February 11th, 2023
~ submitted by Matthew Lettington
We called this hike after the name of the feature and what we hoped we would find: an endless plateau of fun! Well, maps lie. I suppose it’s not that they lie as much as contour lines can hide a lot of terrain.
The day started as one expects these days, with change. Jaime planned this trip for the club but she came down with an illness the night before the trip. So while she was ailing away at home, suffering through the dreary virus-fighting, we slogged away on the “endless plateau of fun”. At the trailhead, we bumped into another club member, Ravi, so he joined our troupe for the day.
We were fortunate that Ravi came as he had some experience on the hill and advised us on the best route. As we ascended from 650 metres where we parked our vehicles, we used the bike trails that lead up the hill.
Within an hour, we donned our snowshoes because the snow was getting soft in places. And as we gained the highest sections of the plateau, we crossed over marshes and shrubs hidden below as much as 2 metres of snow.
We reached the summit sometime around noon and took a longish lunch. Here, Ravi used his HAM radio to make contact with several other folks, including one sitting on another summit in Washington state. That’s some reach!
As we were all weary, aware that the day was running on, and eager to get back to the vehicles before dark, we thought it a fine idea to follow the logging roads back to the vehicles. Let’s just say, it was NOT the best part of the day. By far, the climb on the bike trails was the feature of this trek.
Thanks to all those folks that made this a fantastic day in the hills.
full album of photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/fokcQuXvCFMZpcXd9