Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

April 16, 2019

924m

Cultus Lake / Chilliwack, BC

Vedder Peak is the highest summit on the long ridge of Vedder Mountain that runs from Chilliwack, B.C. all the way into the state of Washington. This is not a “sexy peak” by any measure as much of the hill is heavily wooded and the woods are mostly secondary growth thank to the heavy logging activities. There is however, a decently maintained trail that runs from a high parking lot (~600 m elevation) all the way to the summit. Those without a high clearance vehicle will need to park at the lower parking lot adding about 20 minutes of walk each way. I figured a peak like this could be easily done by my “morning exercise” routine even while taking a newbie hiker out.

This past Tuesday seemed like a good time as weather was calling for a mix of sun and clouds. This April had been very wet so I somehow got excited about this brief window. I had to be back to White Rock by 3:30 pm for work and eventually Kat and I decided on Vedder Peak. The highest summit she had done previously was Taggart Peak and that was below 800 m elevation so this would be her new personal record.

I had no issue driving my Tacoma all the way to the upper trail-head and that shaved 2 km of walking right off the bat. From the trail-head we followed an abandoned road for a short stretch before venturing into the woods. The trail was clearly marked and easy to follow. After a few switchbacks we got onto the broad “Vedder Ridge”. The elevation gain here was very gradual but we had to overcome a lot of up-and-downs in micro-terrain.

After what seemed like a long haul we faced a short, but steep descent to a stagnant pond right underneath the actual summit. The final 100 m gain to the summit was steep at places and involved two short stretches of scrambling aided by fixed ropes. The scrambling was class 2 at max in dry conditions. The true summit offered next-to-nothing view.

We stayed there for no more than 20 minutes because of the time constraint. It had taken us 1.5 hours to reach the summit and we were expecting a similar time to descend. It turned out that the return hike was more fluent than expected. This is a hike that you need to find a way to enjoy watching trees, otherwise don’t bother…

The engine was turned on and we even earned ourselves a bit of extra time to have a meal in the Yellow Barn Market Place near Abbosford before rushing back home for work. I got to work about 10 minutes late and that was fine.