DePencier Bluffs

The newest bagging peak, de Pencier Bluffs, is a very pleasant adventure for the younger bagger or a bagging trail runner alike.  It makes for a very agreeable post-work bag, ideally on a sunny day. The eastern side of Seymour, with lakes, tarns, bluffs, and blueberries, and a rabbits warren of runnable trails, is not often explored but well worth it.

De Pencier Bluffs is the easternmost peak in the Seymour area: two peaks to the east of the Mystery Peak Chairlift, and due south of de Pencier Lake. A Seymour area map can be seen here at the DNV's reduced but still useful mapping website: www.geoweb.dnv.org/maps/map.asp

Avoid the typical boring approach up Seymour via the gravel road. Instead, start just to the right, in the trees, on a well-marked single-track path up to Mystery Lake. Say hello to the salamanders, venture forth on Salamander Island, and eat some blueberries, before continuing NE around the lakeshore and up slope along the same main trail.  After a while, a smaller but well-flagged trail heads up and to the east: from here, it is an easy ascent to the summit of the Bluffs. There is an unusual view of Indian Arm and Bunzten Lake, as well as fine views of Mt Baker, Vancouver, dePencier Lake, Mt Seymour, and Brockton Peak. You can make it a loop by heading back to the main trail, and then continuing NW to the bottom of the Brockton Chairlift, and beyond to the Mt Seymour main trail.

The Most Rev. Adam de Pencier, Bishop of New Westminster and later Metropolitan of British Columbia, 1910-1940