For October, and for being up at Cypress Bowl, the weather was undeniably fantastic - warm, clear, sunny with some clouds, and the number of hikers was plentiful. I've been up there in early September some years as the weather turns to winter in the blink of an eye, but, this Bagging season mother nature has kept the door wide open quite late.
We left some of the low lying fruit to the end and knocked off Hollyburn, Strachan and Black Mountains. Given all the other adventures we had done this year, this one was destined to be a breeze. Liza and I headed up to the parking lot at about 9 am from my place in Lynn Valley and we were on the trail by 9:38. This was Liza's first trip through the enchanted (and normally wet and muddy) forest of Hollyburn on the Baden Powell Trail. It turned out to be a quick and easy trip to the x-country ski runs and past a few Adventurer Scouts to the top of Hollyburn.
I was lucky to once again have my own personal geological tour of the route-de-jour with my highly qualified rock professional, Liza. She described to me how the rock folding in the area at the top of Hollyburn occured perhaps 90 million years ago and pointed out the rock intrusions and how they might have happened. Very enlightening for me.
We were once again greeted at the top of a peak by a hungry Raven as we snacked and then we moved quickly onto the trail at the backside of Hollyburn. Liza located the pseduo-rough, kinda-steep, trail after I wandered around in the bush searching for a bit. We eventually got out onto the ski runs of Strachan and followed the gravel road to the top. I'm sure I took a slightly different route last year as I didn't see the remains of the plane crash this time.
I got Liza over to the true peak of Mt. Strachan and explained to her how this peak holds fond memories for me from days long ago. 
This is the first peak I remember summitting in the waning years of my teenage youth and it is still very impressive with its dramatic views off the north side of the mountain. 
The clouds were moving in and out so we could only see glimpses here and there of the surrounding peaks but it was very worth the climb regardless. And I believe this is where I pointed out the eerie west side of Cathedral Mountain way off to the west that I had recently been climbing with fellow Bagger Dave Berg. The Gully of Doom loomed large even from this far away vantage point. But that's another long story perhaps best left to be shared only on the trail with my freindly Fat-Asses ;)
I should add that the birds in the picture to the right were ultra-agressive at scavenging from us. At one point one of these guys flew right into Liza's peanut butter sandwich as she was eating it and took a bite.
In the interest of time efficiency, we left Strachan and followed the gravel road all the way back down to the parking lot as opposed to going off the back side of Strachan and down the steep gulley where I added to the layers of scars on my leg last year. I made a quick dash to the car for more water and met Liza at the main chairlift for our ascent to Black. There were lots of people on the trail including a big family of Romainians. I thought they might be Ukrainians, as I am one myself, but they set me straight after my direct question of their heritage. They seemed very happy to be climbing the steep trail to Cabin Lake as we scooted past with the third and last peak of the day in mind.
In no time we were at the top of Black Mountain for another leisurely break to enjoy the views and the Indian Summer. 
In fact, things were so mellow that we only remembered to take our peak pictures after we started the descent. But, three peaks completed it was, bringing Liza's total to 13 for the season and mine to 24. 
The run to the car was quick and controlled down the steep winding trail and within 6 hours we had completed our berrypicking, geological learning, disussion filled friendly three-bag of the Cypress Bowl area.
I hope there will still be more peaks climbed for this Bagging Season, but, if not, this was a great way to end it.
