's Mount Glasgow - Scramble
Rubble... rubble... and more rubble. If you enjoy the peace and serenity of a hardly visited peak then this is a gem. Its recommended to bike in the 7km from the west end of Little Elbow Recreation Area to make your day a bit shorter. While route finding itself is not needed since it would be very difficult to get yourself lost, it is a bit difficult to 'see' the route at times on your way up in all the rubble since it does not see that many visitors = no clearly defined beaten path. Unless you have a bad fear of heights this peak should not pose you any problems.
How to get there?
It all starts at the Little Elbow Recreationa area. You take highway 66 west of Bragg Creek and follow it to the very end. It is a campground so you can setup camp for the weekend and do multiple peaks if your up for it. Or just relax the next day. Otherwise parking is on your left as you enter.
Mount Glasgow Trip Log
Unless you are staying at the campground, parking is just on the left as your enter the campground area. There is a sign that says 'Trailhead Parking'.
You have to follow 'Little Elbow Trail' which is basically the road you came in on. It heads south through the campground and comes to a gate. The trail for Mount Glasgow is about 7.2km from this gate. This is done preferably on a bike as it is a lot quicker then hiking the 7km there and 7km back. Once you pass a blue bridge, stop at the first drainage you come across.
Look out for two cairns and a piece of flagging tape hanging off a tree when you come across the drainage. It is hard to miss since both cairns have large sticks sticking out of them.
Once you lock your bike(s) up to a tree, head up the trail that rises steeply right off the bat. This is about 80m south-east of the road.
From this point the trail the starts to turn into rubble and loose rock as it heads up a drainage point. When you reach a small rock wall at the top, turn right.
The trail breaks the tree line very quickly and you are soon traversing south-east under the towering cliffs above. This is some of the best trail underyour feet you will encounter along this scramble so enjoy it while you can.
As your traversing you will pass over a few small drainage points and the trail will seemingly start to scatter in all directions. You have two choices from here. You can either drop down a little bit into the stream bed below, or continue heading upwards on the rock. They both come out to the same area.
IF you do drop down these two pictures are what you will see, you basically boulder hop your way to the end where a wall of loose rubble is awaiting that you have to get up.
If you do not drop down and you continue upwards then you eventually come to a rocky point that you can mostly by pass by going on your left and it almost makes steps down. From there you will end up on a large slop of rubble. It is decently steep so you will probably appreciate your poles if you brought them.
Next is to walk across this pile to reach the point where the ridge on the right meets with the rubble. There is a trail there that makes life a little easier but you can bet on loosing it on occasion as it is not very beaten in at parts.
Once you get up the slope you will want to stick closer to the edge then further on the backside. If you pay close attention there are pieces of trail that make it easier as you head up but it is pretty broken up. Once you pass the first hump you will see the last large portion of what is left. The trail here heads slightly to the left as it heads up.
Once you come to a small rock band that is in your way, head to the right and there will be a path that takes you around it and up some more loose rock to the summit.
For those folks that are interested there is also a geocache on the summit cairn. For more information about what geocaching is you can check out the official Geocaching website.
Return is the same way. It will probably be a little easier since you can see parts of the trail better from uptop then from below.
GPS Plotted Route
From vehicle to vehicle, a little over 17km of the route was done by bike which saved a lot of time. Walking is another option but does not compare time wise.
You do not gain much elevation on the bike ride in so most of it will be done by walking. There are still enough hills that make your legs thankful on the way back that your freely coasting downhill.
If there is any change to the route you feel others should know about, shoot us an e-mail from our contact page.
