West Sumas Loop & Cougar Creek House of Horrors - December 19th 2021

Decided to do West Sumas Loop, started around 11:00 and it was a lot slower than expected. I attribute this to the steepness at the beginning and the poor flagging of the trail especially on the Northwest side. Got a little panicked when both Sam and I's phones were dieing and the GPS was dead. I was really worreid because the flagging was so bad, we were only halfway and on the opposite side of any road to bail on, I knew the sun would go down around 4, it was cold out and I had neglected to bring my essential safety supplies. Lessons learned 1) bring extra batteries for GPS and make sure it works before leaving the house, 2) Always make sure phones are fully charged and 3) Don't forget essential safety supplies, headlamp!!! Anyways the panic turned out unwarranted as our phones ended up staying on at 1% pretty much the whole way and the trail became much more obvious as we got to the more inhabited side near Camp Sumas. I'm a little dissapointed because I wanted to hit up a few of the bumps we passed along the way but because of everyones general morale (including mine) I just decided to bee line it straight back to the car. Not like it really matters anyways but I might do this one again in the summer now that I know which way to go for sure. Ended up back at the car at around 3, you can see the trip stats below. From there we went to Cougar Creek House of Horrors in Surrey for a good time :D