Elevation Gain: 1,195m
Distance: 21.70km
Total Time: 7 hours 49 minutes
Date: April 7th, 2024
After a big outing the day before up Fire Mountain, I was almost ready to call in a rest day. We had driven some 300km on service roads and I was pretty tired from the whole thing. However, Andrea was keen to get out with her friend Lucia and asked if I’d be interested in joining. They had settled on Mount Underhill. A small, but somehow prominent peak that hugged the lower flanks of the Seymour ridge line. The route promised a scenic walk through moss covered forest and most importantly, minimal if any driving to get to the north shore. I was tired, but sold! Joining us would also be Lola a cute golden retriever that Andrea and I were dog sitting.
Andrea sorted out all of the planning, which proved to be a bit of challenge. There’s a fairly close trail head, but it’s on a private road and it seems most people take a longer approach in from. The Old Elsay Lake trail seemed to be the best option to link up with the main trail to Mount Underhill, so that’s what we settled on.
Our day started at the Baden Powell trail head and after ascending up through the forest we started on the long traverse along the Old Elsay Lake trail. The forest was quite beautiful in here and the trail was mostly easy to follow. However a few sections necessitated following the GPS closely otherwise we would have wasted a fair bit of time going the wrong direction.
About halfway in we had to negotiate a steep scrambling section along cliffs. This was the crux for Lola and we barely got her up the cliff. The concern was getting back. I couldn’t see an easy way to get her back down, but we figured as a back up we could return on the private road we had avoided on the way in.
After this section the route was straightforward, if not long and we had an uneventful ascent up to the forested summit of underhill. On the return we took our chances with walking down Sunshine Falls Lane and that drastically reduced our trip time and the difficulties of getting Lola down the crux section.