Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

September 28, 2021

1194m

Princeton, BC

I cannot believe the bump of Mt. Kennedy is officially-named. It’s not even the highest pimple in the immediate vicinity of Kennedy Lake about 20 km south of Princeton. This peak is directly to the east of Kennedy Lake but the bump to the west shows one extra contour line on the maps as a result, Mt. Kennedy doesn’t even boast 50 m prominence. This peak is also mostly occupied by residential area (hence inside some private properties) and the summit is entirely forested with no view whatsoever. That being said, if one dares to ignore the “private property” signs then one can drive to and park in front of someone’s house within a stone’s throw from the summit. Brandon and I did it as the last objective on this past Tuesday when the weather pushed us farther to the east to escape the rain.

We chose Mt. Kennedy because we only had an hour before sunset and we still had to drive to anywhere from Princeton. This was the only “peak” we could have bagged before losing daylight. About 20 minutes later we turned onto the roads leading into Kennedy Lake and ignored all the signs and parked as close to the summit as possible. We had to duck underneath one barbed wire fence and thrash through a band of thorny plants. The summit was attained after a mere 30-m elevation gain in mostly open forest. We traversed across the summit “plateau” from north to south just to make sure we actually stood on the highest point. Once we got those obligatory victory shots we dashed down to the truck and immediately drove out of this place before anyone came to fuss around. I then drove us all the way back into Lower Mainland through some consistent rain. I stopped in Hope for some fuel and food.