Mt. Manuel Quimper is the name of today’s hike update. A great trek, not too difficult and only took about 4 hours.

The trail head is just north of Saseenos along harbourview road. There is a parking lot with picnic tables at the end of the road. Climb out, close the doors, prepare for adventure.

The trek starts along an old logging road, not terribly exciting but allows you to cover distance quickly. The trail bears off to the right and things get interesting, the wide gravel road gives way to a path with some Avataresque log bridges.

Across the logs the path becomes loose stones with the appearance of a dried riverbed. The pitch steepens, your glutes feel the burn, a layer of clothing gets unzipped or taken off. But, fret not, after a couple of minutes the pitch lessens and your legs get a rest.

When the trees start to thin out, the view gets to be rather breathtaking. The mix of trees, hills and ocean is an invigorating sight.

One of the coolest parts of the Manuel Quimper hike is seeing the rock face completely covered in thick moss. Walking up the mountain felt like bouncing on marshmallows. Compared to hiking in Ontario this was a dream.

Reaching the top you will be greeted by a creepy creaking old fire lookout.

Is it haunted you ask? Yes! of course it is! Why are you even asking, look at that thing. I’m pretty sure there was a phone with a direct line to the ghostbusters there.

Haunted or not we decided to go in and investigate. Upon entering we were greeted with beautiful wall art which consisted mostly of initials in hearts and penises.

Future archaeologists are going to be so confused when they find this stuff.

After one final gaze out at the view from the top, we re-traced our steps and made it back to the car.

It was a great day, although I keep hearing voices when I try to go to sleep, probably just the wind though. I doubt it has anything to do with the cold patch I walked through in the abandoned fire watchtower.