18.5km, 869 meters elevation gain. Total time 7 hours.
I attempted to do this hike last weekend but my boots were leaking and I didn't have rain pants. I turned back before I could finish the loop. With new boots and rain pants, I stayed dry for longer but still got wet eventually.
It was raining for most of the hike and everything was wet. The water level of the lakes had risen significantly and parts of the trail were fully submerged!
McKenzie Meadows, a marsh, was extremely wet because of the rain. Parts of the trail here were submerged. You had to take a different path to get across some of the rivers.
Once at the top of Indianhead Mountain, I decided to take a path down the back of the mountain I had heard about. There was a trail, sort of. It hadn't been travelled in some time, was mostly overgrown and hard to navigate and stay on the right path. It was also very wet. At the bottom of the mountain, the path crossed another marsh that was almost as good looking as McKenzie Meadows before joining back up with the Plateau Trail.
Further up the trail I turned towards Drabble Lakes and made my way up towards Mount Drabble. The rest of the path was well marked and easy to follow. After the summit of Mount Drabble it was a gentle path down the mountain before jumping down on to a logging road for the last few easy kilometers.
It was wet and a bit miserable at times but I crossed another mountain off the list! This also completes a few of the trails I had not done yet on this side of Strathcona. There's not much in the Forbidden Plateau area I haven't explored now!
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