Elevation Gain: 395m
Distance: 8.94km
Total Time: 1 hour 38 minutes
Date: December 7th, 2024
Red Mountain has to be up there as one of the most common mountain names, right near the top with Goat Mountain. A quick search revealed well over 130 Red Mountains on Open Street Maps, so to clarify this Red Mountain is the one just east of Hayward Like near Mission, BC. It’s a small forested bump with a logging road that runs all the way to a microwave tower at the top. Those facts didn’t keep Andrea and I though on a bad weather weekend and we came armed with bikes to subdue the boring road walking.
We headed out on a Saturday, post rain storm for an afternoon outing. Unbeknownst to us there was a gun range at the entrance of the service roads and the cacophony of gun shots could be heard from all over. Thankfully, after a short bypass through the forest we were on the RE-100 logging road and climbing out of ear shot from the gun range. The road was in perfect condition and we cruised up without any issue on our bikes.
A new microwave tower waited for us at the end of the road and appears to be the source of the great condition of the road. As we crested onto the summit plateau, I was surprised to discover wide open views looking towards Vancouver. We had golden hour lighting and it goes to show even these random summits can surprise.
The wind was biting as the sun started to dip near the horizon so we biked off the summit, cruising down in 20 minutes or so. A surprisingly fun day out!