High Country Expedition

The High Country Expedition is a four-day, three-night backcountry journey for youth ages 12–17, traveling point-to-point through the wilderness heart of Strathcona Provincial Park.

 

Our route departs from the Paradise Meadows trailhead above the Comox Valley, leaves the main loop at a junction most hikers walk past, and travels into the open plateau of the park's backcountry — lakes, meadows, and mountain terrain that see few visitors. We exit four days later onto the old road of the Forbidden Plateau ski area, arriving somewhere genuinely different from where we began.

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In between, we establish a wild camp in the plateau — no designated sites, no infrastructure, no other parties. We choose our ground, set up camp, and live  as a small, self-sufficient team. Route-finding, camp craft, cooking, and problem-solving are shared work. Our days will be spent exploring off the trail, navigating in open country, and studying animal track and sign. Evenings are for council, mountain stories, and the kind of conversation that tends to happen when people are tired in a good way and far from a screen.

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Forbidden Plateau in mid-July is in full sub-alpine spring — snowpack still retreating from sheltered hollows, avalanche lilies and glacier lilies blooming at the melt line, heather and lupine coming into flower across the meadows. The lakes are cold and clear with snowmelt, and streams running high. Vancouver Island marmots — found nowhere else on earth — are out and vocal on the rocky slopes. Golden eagles work the thermals above the plateau, and black bears move along the meadow edges as the snow pulls back, turning over the new growth. The group will be moving through this landscape at its most alive, in country that almost no one visits.

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Ecological awareness and historical context run through the whole journey: the plant communities of the high plateau, the animal ecology of the park, the long presence of the Pentlatch, Eiksan, and K'ómoks peoples on these lands, and the more recent story of provincial park and Wood Mountain ski area, whose old road the group walks out on at the end.

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The expedition is led by Danu founder Kes, alongside Matt Friesen, an experienced nature-based educator and wilderness guide. Hot breakfasts and dinners are provided, whilst participants bring their own dry lunches and snacks for each day. All personal camping gear is the responsibility of participants — a full kit list will be provided upon registration. Sharing a tent is strongly recommended both for weight and for the spirit of the thing. Consider signing up with a friend.

 

No prior backcountry experience is required - this trip is about learning, and gaining the special confidence that comes from carrying all you need on your back through stunning wild lands.