DIRECTIONS: Take Highway 1 East to Hope, then Highway 3 East to Sunshine Valley. About one kilometer after Sunshine Valley, there is a dirt road on the right and a small parking spot on the left of the road, near a creek. Park there.create
SUMMARY: It's a steep bushwack up the south ridge of Johnson Peak. There is no trail, only a few ribbons. From the parking spot, follow the creek to a hidden logging road. Turn right for about 500m and look for ribbons on the right, showing the start of the bushwack. Go up this ridge in the forest and at around 1650 m elevation, head west to contour a fall summit. At about 1700 m elevation you reach a small valley from which the peak is visible. Cross the valley to the East, to gain the final south ridge to the summit.create
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Johnson Peak
Mar 9, 2013
Overwhelming. I would describe the view from Johnson peak as overwhelming. This peak is situated immediately East of the Hope Slide. There are reports of people summiting Johnson via the Hope slide too.
My friends Mark and Mark along with myself set out to do some more off trail hiking. I had suggested Johnson, which had been on my mind ever since I had read Sabine's trail report.
We had planned to park off of the highway near the base of Johnson's South ridge, but our concern of theft ultimately deterred us from that idea. We then looked to park somewhere within the Sunshine Valley township, which is located immediately Southwest of our intended start point. We were fortunate enough to run into an employee at the Sunshine Valley Community Center. They were more than happy to let us park there, a huge thanks to them!
The route up the South ridge is pretty pleasant as far as bushwacking goes; we even encountered some flagging as we ascended. Johnson is a mellow looking summit, but what you see on the horizon spanning Northeast to Northwest is an adventure loving person's wet dream, haha. The spiderweb like ridge system that connects MaCleod, Hatfield, Outram, and Johnson is utterly stupefying. Immediately a plan was hatched to do an overnight trip in the area just North of Hatfield Mountain, and challenge ourselves on these beautiful mountains.
On May 11 2013 after three planned trips fell through, my friend Mark Jenkins and I finally were on our way to try Hatfield and MaCleod Mountains. We had chosen to access the valley just North of the Johnson Peak. We had everything planned out route, gear, and FSR access. We had planned to access via the 11 Mile Creek FSR.
So at 6:00am on a beautiful day in May, we're just off the Crowsnest Highway past the Hope Slide. We quickly gear up and get moving. There is an active quarry pit near the FSR, which requires visitors to sign in at the office according to a sign we read.
Mark and I quickly spot the site office, and then we hear the barking... There off in the distance are two big dogs barking and running towards us; one happens to be a Pitbull. We both had hoped that they would stop moving at some point, but they only picked up their speed, haha. We turn around high tail it out of there. We dive into the forest and the barking is getting closer. I look back to see that they're only about 30 meters away from us. Realizing that running is a bad idea, I stop and arm myself with my trekking poles. Luckily for Mark and me the dogs stopped right at the edge of the forest. We got out of there safely and with ass cheeks intact. Poor routefinding, bad snow conditions, avalanches risk all things that I can imagine preventing me from a summit. Rabid dogs in the bush, never even crossed my mind.
My summit video: Johnson Peak Vista