Watts Summit and Nightmare Rock (Murrin Park) - January 9 2022
Sky Pilot Group, Squamish, BC
299m
With my weekend "wasted" on skiing at Whistler and failing to summit Mount Taylor, I needed to make things up during the week. I had to drive down to the city Monday evening to pick my mom up from the airport, so I figured I would head over to Hollyburn on the way down and bag that before getting her at the airport. Unfortunately, those plans were quickly dashed when there was a massive accident at Brittania Beach, closing the highway. I sat in traffic (not knowing the extent of the incident) for a while before it was announced the highway would be closed for at least 2 hours. I arranged for my mom to get a ride from another family member, then tried to figure out what I could do with all my gear in my bag, ready to go. Since I couldn't go south, and was already beside Murrin Park, I decided to finally knock the 2 peaks in there off the books while I was nearby, and so this trip was born.
I didn't know much about the trails other than "one was supposed to go to Watts Summit" and "the other is somewhere past it, and had some bushwhacking", but I figured given the size of the park, it couldn't be that hard. I got my boots on, thankfully had 3L pants and a rain shell already on, strapped the headlamp on, and set out. Walking along the lake to the trailhead proper was pretty simple, as it's just somewhat gravelly/sandy ground, but once I got onto the trail, I encountered some rather slippery and surprisingly steep rooty terrain, so I got the poles out for extra stability before continuing.
The way up was pretty uneventful, if slow due to lots of map-referencing and small detours due to the pitch-blackness of the night. I got up to the end of the summit trail for Watts Summit in about half an hour, and wandered around in the forest nearby for a bit to find the high point.
After taking a summit photo, I wandered more, trying to find a way toward the Hydro Road mentioned on Peakbagger from the top that'd take me to Nightmare Rock. I didn't succeed, so instead I went back down to the trail, and decided to just walk down the loop and come back another time, or maybe try driving up the road instead of traversing from the peak if I felt dry and patient enough.
As it so happens, though, I saw a red light coming from the tower on my way down, so I decided to go for it, and bushwhacked my way over. I was rewarded with the sights of a radio tower and some various other equipment. That came with a road, which I started descending to the closest point to Nightmare Rock according to the Peakbagger app.
I followed the road for a bit until I encountered an industrial site of some sort, which I later learned was an active mine. There were workers there, but they didn't seem interested in me. I turned right away from the site up a small fork in the road which seemed to be in the direction of my objective, and left them alone.
The road was quite short, and once I got close to the end, it forked. The fork seemed to go away from my goal, but I decided to check it out anyway. It led to some kind of encampment, so I quickly turned tail, hoping I didn't disturb anyone who might've been sleeping, hoping to avoid bright headlamps in their faces. I advise not going up there as you may disturb someone, and there doesn't seem to be a summit there. Instead, I went back to that "fork" (I call it that, but there really isn't a second road, just an unmaintained trail in the forest). I took that fork, and headed mostly downhill toward the location pinned on my GPS. I wandered for a bit once I got close, and eventually determined that the highest thing in that area was a rocky outcropping I had to scramble on top of to summit, so that's what I did. It wasn't in the exact spot on the map, but it was higher than that point, so I'm pretty happy calling that "summited". Just about an hour in, and the 2 peaks were done. That left me plenty of time to come back in time for the 2-hours estimate from the RCMP (a bit less than an hour, as I took some time to get there and gear up after hearing the news).
Following the trail back to the road was pretty simple, as was the plod up the road. However, I actually encountered a truck on my way up, which was a mine worker informing me that I was, in fact, on private mine property, and probably shouldn't be. They were very nice+understanding, and weren't mad at me, but do note that this IS in private property, and an active mine, so "buyer beware". I don't expect it will be an active blast zone as it is very forested vs the other areas of the mine, but "trespass at your own risk".
I actually overshot my fork on the road, and got to a nice viewpoint looking down at the mine. I'd have taken some photos, but out of respect for how kind they were to me for coming onto their property, I decided not to. Instead, I turned back and followed my GPS track back to the radio tower.
Once I got to the tower, I spent the next 15 minutes bushwhacking around. First, it was because I decided to follow what looked like a faint trail, hoping it'd be an easier way back. It was not, but now I know that! After fighting my way back onto the trail, I decided to take the loop back down for intrigue. Shortly after I started, I noticed my GPS showing me a summit indicator. Even though I'd met the summit according to AllTrails and Peakbagger, I decided to whack around a bit more to get myself situated on that too, just in case. Once I got that done with, I could actually set my sights on getting down.
The way down was far more interesting, but also more dangerous than the way up. In dry weather, I imagine it might actually be quite fun. However, with the rain so intense parts of the trail were turning into creeks, it was more just a slippery minefield of slabby rock. There were a few fixed ropes, but of course, I was morally unable to use them. A couple sections involved some tactical sliding to get down cleanly, but I managed. It just ended up being a lot slower than I expected given the simple trail up.
A few times on the way down I got a glimpse of the traffic situation, which at least for most of the way down looked to be just as bad as when I left, so that made me feel better about taking the seemingly "long way down".
By 7:20, I'd made my down through a few tight trails and mild bushwhacking to a sign at what seemed like it'd be the last viewpoint of the hike (I'm sure there's a nice trail the whole way if you don't lose it avoiding slippery terrain and also not seeing very well, but I wasn't overly concerned given the limited space for me to get lost in, I could just walk a few minutes in most directions and be back on something). Here, I could finally see traffic moving, so it seemed like my timing was pretty good, as I was also pretty close to done the hike.
From that point it was a pretty simple trail back to the lake. I took a quick picture to show the "not skating worthy" conditions of the lake, then headed back into the car to give my seats a good "soak". It was raining pretty hard the whole time, so I was thoroughly drenched. I did get 2 peaks (if somewhat trashy peaks) done, and waited out the traffic, so overall I consider that a win, and a good use of 2 hours.