Snowshoes in July

"... All work and no play" as the saying goes, so we spent this weekend doing the Tourist Thing. On Sunday we cycled downtown and took the SeaBus over to North Vancouver and then up to Grouse Mountain. The main trail up - the Grouse Grind - was heaving, even at 10am, so we opted for the 'road less taken' (as some American poet once wrote), the BC Mountaineering Club trail.

Once at the top, it is like a tourist theme park at 11oom; all very nice, but far too busy for my liking. So we headed on up the trails, aiming for Goat Mountain. Surprised to find that once we got off the beaten path, we encountered snow. And lots of it, too. A sign suggested that the trail beyond Dam Mountain was 'closed due to adverse winter weather conditions' - and in July! It'll start snowing again in a couple of months time!

The strange thing was it was well over 20 degrees, even that high up, with the snow that was lying melting from underneath. Very cool. We could have done with snowshoes.....