Sugar Mountain - January 31 2023
Coquitlam Ranges, Belcarra, British Columbia
388m
This trip report picks up from that of Farrer Peak, which I'd ascended immediately prior to starting the hike up for this peak. I started from the road forming the col between these two peaks, and after taking a quick look up the world's shortest spur road, I found the trail and started my way up.
The trail is short, and hits a bike trail within a minute. Here, you want to continue straight (don't turn left or right onto the bike trail), and take the yellow-marked trail that goes up towards the top. The trail itself is in good shape, and is not very notable, so I didn't stop for any pictures en-route, and instead just grinded up, taking just over 10 minutes before I reached the summit, which has a small painted glass sign just below it for flair, I guess? I took a couple pictures and headed down without much delay, since I was already running a bit late.
Such views. Much wow
The way down's most notable event was "getting a phone call from the plumbers who wanted to get access to my unit to replace some leaky pipes". Sadly, that meant I didn't have time for the last peak in the area, Belcarra Mountain, so I unfortunately can't say I got the whole area done at once 😞. It also motivated me to jog the road back, although I lost some of that time benefit randomly bushwhacking my way back to the Buntzen Ridge trail since I forgot what it looked like and slight GPS inaccuracies led me to turn off a bit too early (not helped my someone painting a tree in the forest with a blue dot for some reason, making me think the trail was there). From the summit down back to the col, down the road, and to my car was almost perfectly half an hour. From there, I drove to the trailhead for Belcarra Mountain, confirmed there was no parking at the trailheads closer to the top, accepted my fate of having to return, and drove home.
I'd recommend doing these peaks (Sasamat, Farrer, Sugar, and Belcarra) all in one day, ideally a day like this miserable one which doesn't merit doing anything better. A good way to get a bunch of peaks on an otherwise write-off kind of day, and 3 are p100s, at least. I guess I'll have a free excuse to go eat at Originals again for the last peak, if nothing else 🤷. There are worse fates.