Mt Fromme which is situated at the end of our street has for many years had a large network of trails but they have been unmarked and undocumented so walking here has been challenging without getting thoroughly lost.
Last year the District of North Vancouver agreed to funding to manage and upgrade the trail network, improving many of the trails and more importantly naming and mapping them so that it was safe to explore the area.
This map shows the lower portion of trails on Mt Fromme, there is an even larger area of trails further up the hill not shown here. The different colours and lines used to denote trails depends on whether they are walking only or mixed use (ie mountain biking also). All trails are off-leash dog friendly although many (marked with a ‘C’ inside a pawprint’) allow commercial dog walkers which means if licensed you can have up to 6 off leash dogs per person. There are therefore often many dogs on Mt Fromme !
We start our walk up Princess Av and then cut through to Braemar along Powerline Trail.
It’s an extremely wet, miserable day. The rain just keeps pouring. The tops of the trees all disappear into the mist as we walk along Braemar.
We made the initial section of our walk along roadway so that we could make a loop of our walk rather than a there & back. It was a great opportunity for Mojo to practise some on-leash heel walking.
Many of the leaves have already fallen but there’s still a few spots of brightly coloured foliage.
Then we turn right and complete the long slog up St. Georges Av. It’s only about 3-blocks on a quiet side street but continuously uphill and in the rain quite long enough !
St. Georges Av ends in a cul-de-sac but continues as a trail onto Fromme.
After a short further climb we once again reach the Powerline Trail. From here the Powerline Trail continues a few kilometers West all the way to Grouse Mountain. However East of here the trail stops and doesn’t quite connect with the section of Powerline Trail through Princess Avenue (even though on a map it appears it quiet easily could do if the scrub was cleared and a trail stamped out – this is a shame as this would have made the initial section of walk better. The trail snakes off to the West into the mist.
We however cross the Powerline Trail at this point and continue up the St. Georges Trail which is a strenuous and continual uphill climb for 20 minutes or so deep into the forest.
Eventually we meet the Baden Powel Trail which runs East-West along the mountain. While the St. Georges continues uphill at this point we turn right onto the Baden Powell.
The forest is deep in mist and there is such a thick canopy in places very little grows on the forest floor.
There are bridges across the creeks but as this is a popular mountain biking location the bridges accommodate both walkers and bikers.
Mojo tests both sides.
A gnarly old tree root.
The Abelard Canyon Bridge was built recently to replace an older bridge that had been washed away during a storm. Given the distance and terrain from paved roads here it would have been no small job to have constructed such a substantial bridge.
Mojo checks it out.
There are many creeks running down the mountainside, including this one which passes over a large exposed piece of rock face before then running under a footbridge.
Another creek in full flow
After taking the Baden Powell trail some distance we connect down to Braemar Rd and make our way back home to dry off. It’s good to have a wider selection of trails now available within walking distance of the house.
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