Green Mountain was used as a ski hill back in the 1960's created by a bunch of local ski nuts. It had a small lodge and T-bar system at one point, although now both are old and dilapidated. This mountain is frequented by elk as we saw much evidence of during our visit. It is also a protected marmot habitat.
To get to Green Mountain we took Highway 1 from Victoria toward Nanaimo. Just passed the airport we took Nanaimo River Rd to the west and picked up my dad in the Wild Play parking lot. Further on there was a gate on Nanaimo River Rd just passed First Lake and it is operated by Island Timberlands. I made sure to check the gate information and on their blog it said that the gate is open from 0600-1500. It turns out it is actually open until 1600. We left the gate around 0945 and headed out on a well maintained gravel/paved road out into the valley. Eventually we ended up where the road split and took Branch K off to the south. Not long after this we turned up K-15, which was well marked and followed red flagging all |
the way up until we hit a cross ditch I did not feel comfortable crossing and we parked. The time was 1045 when we got out of the truck and started walking. It only took us five minutes or so to reach the area where most people park. I was a bit disappointed to see hunters hanging out here. Seems weird since I thought it was a protected habitat? I guess as long as they are not shooting marmots... We got to the sign you can see in the picture on the right, which had a great map of the area. We didn't really have any plans of where we wanted to go so we just started walking in the open meadows along the west face of the mountain. |
The natural meadows were breathtaking. I can only imagine what they look like in the spring, green and alive with wild flowers. This place is truly unique. Scatter amongst the meadows there are many signs of past human presence. For instance, as we made our way along we stumbled upon an old truck, which looked as though it was slowly dissolving into the ground. |
As we meandered our way along we also came across pieces of the old T-bar system. There are some old poles anchored solidly in the ground and some rusted cables and electrical wires running through the bush. I also found an old rusted pair of kelly clamps, which we use at the hospital to clamp chest tubes and secure things in the operating room... The grass here is littered with elk scat. It is very obvious that they frequent this area. | After walking along through the meadows we decided to head for higher ground up on the northern aspect of the mountain. Here we passed some interesting frozen ponds and even found a snake, that's right a November snake, in the grass. I thought for sure he was frozen to death. Turns out he was alive. I don't know how long her survived after this without finding a spot to hide and hibernate. |
After spending some time eating a snack and taking in the summit, we decided to make our way back down. We figured we were more in line with the truck if we headed straight down according to my GPS and so we followed some old structures and cables that headed in that direction. We passed the site of the old lodge, which is nothing more then a shattered pile of rubble and wood. However, there is a tiny shack still standing. There were some cool things scattered all over the ground here including, but not limited to: glass insulators, a wood stove door, old metal fixtures, smashed toilet/bath tub, etc. We got slightly off track after this point just following the game trails, but eventually popped down back at our first creek crossing. Just before the sign at the end of the gravel road. We were back at the truck and passing through the gate with an hour to spare before it closed. I hope to go back to this spot in the summer and see the meadows in their true green blooming glory. Here is the GPS track of our trip: |