I’ll preface this by saying the weather man is a bold faced liar! I was sleuthing through the weather forecasts and spotted a mediocre window around Britannia Beach and Squamish. Mediocre weather means mediocre peaks and Mineral Peak fit the bill perfectly. This year it saw a few other trips and it turns out a trail had been developed most of if not all the way to the top. This seemed like a good opportunity to take the e-bike out as well, because the access is gated almost right from the bottom.
On Sunday morning I loaded up the truck and left Vancouver around 9:30am under gray, but uneventful skies. As I rounded the corners of Lions Bay the rain picked up a notch until it was falling in sheets by the time I reached Britannia Beach. I cracked open the weather radar and deep purples and blues formed a swirling mixture on my screen. Well, maybe it will pass. I drove up to the end of Copper Drive and the start of Branch 30. After waiting some 30 minutes, the rain somewhat subsided and I took the opportunity to speed up the road on my bike.
I made it around one corner and then the rain fell in droves again. As my pants soaked through and I grew miserably wet, I debated turning back. I went so far as to actually turn back, but now already wet I turned around once more and decided that it can’t be much worse. I pressed on to the end of Branch 50 which proved to be quite steep even on the e-bike.
From there I located the start of the trail and ascended up through the cutblock and into open forest. At this elevation the precip was falling as snow and I actually started to dry off. The snow started in earnest around 1,200m. From 1,350m and up the depth picked up and by the time I was on the ridge it was around 1.5 feet deep in most places. Thankfully, it was pretty light snow and I managed to post hole all the way to the summit.
There weren’t any views, but it was a pleasant winter wonderland and the falling snow created a nice persisting silence. My shoes were soaked, so I didn’t linger and followed my route back down the ridge and onto the trail. The e-bike made for a speedy return to the truck and I was back in time to catch the ferry traffic on the bridge.
