Yesterday, I biked, hiked, and snowshoes up to Paton Peak in Lynn Headwaters Park. This trip involved a 10km bike ride in, a 2.5km hike with 820m elevation gain, and then reversing that back to the bus. Feel free to watch the video above for a better representation of what this trip involved!


For those unfamiliar with the route, the biking portion is pleasant up the Demonstration Forest pathway alongside the Seymour River. After there, it involves a sharp left turn up an old spur road which has recently been worked on. At the top of this steep gravel road, you can lock your bikes to a tree and then start up through steep old growth forests. The roots were icy, but snow didn't start until 500m.


GPS track got screwed up on the way back - no secrets lying in that blip in the bottom. Fat maps is awesome

Super nice to throw the pack on a rack this time and not have it weighing down on the shoulders

Does it get any better than this?

From there, we threw on the microspikes and carried on up. The snow got deep pretty quickly and we ended up requiring to use our GPS a few times to stay on route with much of the flagging burried. At 800m we put on our snowshoes and the trees opened up to reveal knee deep powder.




Here we through on our avalanche transceivers since we had brought our gear and the new snow wasn't bonding well to the crust layer below despite it being in the treeline. Just near the summit we noticed more instability but we were able to pick a low risk route to get to the summit in white out conditions. The snowpack this winter is very deep and must be over 2 meters deep at the summit of 1020m elevation.


It opens up here.

Absolutely zero views at the top

Very steep (45 degrees) and icy chute



This is a fantastic trail but a long day with the biking portion for many. Due to its remoteness, lack of cell service, steep and slippery trail, and current snow hazards, this is a very difficult trail. It is recommended for the fit and experienced as a lovely alternative to. Coliseum Mountain in the summer or as a great day trip.

Great stuff. Views from the top are fantastic, shame for low cloud. Can't believe you still went in short!


(I fixed sidewise photo, last one; it's a nice one, prob. the best from whole batch)

Thanks so much for the help on that one!

Awesome! Transit bike 'n hike, well done! Nice to see a report from up there. I'm sure your friend will purchase gaiters, his feet must have been soaking!

Quite a transit feat of a trip, particularly like that photo within the forest, with snow covering the tree trunks on the side.

K