry so on we went to the parking area.
We arrived amongst dozens of cyclists making their way up the Cypress causeway to find a well filled parking lot. There was still a lot of room but the numbers of vehicles was surprising. Once we carved out a parking spot we got our equipment loaded and set off for a quick bathroom break before the ascent. We made our way to the end of the lot and double checked the route on a big map and then made for the Baden Powell Trail. We were soon trailing along it enjoying the easy trail. Unfortunately we missed a small sign to turn off the easy trail and were now walking the Yew Lake interpretive one. It was nice but soon we realized we had missed our departure and back tracked to the fork and set off on the correct path.
The trail soon started gaining elevation and though it was a well-traveled and maintained one, it was still a challenge as the grade increased. The trail had a lot of loose gravel on it which made it harder to walk, but a well-trod path along the broader trail was clear of rocks and allowed us an easier time walking in many spots. It was quite steep in places but being short, we were soon arriving at the top ridge line where there is a nice lake to cool off in. We didn’t stop at this point as I was behind time for getting my Summit radio activation started and so we immediately set off for the north summit a short distance further. A few minutes later I arrived at the marked summit and dropped my pack for a rest.
Soon I had my 2m yagi antenna assembled and tied to a tree. I put out a few calls to the White Rock repeater but it seemed a bit sporadic. I then tried a simplex call and immediately got two club members and so the mountain was activated. Next was Ralph and a chap on the Olympic Peninsula. My next contact was with another SOTA hiker on a summit a bit east of Mt. Rainier, 310km away! We had a clear enough signal to exchange greetings and information. So that not only gave me a summit-to-summit contact but also set a personal record for hand-held to hand-held distance. It was lots of fun. I then took time to get some lunch, meanwhile Carolyn was enjoying her lunch and the nice breeze that had come up. She also took some time to enjoy the view of Howe Sound and the area.
Well after making a sixth contact I packed up the gear and we started down from the summit. I gathered a few photos of the lake on the ridge below us before we started up the south summit. This one had much better views of the ocean and city below. We decided to continue south down the far side of the summit to gather some photos of more of the alpine lakes. The trail dropped down to a later potion of the Baden Powell trail and there we were able to pass by several lakes which offered some nice scenery photos. This extra loop actually dropped us down further than I expected and we had a moderate amount of elevation to regain before we could start back down the trail we ascended.
The hike back down the trail went reasonably smoothly though Carolyn did slip at one spot and landed on her rear. Fortunately it was right where a series of boulders were placed for steps or supports and so her fall was reduced to a gentle sit-down! Once recovered we continued down shaking our heads at the number who were making their way up without water or proper equipment.- hiking on a steep gravel path in flip-flops is really not bright. Next we had to marvel at a senior and his dog jogging up the trail! Going down was hard enough for me. Well we finished the descent and soon were crossing the parking lot heading for the car. I felt good getting the hot boots off and resting in a seat! The drive home went without any traffic delays and an hour later we were parked at home. A lovely hike and enjoyable scenery. I will likely do it again next season.