Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

November 9, 2025

709m

Salt Spring Island, BC

Bruce Peak is the highest peak on Salt Spring Island and subsequently boasts over 700 m prominence. Mt. Tuam and Hope Hill are on the same forested massif but only the former has over 100 m prominence, even though both are officially named. There’s minimal hiking involved for all three objectives if one owns a trusty 4×4 vehicle so there’s minimal mountaineering value in these. Clair was rather staying in the hotel working on her homework and projects after tagging Baynes Peak in the morning, but I was determined to tag as many pimples as possible.

After dropping Clair off at the hotel I resumed the peak-bagging mission myself. The restaurant for dinner required a reservation so I made that for 5:45 pm, which meant the deadline to get back to the hotel was around 5:20 pm. To minimize the time spent or to maximize the number of peaks bagged I decided to drive as high as possible on each of them. The most important one was the island’s high point so I directed the bearing towards the top of Bruce Peak. The backroads were in excellent shape until I turned off onto the spur road. The last kilometer surely tested the Subaru Forester but with experience in off-roading I easily made the top. I didn’t even bother switching to the “X Mode”. I also paid a brief visit to the east summit but it was clear that it’s the lower one. The true summit actually offered some nice views. The highest natural point appeared to be inside the fence but there’s minimal marginal gain had I dared to make the trespass. The fences would be difficult to hop over due to the height and the barbed wires so I didn’t even try. It appears that most of the baggers who made the claim did not actually stand on that highest rock anyway.

I then turned my attention towards Mt. Tuam. I was unsure how far could I drive past Hope/Tuam saddle but it turned out that the first gate was actually open. There’s definitely a risk in driving past a gate but I decided to take the chance. I eventually came across a locked gate within a kilometer from the summit. There were multiple “no trespassing” signs but who gives a fuck about them these days. I simply hopped over those gates and dashed up to the rounded top. This peak was not very exciting but still offers some nice views. Due to the concern of being locked in I immediately turned around and jogged down to the vehicle.

The last objective would be Hope Hill. I debated about tagging it or not because it doesn’t boast over 100 m prominence but it was officially named, so it counts in my book. Ironically this one requires the most amount of hiking among the three peaks here. The gate was locked at the bottom of Hope/Tuam saddle so I had to earned the elevation profile, which was about 150 m maximum… I attempted to make a short-cut but it led to a logging slash mess, which I was forced to ‘shwack through. Higher up I discovered a new logging spur that went basically all the way to the summit. This spur was not shown on the Gaia map nor the satellite images so there’s no bushwhacking involved anymore. The view from the summit was limited so there’s no point in lingering. I quickly descended and drove away. Figuring that I still had some time to spare I decided to check out Reginald Hill next to Fulford Harbour.