Police forced to hike into remote bush to dismantle pot plantation - Elaborate operation found atop rock cliff on Mount Seymour
By: Mary Frances Hill, Vancouver Sun (CN BC), 08-13-09

Somebody worked hard to set up an elaborate, 300-plant marijuana-growing operation on a remote, forested slope on Mount Seymour.

Members of the North Vancouver RCMP bike squad -- picked because they are in excellent shape -- dismantled the pot patch this week after hiking for an hour and a half from the nearest road access to find it.

They found 300 pots perched on a rock cliff, 10 kilometres from inhabited parts of North Vancouver, Const. Quentin Frewing said.

Someone had lugged all those pots, soil and watering equipment through dense bush, on foot.

The plants were watered by an arrangement of hoses run by electronic timers. The water came from a stream two km uphill, with gravity supplying the water pressure.

Police were alerted to the scheme by a helicopter pilot who noticed an irregular patch of green on the mountainside.

Frewing said Wednesday that officers took a keen interest in the operation because it was unique, and someone must have put many hours of hard labour into it.

"It was the middle of nowhere," Frewing said.

Outdoor pot patches were once common in Metro Vancouver, but their popularity faded in favour of indoor operations that allow growers more control and greater discretion, he said.

The discovery had police wondering if there are other marijuana-growing operations hidden on the North Shore mountains.

Frewing said the force will continue to rely on tips from the public

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