Capturing the Art of Nature
Mount Strachan
Part of the Cypress Bowl Ski area, Strachan was my fifth and final peak of the season.
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2009
Click on image to view gallery
I started this year's climbing season with a hike on Hollyburn Mountain which is directly next to Strachan. So it seemed fitting to end the season with Strachan. This was a new hike for me so I wasn’t sure what to expect nor how long it would take me to complete. The day was starting off really well weather wise – mostly sunny and not overly hot. Unfortunately the cloud burned off fairly early and the temperature rose higher than I would have preferred.
We drove up to the main parking area for Cypress bowl but due to construction for the 2010 Olympics we had to park alongside the entry road. This suited me fine as the parking ticket dispenser was broken, so we got a free day trip. There are two common hikes to the peak, the short quick way is along the service road basically to the top, the second, a longer trail through the forest that hugs the slopes. We chose the forest route as it would likely offer more to see. After reviewing our maps we set off up the eastern slope past a number of construction workers who were busy improving the ski runs. A sign pointed us into the forest and we were soon putting some trees between us and the construction noise. This first section of trail was typical second growth west coast forest an we made quick time as the trail was quite level for some distance. At this point we were actually heading away from Mount Strachan and toward Hollyburn.
About two thirds the way along this first leg, before the trail turns back toward Strachan, we met a hiker with a child in back-carrier coming toward us. He reported that he had seen a bear to the side of the trail about 10 minutes ahead and as he had his kid in tow he decided to not risk continuing past. We decided to carry on as it would be over 20 minutes between when he had seen the bear and when we would get there. We never did see the bear though he may well have seen us. We finally reached the end of the first leg where one can choose to continue forward along the Baden-Powel Trail and on to Hollyburn. The return leg to Strachan started to have greater elevation gains and was not as well marked or travelled, but we did pass a few hikers travelling in the reverse direction. On route we heard a radio call on my hand-held from a Ham on the east-coast who was demonstrating ham radio to guests at a state fair. I ended up chatting with a few east-coast families and some pre-teens as we walked along. Eventually we made it back to the main ski slopes and took a bit longer of a rest. Now the trail got much steeper as it made its way to the top of the south peak of Strachan.
Along this section of the trail we came to an old plane crash site where a military training flight had crashed into the side of the mountain in 1963. The wreckage remains as a memorial to the pilots and has mostly been left un-pilfered. It does seem to be a popular site as at the summit we later heard a number of other groups of hikers talking about the crash site. After a longer rest at the crash site we set off for the final slog to the south summit, but we soon lost the trail. We made our way over some steep brush for a few hundred feet until we relocated the trail and continued on. Soon we were at the south summit and took time to eat a snack and get some photos and some rest. I chatted with some of my radio club buddies from the summit with my hand-held.
After we regained our breath we had to decide if we would try for the higher north summit or be satisfied with the south. It didn't take much persuasion to give the north summit a try. We set off north and soon came to the cliff face that drops to a saddle between the two peaks. The cliff looks a bit challenging from the top but there is a good path down the 150 feet to the saddle which wasn't difficult to traverse. As we were heading down, a couple of groups were coming up including one with a very tired dog. I'm sure that poor animal had travelled 3 times the distance of the people as it was running back and forth along the trail between the various group members.
Once down to the saddle we found the trail up the north peak and made our way to the true summit of Strachan. A couple of hikers were coming down as we made our way up the final rise and once at the top we joined a solitary hiker who was enjoying the view, he apparently does the hike numerous times a year! We rested and enjoyed our lunch, then I started gathering a number of photos of the various sights. I grabbed a number of the Lions to the north and later when I reviewed the images I found people on the summit! Soon we were rested and ready to head back. We chose to follow a route that descends from the saddle through a steep gully. It was wet and slippery and at one point Ethan slipped and strained one of his fingers, we kept it chilled in the cold stream water to reduce swelling.
The drop through the gully was slower than expected as it was fairly slippery. Eventually we were at the bottom of the ravine and onto the main trail that goes from the Cypress parking lot to the Lions and on through to Deeks Lake. There were quite a few hikers on this trail walking in both directions. Before long we came upon a couple of workers in narrow trail machinery grooming the trail and repairing washouts. Places where they had partially completed their work ended up being very muddy and slowed us down yet again. Finally we were back to the parking lot and almost to our car when we came across the hiker we met at the summit! He had taken the fast route down and was back before us even though he had left much after!
It was a great view from the top and I do think I will return and redo the hike. I we leave out the gully section and track back along the ski runs on the south summit. A fitting final hike of my 5 summits for the season, especially in light of the upcoming winter Olympics which will be holding some of the events on these ski slopes.