On Saturday I had a quick hike from Mount Washington to Wood Mountain. 38km, 1343 meters of elevation gain. Total time, 12 hours.
Wood Mountain is where the old ski hill used to be up at the top of Forbidden Plateau Road. The ski hill is long gone but the hill remains open to the public as an access route into Strathcona Park. This hill is the normal access route to summit Mount Becher which people will still ski down in the winter. You can find more history on the Forbidden Plateau/Wood Mountain Ski Hill here: https://www.forbiddenskihill.ca/
I was pretty excited about this hike. So excited that I only got about 4 hours of sleep! The original plan was similar to what I did last year. Start at Mt Washington, stop at Cruickshank Canyon, stop at Douglas Lake and McKenzie Lake and exit at Wood Mountain. I figured this year I could also summit Mount Becher and maybe explore Slingshot Meadows, while I was in the area!
We started at 5:30 in the morning. Tracey and Dax joined me for the first kilometer. From here, I carried on further South and they looped around the Old Cabin Loop path back to the car. The meadows were foggy and we even saw a pair of deer in the distance.
At about 3km in you get to Battleship Lake. The lake was super calm. There's a few nice places you could set up for a picnic here but it's first come first serve. It would be nice to get here early with a fishing rod eventually. Even if these spots are full, there's lots of spots just off the trail you could fish from. There was fish jumping in almost every lake.
Past Battleship Lake you can turn off to the first camping sites at Lake Helen Mackenzie but I carried on further South. Just past Lady Lake there is the group camp site at Croteau Lake, 7km in. This camp site looks great and is right at the base of Mount Elma but is reserve only. The tent pads are practically right on the water. There is a hut here but it is closed due to covid still I think. Not sure what it costs to reserve these spots but I hardly ever see people here.
Almost 9km down the trail is a great lookout just before heading down a hill to the Kwai Lake Campsite. The lookout has a bench and a little platform that looks down the hill and straight across to Castlecrag Mountain and Mount Frink. Kwai Lake Campsite seemed busy but I was just driving through. There might have been a place or two left to put a tent but I wasn't looking.
Further South at 12km I finally arrived at the Cruickshank Canyon Lookout. The weather was threatening to turn and it looks like I didn't take many pictures here at all. I must have only stopped for 10 minutes or so and I was back on the trail.
On the way to Cruickshank Canyon, I noticed a sign for an unmarked trail to Panther Lake. I decided to take it as Panther Lake was in the direction I was heading. I figured the worse case scenario would be that I have to bushwhack to the North side of the lake to meet up with the trail.
The trail lead East around the backside of Mariwood Lake and down a small gulley where it eventually met up with the Plateau Trail. This little connector was overgrown in parts and a bit rough in others but was a great little side trail that saved me some elevation gain and minimized my back tracking.
The plateau trail is not the most travelled path but that is one of the nice things about it. It's easy enough going but can be a bit overgrown sometimes. At 21km in, I wasn't surprised to see 3 older people walking towards Mount Washington. They were a little surprised to see me!
They took the shortcut into the trail, taking the logging roads to McKenzie Lake. It's a much shorter entrance to the middle of the trail that people use to summit Indianhead Mountain and Mount Drabble. These two are on the list already, I just need more time.
They asked me what I was doing and I told them what my plan was with Becher. Get to the turn off and decide if I felt like I had energy enough to do it or not. When he asked me what way I was going to get to the summit, I was confused.
He told me that through Slingshot Meadows was a trail "just like the one we're on" that leads up to the Ash Pond and Mount Becher. I was going to explore around Slingshot Meadows anyhow so I kept this in mind!
Further down the trail I finally got through McKenzie Meadows, a huge marshy grass fiend, to McKenzie Lake. I cooked lunch and was soon on the trail again. This was the last reliable water source I found for the rest of the trail. Everything from here was either a gross pond or bone dry.
At 26km in I took note of the trailhead sign, "Viewpoint", for Indianhead Mountain. At 28km, I decided I had enough energy (and water) to take the turn off into Slingshot Meadows and head up Mount Becher.
This part of the trail was great!! It was definitely not like the one we were on as that man had suggested. It was the most overgrown trail so far. Ferns covered entire portions of the trail and at times I was wondering if I would have to back track. Luckily I made it through. The Ash Pond didn't look to great for a water source so I kept on going.
I got to the summit of Mount Becher, took a couple of pictures and tried to feed the Whiskey Jacks but they weren't hungry. I lingered for 10 or 15 minutes before making my way down. From here it was almost 2 more hours to the parking lot.
Great way to spend the day. Glad I took a chance on those two trails. Always a bit cautious when they aren't well marked or travelled. I'm also glad it turned out to be a pretty good day even though the weather looked like it could turn at any point.
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