Well, we did it. We bagged a peak in the 2011 Bagger Challenge. It's the shortest peak in the list (except for those Howe Sound Island ones), and rated "eK" (easy and suitable for Kids), but we did it! On the last possible day - unless we wanted to do an after-work in-the-dark bag... given the "nod to safety" in the preamble to this year's Challenge description, probably not the greatest idea??!
Saw little sense in running up Mountain Hwy for the Mountain Highway Madness and not bagging a peak, so I took a little detour at the MHM turn-around, bagged Fromme, then completed my single lap of MHM.
The trailhead at the back (north-east) corner of the quarry is easy to find with a red arrow more than 2' long showing the way. This takes you up the mostly runnable south slope of Fromme.
Gambier Island’s fourth peak, Burt's Peak (GBU), is located in the northeast quadrant of Gambier Island, above Brigade Bay, to the north of Mt Artaban. It is a decent 525 metres tall, with a prominence of 485m from Mt Artaban.
Although a lightly-flagged trail exists, the peak is little visited or known. But it is a worthy and enjoyable climb.
On the 2011 theme of not letting the bummer summer and deep snow pack put a damper on bagging, Ken Legg, Mike Wardas, and I spent a frenzied day on Gambier Island clearing and marking trails, armed with shocking pink tape, signs, folding Japanese pruning saws and secateurs.
Mt. Liddell, and, before it on the ridge, Gambier Peak, the latter the highest peak on Gambier, and one well worth visiting, suffered from several bewilderingly overgrown areas where the undergrowth and lack of flagging left unfamiliar hikers wandering in circles. Mr Ean Jackson had particularly unkind words to say about the peak. It left me personally lost and bloodied.
After missing Bill's run yesterday, because of a last minute leak in my (water) bladder, I decided to go today for an extended variation. With a new bladder. (The MSR model that look like it's made with a piece of a Zodiac boat.)
"Prepare your bag the day before, and you will see the future"
I originally had big plans with my housemate Rob to go climb the N ridge or Roach this past weekend, but with a 100% chance of showers on Saturday and a deteriorating Sunday forecast for Lytton we stayed home and slept in Saturday. But waking up in the city after planning to escape it made me antsy, so I managed to convince Rob to come on a run with me.
Rob had previously told me that he "didn't like running"
I told him he just didn't like running in Ontario on roads... BC is different.
The Bagger Quaich champions of 2011:
On the 2011 theme of not letting the bummer summer and deep snow pack put a damper on bagging, Ken Legg, Mike Wardas, and I spent a frenzied day on Gambier Island clearing and marking trails, armed with shocking pink tape, signs, 
