Mount Strachan is close to Vancouver. Only a 20 minute drive or so across the Lion's Gate and toward Squamish. It's close. And it's beautiful. My hiking book (bible?) gives a description of the mountain, and the route up. It's accompanied by a trail map and elevation map. We packed some fruit, crackers, cheese, water, and toilet paper and excitedly began our ascent.
The trail begins at the base of a ski hill on Cypress. It's thickly wooded and beautiful. The trees are huge. The ground is mossy. There are little creeks and waterfalls as you walk. It is serene. Particularly with a light misty rain.
Our first mistake was realized when we hit the end of the first trail without happening upon the cut-off trail (Old Strachan Trail) that we were supposed to take. We hiked back to find it. And couldn't. So decided to take a detour up another trail (also highlighted on our map) that would eventually join up with a "pass" to Mount Strachan.
About 20 minutes into our uphill climb, we began to descend with equal grade as we had just ascended. "We're going down." I said to Mike. "I know." he said. "weird."
20 minutes later, we were right back where we started with no summit and no idea as ot how we ended up in the same place. So we set forth back up, laughing the whole way. And evenutall stumbled upon our gross error: we had detoured slightly off the trail, circled a tree, and headed down on the same trail we had started up! Ridiculous! We laughed heartily and carried on our way.
We crossed paths with another nomad and his wolf-like dog who was quick to tell us that we were on our way to hiking Mt. Hollyburn, not Mt. Strachan. Still we pushed forth and an hour later had summitted Mt. Hollyburn (a beautiful hill with a great view of the Indian Arm). We had a picnic and reviewed our map. We were determined to hike and summit Mt. Strachan.
After going down the mountain a bit to find the "pass" to Mt Strachan and then summiting again wondering if the "pass" were at the top, we finally found a beaten trail with a sign that said "Danger. Trail not kept.".
I scoffed and did my best sarcastic "ooooohhhh....Danger.... What are we gonna do?" then laughed and carried forth.
We quickly learned that "trail not kept" was entirely accurate. The trail was not only "not kept"; it was, for the most part, non-existent. And Mike and I spend hours jumpig over fallen trees, sliding down mud slides, crawling through thick brush. After three hours in the thick forest and no signs of a decent trail or of Mount Strachan, we had already discussed politics, religion, dating, marriage, children, gay rights, abortion, family, depression, and more. By the time we took a break at a waterfall in the interior, our legs were scraped, our arms were bruised, our ankles were thick with mud, and we had resorted to knock-knock jokes to keep our sanity.
"Do you think we'll have to sleep here?" I asked Mike, half-joking and half-not as fear began to seep in. "I was just thinking teh same thing" he replied and we shared a in-depth gaze filled with anxiety and terror. Then the moment passed and we trudged on, telling all the jokes we could think of.
Five hours after we saw the infamous "danger" trail head sign, we finally stumbled (quite literally) upon another trail and people (yes! civilization again!) and made our way back to whence we came.
At the car, we shared an underwhleming high-five, a big jug of water, and a snooze.
Note to self: stick to the trails and don't be so cocky. Nature is the stronger beast!
