HOPE MOUNTAIN Summit Trail: The view from 6,000ft

This week my brother and I climbed to the summit of Mount Hope, a 6,000 foot mountain overlooking the town of Hope, BC. Note this is a different hike from the Hope Lookout Trail we reviewed last year. The service road takes you up 900 meters or 3,000 feet. The trail is about 8 or 9 kilometers round trip and rated moderate to difficult with an elevation gain of 800 meters or 2,600 feet, which is a fair bit. First off we made sure we had the right gear and supplies for a long hike in cold weather. Just getting ready to head out here. It's a bit of a cool damp morning but I can see just a smidgen of blue in the sky over there and it feels like one of those mornings where it's all going to clear up and we're going to have beautiful views this afternoon even though right now it's like totally gray and I can only just barely see the mountain, so fingers crossed. The Forest Service Road that leads to the trailhead is only a short five minute drive from the town of Hope, BC. The turnoff is not far after Highway 3 splits off to the right. Once you turn in you'll see a brown sign that reads Mount Hope Forest Service Road. It starts out smooth and paved but quickly turns into a rough gravel road with some pretty large potholes. There are a few places with sharp drop-offs where you need to be careful. It's slow going even with a good four-wheel drive vehicle. We went up in early October just after a storm and passed the snow line once we neared the trailhead. A typical SUV can probably make it most of the way but when you get to a sign that says Mount Hope Summit Trail, Wells Peak Trail 500 meters ahead, beware! There are about four or five deep dips in the road that require significant clearance. Our truck just barely cleared them all but I got out twice to double check the depth and clear some trees out of the way. We've driven up the service road and we're now at 3,800 feet where the trailhead starts so we're about to venture out. You can see we've gone from down near our place where it was 10 degrees celsius to winter. It's zero, freezing, 32 degrees fahrenheit. It looked slippery so we donned our micro spikes. My brothers are way more hardcore looking than mine. We got on the trail and started moving. Well getting my workout so far but man it's so worth it when you see this beautiful view. Fog is starting to clear so we can see a little bit. There are some very steep sections of this trail. You need to be in good shape, maybe better shape than me. I just love hiking in the snow. It makes everything so quiet. Pretty nice scenery. I can see some blue sky up there. The sun's starting to come through. I see this big bright ball in the Could it be? Just came up a bit of a steep bit. We can see a peak over there. I don't know if that's the peak but the sun's out, starting to warm up. We're heading up to the first of two peaks. I'm out of breath. My brother's totally fine but we're starting to see you know some nice snow-capped mountains in the distance. We are officially on the first smaller peak and we can see the next one up there so we're almost there. I think I might make it. I would definitely recommend micro spikes and poles for the steep sections of this trail especially if you're coming up in the fall like this where it might be a little slippery or a little snowy. Easy peasy. There's a slightly scary part with a pretty steep drop off to one side. It's not too bad if you're careful. This is a heck of a drop here. I see footsteps all the way out to there. I'm not going out there. This is as close as I'm getting to that cliff. This is a steep and challenging hike. I had to take a few little micro breaks along the way to keep up with my mountain goat brother. All right we're doing this. So we made it to the summit ridge. Pretty amazing up here. Well worth the near heart attack coming up. From the 6,000 foot summit it seems as though you're almost looking down at the ground from an airplane. If you had a strong enough zoom lens you could probably see anyone down in hope. The large radio towers are protected from the weather inside funny looking fiberglass domes. And there is a huge massive cliff right in front of me. I'm still a ways from it but I'm already starting to feel like I'm off balance because it's that big of a cliff. There are fewer and fewer unrestricted flight areas so I took advantage and got out the drone. You can see the sharp drop off not far from where my brother and I were standing. It's a long long way down. I would have flown it longer but it was cold and windy and my hands were getting pretty chilled. And that was the summit. The sun's gone behind a cloud. Hands are freezing after doing that drone shot so we're gonna head back down. I mounted the GoPro on my head for some first person views. Somehow that sharp drop off was much harder for me on the way down. I tried to go under the rock instead of around it. That was a mistake since my huge backpack kept getting stuck and my butt got all muddy and wet. Hopefully this will provide you with some entertainment and education as to how not to navigate this section. With the weather improved we were able to see all the valley views that we missed on the way up. As we neared the end of the hike we were able to see back up all the way into the summit. Wow we were way up there. It's unbelievable. Which is the Mount Hope Summit. Actually it's not. My brother's over there. He's probably freaking out. Looks like I'm on the edge of a cliff but it's actually not that bad. My friends gave me this mega size Pringles for a late birthday present. Oh it is the perfect snack for up here. Thanks guys. I know it's silly but I want to get me walking out of the forest here. Yeah walking through here you know through the trees and then oh you're videoing. How embarrassing. Make sure you don't miss the video by liking, subscribing and turning on notifications. Thanks for joining us and we'll see you in the next one!