Tag Archives: Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve

Mt Bishop, 23 Sep 2015

Cycle touring, Day hike, , ,

Tamara S. on Mt Bishop:
“This was a bike & hike trip into the Seymour Valley up to Mt Bishop at 1509 m. We, a group of 4 hikers, set out with our bikes from the gazebo at the entrance of Seymour Valley Trailway at 8.30 am and pedaled all the way back to the dam on the paved road. Up over the Bear Bridges, a bit uphill and on to the Mt Bishop trail. It took us one hour to cycle in. The first part of the trail is pretty steep with a lot of ropes for help. On a wetter day the downhill could get quite tricky here as the trail is very muddy and slippery. At the lakes, half-way up, one of the hikers decided to descend again to return to the city and 3 of us continued to the peak. Just below the peak on the rock field it is not immediately clear where the peak is but it becomes clearer as you get up over a little gully with a view to the peak. It is a bit of a scramble at the top where you have a beautiful 360 degree view. Lots of water on the way up to refill water bottles. We were back at the gazebo at around 6.15ish quite tired, with some scratches, bruises and dirty pants.

Advice: good shoes, it can be very wet at the lakes and muddy on the first section.”

Mount Bishop Summit

Mt Burwell 28/08/11

Day hike, , ,

Peter A. on Mt Burwell:
“Jeremy and I reached the summit of Mt. Burwell via the steep trail from the Lower Seymour Conservation Area. A great day for hiking, playing in snowfields, and taking pictures.

The trail is punishing on the way up: very few breaks from the steep gradient. Fortunately, it’s a pretty trail through the hemlock, Douglas fir, up rock faces and roots, and easy to follow. There is one tricky spot to be aware of that the guide books don’t mention: finding the trail off of the Seymour Valley Lookout (a huge rocky dome/promontory). When you arrive on top of the Lookout (about 1 – 1.5 hours into the hike), there are few cairns/trail markings to guide you onwards. You don’t need them to walk the 3 minutes on the east side of the flat promontory to its northern end for terrific views (Mount Elsay, Mount Seymour, and Seymour Lake to the east and north east, and Coliseum Mountain and Mt. Burwell to the west). However, once you’ve feasted your eyes, rested, and are ready to move onwards – i.e. back down the promontory and down to a col that separates the promontory from Coliseum Mountain – the lack of cairns/trail markings on top can make it difficult to find the trail. There are two choices: the easiest way is to walk back on the west side of the promontory in the direction of the col until you see some cairn and flagging that will lead you to the trail to the col. The second way is to retrace the way you came up, i.e. back down the east side of the promontory and back on the trail for about 5 minutes. At that point, just beyond the edge of a small clearing, on your right (facing downhill), look for flagging on some trees. This is a branch in the trail that you likely didn’t see on your way up. This trail runs west, skirting along the bottom of the promontory and to the col (it meets up with the trail coming down from the west side of the promontory.

The trail along the col and up to the intersection with the Lyn Valley Coliseum trail had spots of deadfall, mud and boulder fields to contend with, but trail markings were always there to be found with a little patience and a keen eye. And when ascending Burwell from the tarn that lies between it and Coliseum, stay to the left even though it looks like your approaching a forested cliff: the trail goes up a cleft in the rocks and is easy.

We ascended Burwell in 4 hours (a good pace), and, including the 19 km round-trip bike ride from the parking lot to the trail head (a lot of uphill pedalling at the end of the day!), we were on the go for 8.5 hours.”

Mt Bishop 30/08/09

Day hike, , , , , ,

Peter B. on Mt Bishop:
“Three of us biked for one hour along the nice Seymour Valley Trail, waded through Seymour river, climbed up to Mount Bishop for 3 hours (with a 1h stop at Vicar lakes and 1h on the summit) and down for 2 hours and biked back for another hour. The trail is very steep, quite bushy but well-flagged and there is no shortage of ropes. We all liked the upper parts (the lakes and summit) much more than the first 2 hours through the forest. There were many blueberries and blueberry-loaded bear poo. We also saw a bear from a distance (probably eating blueberries or …).”

Lynn Canyon & Seymour River 02/11/08

Day hike, , , , , ,

Merewyn in Lynn Canyon and down by the Seymour River:
“Well, the forecast for this day was a little off. We got sprinkled on a little on the trail but we also got a period of cloudy sunshine as well. The group had a very pleasant time exploring the Lynn Canyon and Seymour Demonstration areas. We all had a bit of a scare watching from a bridge above the canyon as a kayaker got caught on some rocks, struggled to regain control, submerged himself face-first in the water, and finally had to roll out of his boat and swim down through the rough patch to re-join his boat and his friends at the other end. But he got through okay and so we continued on our loop back to the suspension bridge where we had started.”