Saturday, May 9, 2020

A group of three of us road our bikes up to the Seymour valley trail, locking them up at around 9:45am at the trail entrance which is just a few minutes off the main road. This is the shorter route compared to the Norvan falls approach, which adds 2-4 hours on your round trip time. 

Trail flagging for the first few kms through the forest had been ripped out deliberately at some point in the last several months.However the trail is pretty easy to follow, and obvious if you are paying attention. 

Snow line started right below the Paton peak ridge area. After putting on spikes and gaiters, we encountered a few other hikers hanging around the lookout area.

Crossed over the valley and started climbing up the snowy slope to Coliseum around noon. The snow was soft, but had enough composition to allow for steady climb up. It is quite steep through here, and everyone made good use of their trekking poles for stability and climbing purposes. 

There is nothing too technical in here. We had a few slips and slides, but nothing serious.

We reached the top at around 1:45PM, had lunch, and decided to head down after around an hour. We encountered a couple that was headed further west to camp for the night. 

Going down was more difficult, although nothing particularly technical. It was just slow going in the steeper sections. We encountered a few large holes where we punched through. These holes are likely to get worse in the coming weeks.

If you are looking for something close to town while the parks are still shut down, this is a great day hike. Give yourself lot's of time, as the short distance (11.5 km round trip) is deceiving. It was 4200 ft of vertical, so prepare to have fairly sore legs at the end of the day. Definitely bring microspikes and poles. 

Despite the amount of snow and runoff, there were surprisingly few spots to filter water. We only spotted a small trickle on the way down. Bring lot's of water.