Gorgeous, Quick Hike Up Dog Mountain

Glancing at the weekend weather forecast on Friday night, I saw that it was going to be in the 70s and sunny on both Saturday and Sunday. That kind of weather does not go uncelebrated around these parts, so you bet your ass I scouted out a hike for myself for Saturday.

Dog Mountain was a perfect choice - its trailhead is at the Mt. Seymour Ski Resort (which is only about 45 minutes out of the city) and the hike was described as both fun and moderate. At 2.75 miles, it was also a pretty short hike on a well-traveled trail - both of which were important to me since I'd be hiking alone. (Dave, by the way, is in Massachusetts right now!)

I arrived at the Ski Resort, strapped on my boots, packed up my backpack, familiarized myself a bit more with the trail, and started off.

.  not a bad day for a hike  .

I started at the "You Are Here" marker and took the yellow trail to the red trail. The summit of Dog Mountain is at the end of the red trail here:

.  trail to dog mountain  .

I expected the trail to be full of people - it was, after all, a stunnnnning day - but the trail was empty! It was indeed well-traveled, though - there were plenty of footprints in the snow. Just no people! It was a tiny bit eerie to be walking out there alone but I opted not to cry about it.

Since it was such a short hike and I was full of energy, I switched between hiking and jogging the whole way up. In the shaded areas, the snow was a little bit icier, but in the sunny spots it was really easy to jog through the slightly melted snow.

I was more than halfway through the hike before I finally saw a few other people on the trail. Ultimately there were about 7 of us on the summit together, where the views offered by this little mountain were spectacular. Thank goodness for the clear, sunny day.

I ate lunch at the top while enjoying the warmth and the beautiful views of Vancouver and Richmond:

.  relaxing and eating lunch  .

Before heading back down, I asked one of the other people on the summit to snap a picture of me:

Jogging about half of the time on the way back down, I definitely got in a decent cardio workout on this hike. I even got a little bit of a sunburn. Helllllllllo warm weather!

 

 

This was my second hike in the Mt. Seymour area, and there are tons of other trails around there to explore as well. It's a super convenient recreational destination for us and a great reason to get out of the city!