Mt Daniel
A Short Vertical Walk! Sat Jun 12th Red Breasted Sapsucker We'd been putting it off, having already climbed Pender Hill (1.6km long and 165m high), but could do so no longer. At 4.2km round trip and just under 400m elevation is was going to be a tougher climb. My early morning walk with Jack was quiet. Nobody else about and a slight mist rising over Mixal Lake. A Red Breasted Sapsucker was checking out a tree on the trail and seemed unconcerned by our presence. We got to the bottom of the Mt Daniel trail at about 0915 and were the first car there, so we knew we'd have the trail to ourselves unless any energetic runners overtook us. The average climb is 1:5.6, but the first part of the walk was a relatively shallow incline, which meant there were some steep bits to come. For a well-used trail, parts were quite overgrown with ferns and Jack disappeared beneath the low level canopy. He was on the long lead. After the bear encounter ...