The Mount Seymour hike is actually made up of several smaller peaks. To reach the main summit, you need to go past Dinkey Peak, Brockton Point, First Pump Peak and Tim Jones Peak. It is pretty perfect for newbie walkers as although it is steep, with plenty of rocks to scramble over, it’s not too difficult and rewards walkers with epic views from the summits. Tim Jones Peak was re-named in January 2017 (it used to be called Second Pump Peak.) It is named after Tim Jones, who was a paramedic and a leader of North Shore Rescue. Tim participated in more than 1,400 missions and he helped more than 1,600 people, so it’s pretty cool to wander up a mountain with his name on!

Mount Seymour was the first mountain hike that Marc and I did in Vancouver. (It is also the place where we had our first “never ever” experience learning to ski.) So I really love this pretty area!

Tim Jones Peak – The basics:

Distance: 8km 
Elevation gain: 400m (ish)
Highest Point: 1407m
Time:  It took us 4 hours (including a break at Tim Jones Peak). It’d probably be 5 hours if we kept going to Mount Seymour.
What to bring:
Walking boots, walking poles and rain gear!
The ten essentials (as always)
Facilities:
There is a loo in the car park at the start. In winter, there is a cafe too.
Dogs:
Good for dogs up to First Pump Peak, although the hike to Dog Mountain, is even better (even in the snow)! It’s a bit rocky for paws to the higher peaks.
How hard is it?
Moderate. It is steep and will get your heart going, but the path is easy to follow.

Mount Seymour Map

Trusting the weather forecast

This was one occasion when we shouldn’t’ve trusted the weather forecast! We headed up into the clouds, expecting the sun to come out from 1pm. So, we arrived at Mount Seymour’s car park at about 1pm, and we didn’t worry too much about the rain. We started hiking up into the mist, expecting it to clear up at some point…

Mad folks in the rain?

There was a Spartan Race happening on Mount Seymour during our hike. So as we walked up the mountain in the rain, loads of people were running down the mountain in the other direction. I heard some of them mention we must be mad to be hiking in the rain…but they were running, and doing an obstacle course in the rain. So I am not sure which of those options counts as the craziest!?

Mount Seymour and Tim Jones Peak route

The path for Mount Seymour is very easy to follow. Even in the mist, you’ll be able to follow the route.  We made it up to First Pump Peak, where normally you can see gorgeous views. You can get a taster for those views from my previous Mount Seymour post here. On this occasion, we were unable to see anything further than a few meters away.

After the first peak, you need to descend a little before climbing back up again. It was such a wet day that it seemed like we were hiking up a stream!

Tim Jones Peak

Even if this peak is now named after a hero, the views were not particularly amazing. This is the view from the Tim Jones Peak. Pretty impressively grey eh!? 

I found a teeny tarn near the top of Tim Jones Peak.

We had a laugh and relaxed on Tim Jones Peak for a while. It was nice to munch an apple, and attempt to take photos in the clouds. We decided not to keep going onto Mount Seymour’s final highest peak. It was a bit too slippy and misty to risk the dodgy path.

Misty trees

We started heading back home. It had stopped raining, but the mist had left teeny droplets of water on the branches and needles of each tree! We might have been soggy, but it was pretty to see all these teeny water-jewels.

Isn’t this lovey!?

Eventually we made it back down out of the clouds.

Google weather failed us spectacularly, but we still had a fantastic day out.