February 4, 2026
~ submitted by Melanie Yu
We all met and congregated at approximately 8:05am. Some members where familiar with each other but we all had not hiked with each other as a whole. One member expressed appreciating this hike because they were not interested in super long drives towards Port Alberni or beyond, and it was more of a summer thing for them to engage in.
We were blessed with being the only hiking group on the mountain. All of us except one had hiked the mountain on more than one occasion, and none of us had ever experienced hiking this mountain without passing by another group. We were so fortunate to have the mountain to ourselves!
The entire hike was full of laughs and conversations. I guess being with a group made up of retired folks conjures up fonds memories when the leader is more than half their senior! Haha.
We experienced all the false summits and it provided the group natural break points to catch their breath. The summit registry had completely disappeared, it was the perfect opportunity for the trip leader to replace the registry and we were the first group to sign our names.
We were blessed with clear skies and beautiful bowls of cloud inversions. Before we set sails for our descent the horizon above the cloud inversion continued to evolve into a beautiful opalescent pink blue hue and we couldn’t stop taking photos of the evolving horizons at all the false summits.
The hike was posted as a P3 but it was a very comfortable p2 and we ended the hike around 14:30. Everyone resolved at the end that we enjoyed the company of each other and that we would all hike again in the near future.
A successful club hike in the books!