Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

June 14, 2020

359m

Crofton / Vancouver Island, BC

I’m aware of another Mt. Richards next to the US/Canada border in Waterton Lakes National Park of the Rockies but this one is a lame and treed summit on the southern Vancouver Island. There’s a trail that runs up the western flanks from Crofton Lake all the way to the summit but there’s little to recommend about this hike beside getting some exercise. From peak-bagging point of view this is a complete dumpster-diving and totally worthless. The area is better known for Crofton Lake for a relaxed stroll among the locals. I opted to bag this peak because I got denied to board the 8:15 pm ferry from Nanaimo to Tswwassen so I was stuck on the island for one more night. Earlier in the day I had ascended Mt. McQuillan and Mt. Spencer further to the north.

I drove out of Duke Point ferry terminal and made to Crofton at 8:20 pm. I had done zero research besides browsing Gaia maps and thought I could have driven at least to Crofton Lake and maybe even higher, but the reality was disappointing. The roads were gated at the bottom and even after trying a different entrance point wasting another 10 minutes driving around. I did some quick Google research and indeed, the peak needs to be hiked from the bottom with about 10 km of round trip distance. This meant I would have to summit after sunset in the dark, but since I was already at the trail-head I was determined to bag it no matter what.

I made some quick work to Crofton Lake negotiating a maze of junctions by pure GPS navigation. The lake itself was quite beautiful but I had little time to linger. I opted to walk around the south side and picked up the trail after a bit of confusion. I followed the trails on my Gaia map linking up several connectors and made to an area of clear-cut on the upper slopes. At this point it was already almost sunset. I plodded ahead nonetheless linking up more trails and eventually made to the east summit, which is about 3 m higher according to some sources. The official name is labelled on the west summit which is about 1 km away, so I had to keep going. Dropping down from the east summit I came to a road and then picked up a deactivated spur that seemed to run towards the west summit. I had to turn on the head-lamp almost immediately after turning on this spur road. The last 10 m elevation gain to the summit involved some bushwhacking.

After taking one obligatory victory shot I soon started the descent. I checked the map and decided to walk down the road instead of the trails. The quality of those trails was not very good. After a few junctions I joined the “Mt. Richards Mainline” and then picked up a connector trail lower down to get back to the shore of Crofton Lake. The rest of the descent was uneventful but felt quite lonely in the darkness.

I got back to the vehicle at past 11 pm and spent the next hour cooking a late dinner and relaxing. The place where I parked (on the street) was pretty quiet so I opted to catch up a few hours sleep, but without a sleeping bag it was pretty difficult to fall asleep. By 2:30 am I was fed up with the frustration and dragged my exhausted self northwards to Duke Point to wait. To my surprise there’s already a line-up but I did manage to get onto the 5:15 am ferry without an issue. The ferry was full by 4:30 am so that’s something to be aware of.. While sailing back to the mainland I fell asleep in the truck. I was completely dead after two days of minimal sleep. Others had to knock hard on my window to wake me up so that people could move… I got back home at 9 am and slept straight to 3 pm…