Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Hollyburn Mountain- 103 Hikes Style



I had already climbed this mountain in 2008 with Bonn-Tien, but the views had been nil as it was a really foggy summer day. I decided to re-attempt it but going through the 103 hikes way. I left my place quite late at 8:20 and was downtown by 9 am, almost missing my connection for the British Properties. Usually you need a car to this hike, but I found a short trail from the bus stop to the Cypress look out. Within 15 min I was at the trailhead stated in the book. The trail I took seemed to have been the wrong one but it didn’t matter much to me because it was heading towards the summit. Once I arrived on a private road, I got a bit lost and had to go back on my steps. I finally found a trail between some cabins and soon realized there was a mini town installed at the bottom of the Cypress slopes. Dozens of cabins, most of them fairly old with outhouses, set up along this trail. Finally I made at the level of the Hollyburn lodge and from there took the cross-country ski slopes all the way till the top. At this point there was tons of snow left on the slopes. I was wearing shorts but no gaiters so my feet were getting wet. I made it to the summit and had some good views on the south. I was proud of my timing as I had taken 30 min less than expected. However the way back down was very painful since snow was getting into my boots on every step. Instead of retracing my steps, I took the Baden Powell trail, but since I wasn t too sure how to cross the British Properties, I decided to stop my adventure at the first bus stop. I managed to get home by 4:30 pm, a nice short hike that was my 35th day in the outdoors this year.

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