Entfernung: 6.0km
Höhenunterschied: 400m
Fun in the snow, or the rain. I like the varied terrain on Seymour even when there's nothing to see, like today.
The winter route is marked as far as Brockton Point. Beyond that you need to know where you're going, and you will need to know where the winter route actually goes because the summer route crosses a very steep snow slope that's too steep to traverse. We followed the route as far as the Elsay Lake junction before calling it a day.
It was a mix of rain and sleet most of the way, only turning to snow beyond Brockton Point (and even then it was variable). We were surprised at how quickly our snowshoe tracks were filling in behind us! I wonder if they'll even be visible tomorrow. Take care around creeks - some of them are still open in places, and would be hard to get out of if you fell in. Visibility was non-existent: it was quite eery looking over towards the void beyond Suicide Bluffs and seeing nothing but grey... The snow was wet and heavy, but it was still fun breaking trail.
Not many people out as expected - a few snowshoers and a couple of backcountry skiers who only went as far as Brockton Point. We met one person with 3 (unleashed) dogs who proceeded to complain about the fact that the park rules insist on leashed dogs, and who felt that easily-accessible backcountry areas should be provided for dogs to play in the snow off-leash. And they have to be close to Vancouver because, you know, can't be expected to drive very far. Yeah right. Entitled much? They'd already had to walk past 3 signs that say dogs should be leashed, *and* they'd already been advised by a park ranger that their dogs should be leashed... Sorry, no sympathy here. You chose to have 3 dogs. If you don't like the rules go elsewhere. If you don't like that, then just stick to the rules. Really. It's not that hard.
On our way back we ran into a group of 4 snowshoers near the trailhead decked out in jeans. My rain gear was soaked through, as were my gloves and backpack (turns out my waterproof stuff-sack isn't). Jeans were definitely the wrong thing to be wearing today... Still, I suspect they didn't go far.