Mount Benson

Report by Simone R.

An adventure no one expected!

It was a Sunday in September – the weather forecast was pretty good and we had leisure time!
So what should we do? Just relaxing at wonderful Westwood Lake or do some sports? We decided to have a little hike to the top of Mount Benson – the highest mountain around Nanaimo. Friends told us it takes about two hours to get up and one hour to go down.  That is why we wanted to see the lovely Westwood Lake before. However the trail does not start at Westwood Lake, so we planned to go back to the beginning of the trail.

The way up…

As we started to walk back from Westwood Lake, a man told us we can follow the orange signs to go to the top of the mountain. Then we don’t have to go back to the main street. Okay so let’s do it! After the little bridge, the next right and on the way where you can decide between three trails, we stuck to the middle one, as the man told us.
Well, sounds good so far, however after 2.5 hours we did not see the top yet! We asked other hikers how long it takes to go up. They told us, it will take another 1.5 hours. So the sun sets at 7:30 pm and we already have 3 pm. Alright, we have to hurry up a little bit! Hopefully we are on the right trail! Sometimes it seemed to be wrong, because we walked on the mountain bike trail!
It was really exhausting to get up, because it was super steep. However, the weather was good, so it was fun and the view in-between was wonderful. So we tried to go faster. After another two hours we finally made it! We arrived at the top! It was soooooo wonderful! It was really worth the tough walk! We had a 360 degree view all over the island!

Getting down before darkness…

Because it was already 5 pm we had to hurry up to get down before the sun sets. You have to know, that bears and cougars are living in the forest. So we really wanted to be out of the forest before sunset. So we wanted to take the original trail to the other lake. We met a man who wanted to see the sunset on the top. As I told him that he needs a flashlight and a bear spray for his plan, he joined us, before he got lost. He told us he took the way we wanted to take to get up. So let’s take the trail he suggested….
After 1.5 hours we were still on a trail in the middle of nowhere and we could not see the end of the forest. However we kept on walking. After the sun already set, we got more and more afraid. The man said he made a mistake and we are not on his original trail. That is why we used our smartphones GPS and searched for the next street! The plan was to find a car which drives us back to VIU. So we found a street, but there were hardly any cars! However we were lucky! The third car we asked was a super friendly man in a pickup who drove us back to the university! He really was our hero! While driving us home he told us, we were super close to a natural water place for animals. Lucky we found him to drive us!
You really see, how Canadian are – super friendly and ready to help in every situation!!

Tipps

So what we learned:
Make sure to find the right trail to get up and down, if you want to go to Mount Benson and take a bearspray with you! Just in case! However the view really worth the little adventure!