Synopsis: A hike up to the paraglider launch area, just below the peak of Mount 7. Great views of the Columbia Valley, and you might see hang gliders and paragliders taking off.
Access: From the lights in Golden, drive four blocks east on 9th Street, past the RecPlex, and turn right on 14th Ave, just before the elementary school. If you reach the swimming pool, you've gone too far. Drive south on 14th. In two blocks, it starts climbing a steep hill to Selkirk Heights subdivision. Follow the road up the hill, around the corner, and keep going straight. Continue straight after the houses end, and drive 300 metres through the new subdivision. You will reach a T intersection. Turn left on to the Bowle-Evans FSR, set your odometer to 0 here, and drive up the road for 13.8 km to the parking area.
Some notes on the road: at 6.6 km, stay right. At 7.6 km, go straight. at 8.1 km, stay right, and at 11.8 stay right. There are now kilometre markings for the whole route.
Just past 9 km, the road curves hard to the left, but you can look straight ahead and see what the road used to be like. For a number of years in the early 90s, the Grade 8 class at Golden Secondary School would hike up that road every September.
Trailhead: Walk back along the road for 200 metres, past the rough campsites on the left, until there is a dirt road heading off to the right. Head up this road. (During the summer, there may be some four wheel drive vehicles using this road. We don't recommend it.)
Trail: Right away, you are faced with a choice: left fork or right? It doesn't really matter, since they end up in the same place, but you might want to know that the left fork goes around the hill, and the right fork goes over it. We suggest the left one. You'll be a bit less bitter when you lose all your elevation gain on the other side.
As you descend, look ahead and to the right. You will see two forested knolls. You gain the first, drop down to a col, and then climb up the second, which lies below the rocky slabs of Mount 7 itself.
Follow the road for 1.7 km until you reach the second fork. Take the left hand choice again. Just around the corner, you have to pass your master's degree: this time there are three forks in the road. Take the right hand one, which goes up hill for 300 metres. At the top of this steep grind, you dead end in a clearing atop the first knoll. Stay hard left, and you will see an obvious trail dropping off the ridge to the south. Follow this trail as it drops down to the col and climbs to the next knoll.
Follow the trail until it emerges on a rocky rib, and follow the rib up to the windsock at the top launch area.
My recommendation is to do this hike very early in the morning. It's really special to watch the sun creep across the landscape down in the valley, and you'll miss all the traffic.
Cautions: