Timberline Tales

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Tlatlos Peak: A Fall Day on the North Island

–submitted by Matthew Lettington

Tlatlos Peak was pretty much as expected: a steep logging road drive, some bushwhacking, a bit of route finding, and a beautiful summit on a lovely fall day.

I was very grateful for the day we all shared on Tlatlos Peak. I organized this exploratory trip to a North Island peak after a club member recommended nearby Peak 5800, often mistakenly called Tsitika Peak, which is quite different from Tsitika Mountain. I would have loved to explore Peak 5800 via the newly punched-in roads along its north ridge, but rumours suggested that active work in the area meant the roads were gated. No worries! After some discussion, we settled on neighbouring Tlatlos Peak instead. It wasn’t on my personal peak list, but it was new to me, and I’m always happy to get out and explore somewhere different.

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Forbidden Plateau Traverse trail (Raven Lodge to Wood Mountain)

–submitted by Ross Burnett

The Forbidden Plateau Traverse Trail is a section of one of the club’s “Lifetime Hiking Objectives”. It can be done in either direction; and as a day trip or an overnight. It is about 28 kilometres long.

Three keen members took advantage of the great fall day, and did it as a day hike, in the more downhill direction from Raven Lodge to the Wood Mountain end, finishing at the bottom of the old ski hill; which also serves as the trailhead for the Mt. Becher hike.

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Mount Klitsa via Brooke George Trail

–submitted by Matthew Lettington

Mount Klitsa is a somewhat uncharacteristic mountain along the Highway 4 corridor. While many of Vancouver Island’s most iconic peaks are in this area, they often come with sketchy approaches, long bushwhacks, thousands of tourists, or actual climbing. The lengthy logging-road approach to Klitsa tends to keep people at bay.

I wish I had a vehicle with more passenger space, but what can I do with only three spots for passengers? We do what we can. Thanks to the two other drivers who offered up their vehicles. In total, we managed to get 9 members out on September 20th.

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Steamboat Mountain Ruminations

–submitted by Matthew Lettington

Steamboat Mountain falls inside the Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks. A donation was made to the Tribal Park Guardians as a Responsible Users Fee.

I approached this trail with some trepidation. Recent online trail reports described the route as being in horrible condition, with several reports mentioning extensive windfall and a trail that was nearly impossible to follow. But I’m stubborn, and I had a few friends who had yet to make it to the summit of this gorgeous mountain. Seven of us, including Hemingway, set our intention: summit or bust!

Is this the crux?

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Moriarty from the East Side

-Submitted by Su Castle
Our injured middle-aged knees needed a smaller South Island objective. Moriarty from the East sounded like the perfect objective. We drove up Northwest Bay logging road 155 main to 160 main. The drive ended at a bit of a rock slide. After walking about 500 m up the logging road to our “trailhead”, we were faced with berry-full 250m bushwack to the logging road that would take us to 1125m.  So many tasty berries! (Plenty of elk and bear prints!)

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Rugged Mountain

–submitted by Jain Alock-White

Rugged Mountain – a goal of mine to get to this area for many years so I decided to make a trip happen! There were five spots open, for a total group size of six, including me. Even though there were 10 people on the waitlist, we only ended up being a group of four. Everyone else cancelled for one reason or another, and our fifth participant woke up feeling unwell and had to cancel on the day we were scheduled to leave. This is why putting your name on the waitlist is a good idea!

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Mt. Regan-Jutland North Ridge Horseshoe

–submitted by Nick Fisch

On July 11, 2026, myself and three other ramblers set out to summit Mount Regan and Jutland Mountain in Strathcona. These are considered two 6,000ft peaks, part of the infamous Alpine Club objective of summiting all 6,000ft peaks on Vancouver Island. Our plan was to run a shuttle, using the Oyster main FSR as an access road, parking one car at the Jutland (North Ridge) trailhead and then continuing on to begin the hike at the trailhead to the North Ridge of Regan. The idea was to summit Regan and then drop down below Albert Edward and hike all the way around to summit Jutland and then descend the North ridge. We used Matthew Lettingtons previous track of Regan (Hiking Mount Regan via The Lower Route – Explorington) as a guide to descend Regan and get to the Strathcona trails leading to Jutland. It was an ambitious plan as we had to get it done within ten hours given the Oyster main gate was only open 8am-8pm (leaving an hour driving each way).

Screenshot

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