Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

September 28, 2023

172m

Coquitlam, BC

“High Knoll” is the highest point in Minnekhada Regional Park in the vicinity of Coquitlam and Pitt Meadows. The name is unofficial but it does boast over 100 m prominence. This was actually my 2nd time hiking this objective. The first time was done in some mediocre weather that I didn’t even bother to write a trip report. This time I made a spontaneous decision to head there after sunset. Lulu W. and I had been talking to each other for a while and the plan was to do the Locomotive Group aka. “Train Traverse” on Oct. 1st. together with another friend, but we somehow managed to meet and get to know each other prior to the big trip. This was a Thursday and I threw out the idea to go watch sunset somewhere but I decided at the very last minute that we should do something a little bit more adventurous. Lulu didn’t really care about the objective so I could make the last minute decision based on weather and time.

Lulu did not finish work until 5 pm which was later than planned but I was also running late due to the traffics. As a result I did not pick her up from Vancouver until almost 6 pm. This meant most of the hike would be done under the cover of darkness but I thought that might actually be a great idea. We had talked about one of my past trips in which I did the entire ascent (Mazama Dome) at night with a full moon. I made sure that we both had head-lamps and then drove us to Minnekhada Regional Park in about 40 minutes. The park’s gate would be closed at 7 pm so I found a spot to park outside the gate. The gate was indeed locked upon returning. There are multiple trails in this park and we took more or less the same route that I used on the first time. We aimed between the two lakes and found some neat post-sunset views there. We then dashed up the High Knoll trail at a faster-than-anticipated pace and arrived there still with some evening colours. We had the entire hike beyond those lakes and the summit to ourselves, and stayed on the summit for about an hour watching the dusk horizon turning into night scenery.

To descend we both turned on the head-lamps and went down the same way. The trail was slippery at places. Some of the junctions weren’t signed so I had to consult with the GPS to make sure we went back the same way. We then drove to Burnaby for a late, but much-needed hot pot dinner and I did not get back home until 11:30 pm.