By Jimmy
I parked in an empty parking lot and didn’t see another person on the entire hike. The trail started up a grassy and rocky slope, winding in gentle switch backs until reaching the summit trail, which was steeper and more majestic with views of both sides of Lake Cowichan. It was hot and dry up here, lots of downed timber, rocks and wildlife (snakes, rabbits, deer, hawk).
At the top I found two geocaches; there were two others at the peak of Bald Mountain 600 metres up, but I didn’t have enough time to reach them. On the way back I ran into a black bear on the trail. He made a huffing noise and walked down slope out of sight. I thought I might run into him again at the switchback so I was clapping and whistling.
Luckily I didn’t see him. He wasn’t aggressive so we didn’t have to fight. Or things could have turned out really badly. For him.
