Completed - Afternoon snow fun on Sumas Mt, BC, Canada

[BC backroader]

After the last 6 weeks of weather problems, arctic deep freeze temps, followed by much more snow than usual for my region, followed by another week of torrential rains to wash most of the snow out of the valley, we finally have a week of nice weather, so I got to scratch my trail itch today, even though it was only for a couple of hours.

Sumas Mt. is the nearest back country area to my home, just a 15 min. drive from my door, and contains a large regional park that is accessible via old logging roads, from the gate at the end of pavement, to a parking lot at km. 4.7 from the entry gate. The Lot gives hiking access to a beautiful, though small, lake, and to the peak, where a radio/cel tower sits.

In my run up there today, I met only one other vehicle, a small "cute ute", on it's way down, and we both managed to pull over out off the ruts in the compact snow enough to get by each other without getting stuck. The snow increased in depth as I climbed higher, eventauly passing the turnaround point of the other vehicle at km 3, from which point the only tracks on the road were from skidoos and atvs. I was truly impressed with the traction of the Motomaster Total Terrain AT2's that I fitted about 6 months ago, they gripped well on both the icy sections, and on the looser stuff near the parking lot at the top of the trail. This was their first real test under these conditions, and I've had other AT tires that would not have made it up there. The drive back down was scarier than the climb, as the truck was now bouncing around in the ruts I'd made going up, but low gear in 4 high was enough to keep from getting too fast. I made it out to the gate before lock-up time, which is 6PM this time of year, and got home in time to start supper for my daughter, who arrives home from her commute about 7.

Here's a few shots from the trail:

[BC backroader]

OK, why the heck are those flipped 90 degrees from my computer files???

[BC backroader]

Let's see if a picture in landscape format comes out the right way up: