Dog Mountain and Suicide Bluff

Liam and Laura kindly took me on their Sunday morning hike up Mt Seymour. The aim was to do the Dog Mountain trail and then along Suicide Bluff. Despite the uninspiring name and report said it involved some rough terrain and some scrambling so we hoped it would take us off the beaten track.

The trail to Dog Mountain summit was well laid and pretty easy going, there are some ups and downs but the there isn’t really any elevation gain from the Mt Seymour car park. It was really busy as it was a really nice day and probably one of the last weekends before the snow and months of rain arrive. The view overlooking Vancouver from the Dog Mountain lookout was good but it was quite hazy so probably could have been better.

Most people just do the out and back hike but we veered off on to the trail that takes you up over Suicide Bluff. The trail had a rough terrain warning but undeterred we continued on!

The positive of this trail was that there was no one on it and was so quiet. The downside (not a real downside) was it is quite a tough trail. For the most part it was pretty easy under foot and the trail is clear but there is a lot of steep up and downs. These are complicated by a number of tree roots that are lethally slippery. On the tougher climbs we had to use ropes to to get up the rock faces but it was definitely all worth it for the views. (Laura managed to capture us perfectly enjoying the views!)

I had a couple of falls during the hike but the most entertaining one was when my laces caught solid in a log and I pivoted round my ankles flat on my face. Luckily Laura had time to take photos rather than checking I was ok!

By the time we made it to the end of Suicide Bluff we decided to take the shorter route back to the car down the ski slopes rather than explore the rest of the ski area. This was partly down to not wanting to just walk the runs with loads of other people, but also we were quite tired despite only having walked about 6k as its a tough route.

It was a lovely day out and maybe a good way to finish the season as there probably wont be many more hikes this season. Soon it will be skiing and snowshoes.