August 21, 2009 | Tips from Travellers >
North Vancouver, Hiking
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We decided to climb Crown Mt. on 18.10.2009 in Lynn Headwaters Regional Park. It was beautiful, hot summer day. We took Grouse Grind Trail to get to the ski area of the Grouse Mountain. It was like 1 h 15 min of workout. This trail is quite steep and very very crowded even in the middle of the week. We did not enjoyed it at all. We did this trail during winter time (when it was closed to the public) and that was much more fun and we met only few people that time. Anyway, when we reached the ski area we had to pass the Grouse Mountain Peak from the west site and hit toward Little Goat Mountain. We did not see any trail signs until we passed Grouse Mountain. From this point we easily found direction to Crown Mtn, there was sign on every crossroads. The trail to the Little Goat Mtn was partly steep but nice. We walked in the forest in the shadow. After we reached the top the trail start to go dawn. We were very surprised, because we were almost on the Crown Mtn level. The trail goes down straight to the Crown Pass. It was like 30 min steep way down with chains in few places. So when we finally get to Crown Pass we had to go up to the top of Crown Mtn. The trail was very steep, mostly in the forest, 3-4 grade climbing. We had to use our hands on the rocks for the most of the time. It took us over an hour to get there to the top. We were so tired, could feel our legs and there was no shadow on the top, but the view compensated everything. You can see North Shore Mountains 360 degrees panoramic view (Coliseum Mountain, The Lions, etc.) and Vancouver. The way back took us the almost same time except we took a skyride down from the Grouse Mtn. The whole thing took us 7 hours of workout with small breaks. We really recommend this trail, especially if you like nice, quite, unfrequented places.
Let's go explore! :]